When ESPN laid off over 100 employees at the end of April, most of whom were on-air talent, reporters and writers, a disillusioned sports media sighed collectively in disappointment. It wasn’t the unnecessarily loud or the brash or the controversial that were sent packing. It was respected reporters and people with endless credits to their character and work ethic, like Jayson Stark and Ed Werder.
As a longtime NFL reporter based out of Dallas, with deep ties to the Cowboys organization and an endless list of contacts, the firing of Werder is indicative of a larger change in sports media – one that is leaning away from the aggregation of source-based reporting.