ESPN axed about 100 valued employees Wednesday for a variety of reasons. But forget about the network's love affair with Caitlyn Jenner and the class-action suit filed by viewers rendered deaf by Stephen A. Smith.
The biggest reason is the network is the Worldwide Leader in Stupid Business Decisions.
And the really stupid thing is all the money ESPN supposedly saved would pay for a couple of televised drives on Monday Night Football.
For that, ESPN got rid of stalwarts like Jayson Stark, Brett McMurphy, Ed Werder, Danny Kannell and anyone who knows anything about hockey. The Hollywood Reporter said Karl Ravech, Ryen Russillo and Hannah Storm will have their roles "significantly reduced."
But fear not, the suits that got ESPN into this mess won't have their roles reduced. They'll probably get bonuses from Disney for making cosmetic moves that might assure stockholders that ESPN isn't completely turning into K-Mart.
These are the Einsteins who didn't foresee the upheaval in the media industry, and how millions of consumers are cutting cable cords and not consuming sports the way they used to.
I realize nobody in the newspaper industry has much room to talk about bad business moves. But no newspaper signed deals with the NFL, NBA and MLB that will cost $4 billion a year.
Let's presume the average salary of the 100 people fired was $200,000. That's probably way too high since a lot of them were beat reporters who just break the stories ESPN's talking heads yell about.
That's $20 million a year in salaries, which is about 1 percent of the $1.9 billion ESPN will pay the NFL alone this year.
One percent.
Heck, it is one-fifth of what ESPN paid for one freakin' NFC wild-card game last year. And the people fired were among the most plugged-in in the business.
Apparently 12 minutes of Raiders-Texans is more valuable than McMurphy's college football scoops and Roger Cossack's legal analysis and Pierre LeBrun's hockey brain and the insightful banter of the Russillo & Kannell Show and on and on and on.
"Our objective in all we do is to best serve fans and their changing consumption habits while still maintaining an unparalleled and diverse talent roster that resonates with fans across all our platforms," ESPN President John Skipper said.
Blah, blah, blah.
I'm not sure who will be better served by Wednesday's bloodbath, but it sure won't be anyone who cares to know what's really going on in the wide world of sports.
