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After leadership changes, Ebersol assesses rivals

Since Dick Ebersol left NBC Sports Group in 2011, the sports media industry has gone through a period of big executive changes, as many of the networks’ larger-than-life personalities who dominated the industry for decades have left.

Ed Goren
The year after Ebersol departed, David Hill and Ed Goren stepped down from Fox Sports, and George Bodenheimer gave up his president’s title at ESPN. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver described the moves as “an end of an era” that started when Ebersol left NBC.

“Calling Dick executive producer was an understatement,” Silver said. “Dick had his hand in every single aspect of what went on over his air.”

Ebersol acknowledged the differences, too, as media companies hired younger executives to lead their sports departments.

“The world changes,” he said. “After I left, ‘Hilly’ is gone from sports totally. Goren is gone. Bodenheimer is gone. Sean [McManus, CBS Sports chairman] is the only one who’s still there.”

Ebersol offered his opinions on the executives he spent decades competing against.

Sean McManus
Photo by: MARC BRYAN-BROWN
CBS Sports
“I’ve known Sean since he was 11. At least once or twice when we were at sports locations, I was asked to watch him. [McManus’ father, Jim McKay] was the lead dog on ‘Wide World of Sports’ and so much of the Olympics. Sean’s wonderful company. He is a sensational businessman. He inherited a very tough situation that CBS had at Augusta, which is one of those great relationships that CBS had that lasts forever. He got there and settled out the problems that the previous administration developed with the leadership at Augusta. They’ve continued to swim along with that iconic event.

“Then the deal he made to stay in college basketball, partnering up with [Turner Sports’ David] Levy, was sheer brilliance. The losses attached to that package were astronomical, and he got CBS out from under it. Turner agreed to take on the majority of any loss in the future. It’s one of the most brilliant deals of my quarter-century of being in television sports. He’s really, really good.”

David Hill
Photo by: ROXXE IRELAND
Fox Sports
“‘Hilly’ and Ed Goren were the great wake-up call that American television sports needed. I look at my remarks now from that period of time, and they look silly. I said, ‘Why would we have the score graphic on the screen the whole time, reminding people that they were tuning in to a 21-point rout?’ I was not accepting it for what it was, which was one of the great things ever given to the viewer. ‘Hilly’ brought more than the little wonderful changes to the way sport looked on television. He brought a sense of fun. We had so much fun just lobbing water balloons back and forth across the competitive fence. We became really, really good friends.”

ESPN
“I had more fun competing against [former ESPN President Steve] Bornstein. He’s a bull in a china shop who had a really world-class brain. I adored competing with him and being in business with him from ESPN all the way through the NFL. Bornstein, [Broncos owner] Pat Bowlen and [NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell] were the early people I worked on when I had my dream for ‘Sunday Night Football.’

“I didn’t know him well, but I really respected George [Bodenheimer] a lot. He did some pretty dramatic things. He was the one who really risked his career on his ability to get 20 percent rate hikes. He said, ‘If you give Steve and I all the money we need to get all of Sunday night cable football, I can go out and get you an annual 20 percent rate of increase.’ That deal put ESPN into a zone that no one ever has gotten close to again financially.”

Turner Sports
“I had a really good relationship with all the Turner Sports people: Harvey Schiller, later Mark Lazarus. We tried to start a football league together.”

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