Sports broadcaster Linda Cohn claimed she had an unceremonious experience in the latter years of her 34-year tenure at ESPN.
During an appearance on “The Sage Steele Show” Wednesday, Cohn, who was the longest-tenured “SportsCenter” anchor and left ESPN in June, didn’t hold back while discussing her last decade at the Worldwide Leader — alleging her salary was cut by 80 percent and she was bullied by former ESPN president John Skipper.
“[John] Skipper was an absolute nightmare for me,” Cohn, 66, said. “I had a thing about why he suspended me [in 2017]. He bullied me. He never gave me opportunities. And it’s karma, baby. I mean we saw what happened to him. Listen I dont wish anything bad on anybody even if they treated me the way I should not have been treated.”
Cohn claimed Skipper bullied her during a 2017 phone call, during which he suspended her for remarks she made about ESPN following a round of a layoffs during an interview with 77 WABC’s Sid Rosenberg.
“I was shocked. I was devastated,” Cohn said. “That had never happened to me… He [Skipper] gets on the phone and he’s yelling at me. And now When I look back on it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on something because he sounded not right.
“He was yelling at me [and] bullying me. I go, ‘John, what’s going on?’ I really had no idea what he was talking about. I couldn’t believe it. So, I was suspended for whatever. ‘Don’t come in.’ I’m like ‘Okay, I won’t come in.’ But I was really upset. I was close to tears. I don’t like being bullied, and I definitely don’t like being bullied for no reason. Be the adult for God sakes… can you explain or clarify? … I was there for decades at that point.”
Steele mentioned that Cohn was told to take the day off of “SportsCenter,” indicating that it wasn’t a formal suspension.
Skipper — who became ESPN president in 2012 — suddenly resigned in December 2017 after 27 years with The Walt Disney Company, citing his desire to seek treatment for what he called “substance addiction.”
In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Skipper shared that his substance addiction was cocaine — and explained that his abrupt resignation came after “someone from whom I bought cocaine attempted to extort me” and threatened his family.
Cohn said she was “cast aside” from doing NHL coverage and put in a box at the “SportsCenter” desk.
“The last year I was technically at ESPN, they cut my salary by 80 percent when they closed the LA studio,” Cohn said referring to ESPN’s relocation of “SportsCenter” from Los Angeles to Bristol, CT, in March 2025.
“I felt bad for my colleagues.. they told them six weeks before they decided to close that studio for “SportsCenter,’” Cohn said. “… At that point my deal was up and I was like I’m not gonna let them rush me into a decision and I didn’t want to end my tenure that way.”
In an interview with The Post that June, Cohn said she signed on for one more year with ESPN in June 2025 and agreed to do some events after flirting with the idea of retirement.
“So I accepted their 80 percent pay cut and I said, ‘Hey let me do some events for you’ … I actually signed a deal that was 15 events for appearances for ESPN. Loyalty doesn’t pay because I’ll tell you something… If you Google me for what I made, that’s all incorrect. I ended up doing about five events. I was like out of sight, out of mind.”
Cohn, who said she felt pushed out of ESPN, left when her deal was up on June 30.
She said she pitched doing off-camera work, such as becoming an ambassador for the company, and claims she was ignored.
Cohn said she sobbed in the bathroom multiple times over people she worked with that “made me feel like crap” on-air.
Cohn explained that ESPN was “first going to put out a press release” about her leaving the Worldwide Leader before she got a proper farewell and celebration of her career on-air.
In July, she launched her own sports talk show, “The Linda Cohn Show,” on YouTube.
“For the first time I dont have a muzzle around my mouth, a gag,” Cohn said while discussing her show. “… My show is common sense and I ask questions. I just don’t accept the mainstream… You could relate to this Sage because this is exactly what you experienced [at ESPN].”
Steele famously sued ESPN and its parent company Disney is 2022 over her criticisms of the company’s COVID-19 mandate. The sides settled the case in 2023 and Steele left the company after 16 years to go out on her own.
Cohn has anchored more editions of “SportsCenter” on ESPN than anyone in history.
ESPN declined comment when reached by The Post.
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