Report: ESPN Suspension 'Great' For Jemele Hill's Career

Dan Le Batard

While Jemele Hill may emerge from this mess on a faster and brighter career track, ESPN is spinning its wheels, reports The NYPost.

That’s the belief of ESPN radio host Dan Le Batard, who has been in Hill’s shoes before. ESPN announced on Monday it was suspending Hill for two weeks for a “second violation of our social media guidelines” after the “SportsCenter” host suggested those in opposition to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ national anthem stance boycott the team’s advertisers.

Despite Hill’s punishment, all the pressure is on their employer as they learn how to balance promoting individual personalities and staying politically neutral, Le Batard said on his show Tuesday. As for Hill, Le Batard believes she’ll be more popular among ESPN’s fanbase than ever, just like he was after the WorldWide Leader suspended him for two days in 2014 for endorsing an Ohio billboard shaming LeBron James’ Miami departure.

Jemele Hill

“Everyone was on my side against ESPN when I got suspended, and I knew I deserved to be suspended because I had more information than everyone else,” Le Batard said on air. “So it got co-opted, it got hijacked. It became, ‘Why can’t he put billboards up?’ That’s not why I was suspended. I was suspended because I was insubordinate in private. I deserved it, but everyone turned it into here’s the man falling on the little guy. I’ve never been more popular! Never been more popular.

“This is great for the career of Jemele Hill, it’s just not great for ESPN. And we can’t keep putting ESPN in those positions. But now the President is forcing us into those positions! And we’ve gotta make decisions about whether our livelihood or suspension [is worth it]. … But it’s not good for the company to have it look like they’re squashing creativity and free thought.”

As the network continues “making up the rules as they go” in this social media age, according to Le Batard, the leaders will have to be clearer on what is acceptable and what is not on a personal forum.

“Curt Schilling got fired not because of his politics … it was that he kept doing it, kept giving these opinion outside of sports in places that were outside of ESPN,” Le Batard said of the former pitcher and ESPN analyst who was fired in 2016 for a host of controversial social media posts, including those considered anti-transgender.

I love you @michaelsmith for being my biggest supporter, a great friend, terrific husband & father. I truly don't deserve you. See you soon.

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 10, 2017

Hill surfaced on Twitter for the first time Tuesday since her Cowboys comments, thanking co-host Michael Smith for being her “biggest supporter.” After sitting out Monday’s show, Smith is expected to host “SC6” on his own until Hill returns to the air.