Steve Young reportedly a casualty of ESPN layoffs
Steve Young’s career as an on-air personality at ESPN appears to be over.
Per multiple reports, including the New York Post and Front Office Sports, Young is among the most recent layoffs at ESPN, along with 19 other on-air personalities who have covered a variety of sports for the network over the years.
Young is part of a notable group that is leaving ESPN, including Jeff Van Gundy (NBA), Jalen Rose (NBA), Max Kellerman (First Take), Keyshawn Johnson (NFL), Suzy Kolber (NFL) and Ashley Brewer (SportsCenter), all of whom were laid off by ESPN Friday morning, per the Post’s Andrew Marchand.
The move, writes Marchand, is a cost-saving measure that could save ESPN tens of millions of dollars, with each laid-off personality having made in excess of seven figures per year.
Related
Additional layoffs include LaPhonso Ellis (NCAA men’s basketball), Todd McShay (NFL), Jason Fitz (ESPN radio) and Joon Lee (ESPN staff writer), per Front Office Sports.
“Some big legacy names are going to be moving on,” a source told Front Office Sports. “Their (ESPN) NFL coverage is going to look different next year.”
After his 15-year Hall of Fame NFL career ended, during which he won the 1994 Super Bowl and was named Super Bowl MVP, Young entered the sports broadcasting world in 2000, becoming a full-time analyst with ESPN in 2001.
Since then, he has worked as an NFL analyst on three Super Bowl pregame shows and as part of the main set for the NFL draft telecast from 2006 to 2010, not to mention time spent as an analyst on “Sunday NFL Countdown” and “Monday Night Countdown.”
Per ESPN, Young — an All-American quarterback at BYU — is the chairman, co-founder and partner of a successful private equity company, HGGC. He is also chairman of the board for his Forever Young Foundation and has been a celebrity ambassador with Children’s Miracle Network for almost 40 years. Young is also a New York Times bestselling author, having co-authored “QB: My Life Behind the Spiral.”
