Broadcaster sounds off on post-ESPN career

It’s been a while since we heard from Kenny Mayne. He left ESPN in 2021 after spending 27 years at the network. At the time, he called himself a “salary-cap casualty,” saying the Worldwide Leader offered him a 61 percent pay cut without room to negotiate.

Back in 2022, Mayne looked back at his exit from ESPN and said it was okay for him and his family. And two years later, those sentiments seem to prevail during a recent conversation with Jonah Sigel on Bleav’s The Press Row.

“Yeah, now it’s been so long,” Mayne said when asked if he was at peace after his ESPN departure. “I mean, it’s funny because if you’d been there as long as I was there, and I still am friends and play golf with one of their producers that their SportsCenter producer all the time. I see him almost every week and talk to a bunch of others. (John) Buccigross and John Anderson — who’s leaving soon — we’ll trade funny notes all the time. I still kept all those good relationships. Scott Van Pelt, the list is long; Stan Verett, Michael Eaves, on and on and on.

“I miss the hour. I miss making up a funny thing to say over a highlight, catchphrases, or whatever. The leads in, the immediacy, the adrenaline we talked about earlier. But I don’t miss having to go in at 4:30 for a meeting and coming home at 2 a.m. and being dead tired and doing it again and again.

“I did it enough. I like the stuff we’re doing right now. I’m definitely not done doing more things. I’d be bored. I don’t like golf that much. And plus, we have another daughter going to college.”

Wiffle Ball , Mayne’s documentary that premiered at the prestigious Seattle International Film Festival, is fueling his post-ESPN life. The 30-minute film explores Mayne’s claim to have thrown a Wiffle ball faster than Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989 at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Center.

Since departing the Worldwide Leader, Mayne has shown no signs of slowing down. With Wiffle Ball gaining traction, it will be fascinating to see what other creative projects this veteran broadcaster will develop next.

[ Bleav ]

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