1. Jemele Hill
A graduate of Michigan State University, Jemele Hill previously covered sports for the Orlando Sentinel, Detroit Free Press, and Raleigh News & Observer. Hill joined ESPN in 2006 as a national columnist. She co-hosted “His & Hers” with Michael Smith starting in 2014. Eventually, Hill and Smith began co-hosting the 6 p.m. edition of “SportsCenter.”
2. Dave Zirin
Dave Zirin covers sports for The Nation and hosts a weekly show, “Edge of Sports Radio.” He’s authored books such as “A People’s History of Sports in the United States,” “Brazil’s Dance with the Devil,” “Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down,” and “Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love.”
3. Kevin Clancy
Kevin Clancy, also known as KFC, has been at Barstool Sports for nearly a decade. He hosts “KFC Radio,” “Barstool Radio,” and “Barstool Storyboards.” He also appeared on Comedy Central’s “Barstool Rundown” during its brief run in early 2017.
4. PFTCommenter
PFTCommenter co-hosts the “Pardon My Take” podcast. He got his start mocking “Pro Football Talk” comments and built a brand from there. His work has appeared in SBNation, Bleacher Report, and Kissing Suzy Kobler. PFTCommenter also sparked the famous CNN headline “Ben Carson would not abort baby Hitler.”
5. Michelle Beadle
Michelle Beadle got her start at the San Antonio Spurs before moving on to cover a wide range of sports for a variety of networks, including hunting, bull riding, baseball, and football. She co-hosts “SportsNation” and is the full-time host of “NBA Countdown” for ABC and ESPN. Beadle’s brand extends beyond sports; she has hosted shows on the likes of Animal Planet and Travel Channel.
6. Bomani Jones
Bomani Jones has covered sports for radio, print, and television. Jones rose to national prominence with numerous appearances on ESPN programs, including “Around the Horn,” “Pardon the Interruption,” and “Outside the Lines.” He also co-hosted “Highly Questionable with Dan Le Batard” for several years. He currently hosts a program for ESPN Radio, “The Right Time with Bomani Jones,” and will co-host a new ESPN show with Pablo Torre starting January 2, 2018.
7. Pablo Torre
Torre got his start at Sports Illustrated, where he worked from 2007 to 2012. ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary “Broke” was based partly on Torre’s reporting of professional athletes’ financial perils. He writes for and appears on numerous ESPN properties and will co-host a new ESPN program with Jones in 2018.
8. Jason La Canfora
Jason La Canfora currently covers the NFL for CBSSports.com and appears on CBS’s “The NFL Today.” He also co-hosts a Baltimore-based podcast called “B-More Opinionated.” Before joining CBS, La Canfora spent time covering the Detroit Red Wings for the Detroit Free Press, the Washington Redskins for The Washington Post, and the NFL for the NFL Network.
9. Mike Wise
Mike Wise’s resume includes stints covering a variety of sports at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ESPN’s “The Undefeated.” He has appeared on PBS, CNN, and MSNBC. He won the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Best Feature Award in 2006 and 2009. He supports a name change for the Washington Redskins.
10. Michael Smith
Prior to joining ESPN in 2004, Smith covered sports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the NFL for the Boston Globe. Smith has appeared on many ESPN shows, including “Sunday NFL Countdown,” “Around the Horn,” and “The Sports Reporters.” He currently co-hosts the 6 p.m. edition of SportsCenter with Hill.
11. Kate Fagan
Kate Fagan had stints at The Ellensburg Daily Record and The Glen Falls Post-Star before she began covering the 76ers for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Fagan appears on several ESPN shows and co-hosted espnW’s “The Trifecta.” Fagan played basketball at the University of Colorado at Boulder and chronicled her experience in her book “The Reappearing Act: Coming Out as Gay on a College Basketball Team Led by Born-Again Christians.”
12. Sarah Spain
Sarah Spain spent time at Fox Sports Net, MouthpieceSports.com, and WGN before landing at ESPN in 2010. She writes for espnW and appears on numerous ESPN programs. Spain hosts or hosted ESPN Radio shows “The Trifecta,” “That’s What She Said,” and “Izzy and Spain.” She famously auctioned herself off on eBay for Super Bowl tickets in 2007.
13. Mina Kimes
Mina Kimes wrote for Fortune and Bloomberg News before joining ESPN in 2014. Kimes earned a job at ESPN after a she published a Tumblr piece about the relationship between her, her dad, and the Seattle Seahawks. While mostly focusing on features and columns, she appears on ESPN shows and co-hosts the “Nickel Package” podcast.
14. Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons built his brand in Boston as the “Sports Guy” before moving to ESPN in 2001. In his 14 years at ESPN, Simmons contributed columns, recorded podcasts, appeared on shows, and helped launch the “30 for 30” series and Grantland. Following an acrimonious departure, Simmons moved to HBO and started a (now-canceled) weekly show titled “Any Given Wednesday.” He is now the CEO of The Ringer.
15. Gabriele Marcotti
Gabriele Marcotti features an extensive resume writing about soccer for publications across the globe, including ESPN, the Wall Street Journal, The Times, and Corriere dello Sport. He has also written several books on soccer: “The Italian Job,” “Calcio’s Greatest Forwards,” “Hail, Claudio!,” “Paolo Di Canio: The Autobiography,” and “Capello: The Man Behind England’s World Cup Dream.”
16. Mike Lupica
Mike Lupica is a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News. He has written for magazines ranging from Sports Illustrated to Parade to Playboy. He was a rotating pundit on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters.” He’s written autobiographies, adult novels, and young-adult fiction.
17. Israel Gutierrez
Israel Gutierrez was a reporter for the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post before joining ESPN in 2012. He covers the NBA for ESPN and appears on a variety of ESPN shows. Gutierrez co-hosts “Izzy and Spain” with Sarah Spain.
18. Dan Le Batard
Dan Le Batard currently hosts ESPN Radio’s “The Dan Le Batard Show” and ESPN2’s “Highly Questionable” out of Miami. Prior to hosting his own shows, Le Batard wrote for and appeared on many ESPN properties. He started out at the Miami Herald and is still a columnist there.
19. Richard Deitsch
Richard Deitsch has worked for Sports Illustrated since 1997. He covers the sports media scene, from TV ratings to the latest drama at ESPN, and tends to be one of the first to know about the latest hirings, firings, or behind-the-scenes shakeups. He also hosts the “Sports Illustrated Media Podcast.”
20. Keith Law
Keith Law began his journalism career writing for Baseball Prospectus two decades ago. He joined ESPN in 2006 after working for the general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. Law covers baseball for ESPN, focusing on minor league talent and the draft.
21. Will Leitch
Will Leitch is a contributing editor for New York Magazine and a senior writer for Sports on Earth. He also hosts “The Will Leitch Experience” podcast. He was the founding editor of Deadspin and has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, GQ, and many others.
22. Grant Wahl
Grant Wahl joined Sports Illustrated in 1996 and covered college basketball and soccer. Now a senior writer, Wahl focuses almost exclusively on soccer. He published “The Beckham Experiment,” about David Beckham’s move to America, in 2009. He recently began contributing to Fox Sports’ soccer coverage.
23. Molly Knight
Molly Knight started at FHM as an intern and moved to ESPN in 2008. She’s also written for The New York Times, Glamour, and Variety. Her book, “The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse” was published in 2016.
24. Drew Magary
Magary contributes to GQ and Deadspin, in addition to appearing in or on The Atlantic, Playboy, Rolling Stone, NBC, and ESPN. He doesn’t focus exclusively on sports, offering often humorous takes on culture and politics. He has published two novels: “The Hike” and “The Postmortal.”
25. Clay Travis
Travis practiced law before moving into sports writing and voting for Barack Obama twice. He wrote for CBS Sports, Deadspin, and FanHouse, then founded Outkick the Coverage in 2011. He’s authored three books: “Dixieland Delight,” “Man: The Book,” and “On Rocky Top: A Front-Row Seat to the End of an Era.”
