The memo from Norby Williamson, certainly one of ESPN’s prime executives, was brief and direct: Lee Becoming, a senior vice chairman of manufacturing who had been at ESPN for greater than 25 years, was “not with the corporate” and ESPN can be “finalizing a brand new manufacturing construction” for the reveals he oversaw.
The timing of Becoming’s dismissal — the memo was despatched on Aug. 21, 2023, a few week earlier than the beginning of the school soccer season — amplified the shockwaves felt by means of ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn. Since 2004, Becoming oversaw “School GameDay,” and his management cemented this system into the cultural zeitgeist, catapulted the recognition of on-air personalities like Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, and turned the present right into a income and scores winner.
Because the present rose, so did Becoming’s profile inside ESPN. Along with “School GameDay,” he finally oversaw all school and NFL properties, giving him the facility to make and break careers, and he was anticipated to someday succeed Williamson as head of the community’s programming. When he was escorted out of the constructing by safety, some at ESPN’s headquarters groused at what they perceived as indecorous therapy. For all he’d completed, Lee Becoming deserved higher.
There was, in distinction, a subset of present and former ESPN staff who reacted otherwise. “I can’t imagine it took this lengthy,” mentioned one lady.
She and others had watched Becoming rise inside ESPN regardless of, based on them, making feedback objectifying ladies, criticizing their bodily look and making crude jokes, some sexual in nature, within the office. This went on unchecked for years, based on the scores of present and former ESPN staff interviewed by The Athletic, who requested anonymity to talk freely as a result of they nonetheless work in sports activities media. It had a devastating impact on quite a few ladies who believed they needed to endure or associate with his conduct to remain employed or ascend at ESPN. Many ladies in sports activities media quietly shared their interactions and issues about Becoming with one another. Some left ESPN partly due to their expertise with him.
However in 2023, a criticism relating to Becoming was made with ESPN’s human sources division, prompting officers at ESPN to query a bunch of staff, together with some outstanding feminine staffers. A short while later Becoming, then 48, was performed at ESPN. “It lastly caught as much as him,” mentioned one of many ladies questioned.
Becoming, by way of a spokesperson, denied a number of the allegations made in opposition to him whereas selecting to not deal with others. He declined to touch upon the broader characterization of him as somebody who mistreated ladies throughout his tenure at ESPN or why he was let go by the community.
Becoming’s ouster is among the many most important examples of ESPN’s ongoing reckoning with its previous. Since chairman Jimmy Pitaro got here from guardian firm Disney in 2018, there have been important adjustments. A much less publicized a part of that transformation has been a behind-the-scenes effort to scrub up the boys’ membership ethos that lengthy permeated the corporate. Within the final two years, ESPN has eliminated no less than 4 male staff — three in elevated positions — who had been accused of wrongdoing towards ladies and/or subordinates.
ESPN declined to debate Becoming’s dismissal, citing the corporate’s coverage to not talk about personnel issues. Williamson, who’s not at ESPN, additionally declined to remark. In an announcement, the community mentioned: “ESPN is devoted to sustaining essentially the most inclusive, respectful and comfy work surroundings for everybody. Our persons are essentially the most invaluable useful resource at ESPN, and we guarantee our dedication by offering year-round steering, together with intensive assist and coaching. On prime of that, we clearly talk office expectations for all, whereas emphasizing care, sensitivity and accessibility in response to any worker wants.”
In its early years, ESPN’s tradition was overtly hostile towards feminine staff. Girls had been ogled and topic to aggressive overtures and male staff supplied feminine co-workers development in trade for sexual favors. It was common for workplace displays to point out the Playboy Channel.
In James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales’ 2011 oral historical past of ESPN, “These Guys Have All of the Enjoyable,” they describe the corporate’s environment in its early years (it was based in 1979) as “a wild wellspring of sexual misconduct.”
It wasn’t till the late Nineteen Eighties that somebody drew consideration to the issue. On-air persona Karie Ross spoke up about what she felt was rampant sexual harassment at a gathering of no less than 200 staff. “I made a decision the one technique to get my level throughout was to face up in entrance of the entire place,” she mentioned within the ebook. Afterward, Ross felt marginalized and left the corporate.
Former president Steve Bornstein blamed the widespread misogyny, partly, on ESPN’s location in Bristol. “It’s 100 miles from actual civilization, and you bought the form of testosterone, jock mentality, frat home method that’s just about a recipe for silly selections being made,” he mentioned in “These Guys Have All of the Enjoyable.”
By 1996, when Becoming landed a job in ESPN’s manufacturing assistant pool, the corporate remained a problematic place for girls, based on a number of who labored there on the time. The “frat home method” persevered.
Becoming, a fraternity member whereas he attended James Madison College, graduated from ESPN’s manufacturing assistant program and have become an affiliate producer on “School GameDay” in 2000 and was promoted to function producer two years later. Within the spring of 2004, he impressed his boss, Mark Gross, with a pitch for a way he’d run the present. Becoming was placed on smaller dwell reveals that summer time to hone his abilities, and by that fall, at age 29, he was sitting in “School GameDay’s” lead chair.
The present, which started in 1987 as an in-studio manufacturing (it didn’t go on the highway till 1993), was already common. The casting of Fowler, the unflappable host; Herbstreit, the previous school quarterback; and Lee Corso, the ex-coach-turned-charming-goofball, had already resonated. Becoming launched it into a unique stratosphere. He made the present really feel youthful, more energizing and unpredictable.
Throughout a go to to Ole Miss in 2014, everybody on set wore customized bow ties. Katy Perry, on the apex of her pop stardom and decked out in a pink mohair sweater and matching house buns, arrived with a state trooper element carrying a tray of drinks. The phase culminated along with her tossing corn canine on the digicam, shucking off Lee Corso’s mascot helmet and main the gang within the “Hotty Toddy” chant.
“The primary rule to producing good tv is to not be scared,” Becoming mentioned within the keynote dialog on the 2017 SVG School Sports activities Summit in Atlanta. “You’ve received to be keen to take dangers and you must be keen to not fear about what your boss or bosses say if you take these dangers.”
Becoming additionally excelled at facets of the job, reminiscent of hobnobbing with school coaches on the golf course or socializing with executives from the present’s company sponsors over drinks. “Lee is a gregarious, social, pleasant man. If we introduced advertisers round, Lee knew learn how to shake fingers, and he was expert at that,” mentioned John Skipper, ESPN’s president from 2012-17. He added: “Lee clearly made the present higher and made the present terribly entertaining and terribly common. He was a golden boy.”
And he was extraordinarily common with many male executives at ESPN. Becoming was assured; he was good at golf (a invaluable foreign money within the ESPN ecosystem; a number of executives belonged to the identical golf membership as Becoming). Folks see the on-air expertise at ESPN and assume it’s a firm of assured operators. However as one longtime worker framed it: ESPN is definitely a “kingdom of dorks,” and Becoming was a cool child with a gravitational pull. Among the strongest males on the firm preferred being in his orbit.
The present’s success and Becoming’s recognition afforded him nice latitude. If he wished a child bison on the set throughout a present in Fargo, N.D., somebody rounded up a child bison. His sway over the present’s finances and personnel selections and skill to broaden its attain was unmatched by others working ESPN packages. And as one of many few reveals not centered in Bristol, there was much less oversight by the bosses again at HQ.
In an oral historical past of the present printed by The Ringer, “SportsCenter” host Scott Van Pelt mentioned about “School GameDay”: “They’re their very own form of nation, so to talk — favored-nation standing.”
The solid received particular catering, safety, transportation and extra. Staffers who moved from elsewhere at ESPN to “School GameDay” went from boxed lunches to takeout from the Capital Grille. “It was steak, not sandwiches,” mentioned one one that labored on the present. “It was virtually piggish.”
Mentioned one worker: “The widespread theme is — there aren’t any guidelines. It’s ‘GameDay’ guidelines.”
A fan holds up an indication of Lee Becoming. (Courtesy of ESPN)
Many ladies who labored on “School GameDay” and beneath Becoming elsewhere at ESPN — The Athletic spoke to greater than 20, together with six who participated within the community’s 2023 investigation into Becoming — mentioned that the office tradition beneath Becoming featured boorish habits and offensive remarks, lots of them sexual in nature.
Round 2012, some ESPN staff had been watching the NCAA’s males’s basketball match from a convention room in Bristol when Becoming allegedly commented on a lady (who was not current and didn’t work at ESPN) and her capability to “open her throat” to down a beer, then joked that the lady can be good at performing fellatio, based on one individual current. (The Athletic additionally spoke to a former ESPN worker who the individual current informed concerning the alleged remark.) Becoming, by way of his spokesperson, mentioned this incident by no means occurred.
In a manufacturing assembly round 2014, no chairs had been obtainable for a girl on workers. Becoming patted his lap and mentioned to her: “I’ve received a seat proper right here for you,” based on one individual within the room and one other one that was informed concerning the comment from one other particular person current. Becoming denied this allegation. One feminine ESPN worker mentioned that Becoming despatched her a textual content message round 2018 that learn: “You look scorching.” She confirmed the textual content to a producer, who recalled the lady’s hand shaking as she confirmed the producer the message.
On multiple event, he jokingly requested a feminine staffer for her resort room quantity and in addition routinely joked about performing mattress checks, based on “School GameDay” staff. Becoming denied these allegations. He additionally allegedly bragged about his and his spouse’s sturdy intercourse life, based on a number of sources.
When he noticed a lady in an outfit he preferred, he’d let her know, generally in methods ladies and different staff discovered crude and/or humiliating. He as soon as loudly exclaimed “Goddamn!” when a lady appeared on set in a skirt he preferred. A lot of these feedback had been so frequent that one feminine “School GameDay” worker developed a method to blunt his habits. At any time when he would say or do one thing inappropriate, she would open up a pocket book and mimic writing one thing down. When Becoming would ask what she was doing, she’d reply: “Simply jotting this down for the ebook.”
Boozy dinners close to school campuses had been widespread, adopted by visits to an area bar, and Becoming was a frequent late-night texter.
In a 2015 Harrisonburg, Va., Each day Information-Report profile, Becoming bragged about his partying days as a JMU fraternity member, and a few “School GameDay” staff felt that facet of him by no means actually graduated. “It was a frat boy sense of environment on a regular basis,” one former present worker mentioned. In “The System,” a ebook by Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict, Becoming mused about bringing the present to The Grove at Ole Miss, remarking: “Ah, sundresses and alcoholic drinks.”
Many ladies who labored on “School GameDay” and beneath Becoming elsewhere at ESPN mentioned they felt pressured to exit for drinks and tolerate the inappropriate remarks, fearful that if they didn’t current as members of the boys’ membership they’d be ostracized. Generally, earlier than or after saying one thing crude or sexist, Becoming would use a phrase — “It’s OK, she’s one of many guys” — to justify why his comment was permissible, sources mentioned. When one feminine worker left the present, Becoming dismissed her as “no enjoyable” in entrance of a bunch of staff, based on one individual current.
Some ladies who appeared on-camera had been informed by Becoming learn how to fashion their hair, how a lot make-up to put on, what outfits he accredited of or didn’t like. He generally referenced facets of their physique that he suggested them to hide.
One lady mentioned that someday, when she and Becoming had been working in numerous areas, he had seen her on an in-house feed and texted her that he preferred her hair in a ponytail. She disregarded the remark, however he texted once more: “Put your hair up in a ponytail.” The girl replied that she had already been in hair and make-up for the day, to which she mentioned Becoming responded: “Put your hair up in a ponytail earlier than I do it for you.” (Becoming denied saying that he would put her hair up if she didn’t.)
One other lady mentioned Becoming, along with commenting on her make-up and wardrobe, informed her she ought to chorus from laughing on air as a result of he discovered her giggle annoying. (The Athletic spoke with an individual she later informed about that trade.)
“You have already got this stuff at the back of your thoughts. After which when anyone doesn’t assume you’ll be able to advance in your profession since you don’t test a field, that consciousness can turn into an insecurity,” one lady mentioned.
Becoming, by way of his spokesperson, mentioned it was his job to offer suggestions to female and male on-air expertise relating to their look and on-air supply.
Becoming commented so steadily on how ladies seemed that judging ladies in that means turned engrained in how he operated the present. Within the manufacturing truck, he would direct folks to scan the gang for “scorching” ladies who may very well be proven on the printed, based on a number of individuals who labored with him. In 2012, “School GameDay” was in South Bend, Ind., for an October recreation between Notre Dame and Stanford. Becoming had a problem with the gang shot behind the studio set: The Notre Dame cheerleaders within the shot weren’t engaging sufficient. They had been no Oregon cheerleaders, he remarked. (Becoming had a selected fondness for the Oregon cheerleaders, a number of folks mentioned, citing feedback he made about them that spanned years). As Becoming ordered the Irish cheerleaders reduce from the shot, nobody batted a watch.
In 2016, Becoming was promoted to vice chairman and given oversight of all school soccer and basketball studio and distant manufacturing. It gave him much more affect over the ESPN star-making machine.
One ESPN worker mentioned that round 2017 she requested Becoming if she may meet with him in New York to debate work alternatives. She mentioned that he then requested by way of textual content whether or not he ought to get a resort room for the night time, which she interpreted as him asking if he ought to get a room for the 2 of them. She determined to drop the matter and the assembly by no means occurred. Becoming, by way of his spokesperson, mentioned that the lady misinterpreted his query; he was asking if he ought to reserve a convention room on the resort.
One other ESPN worker mentioned she requested to fulfill with Becoming to debate profession alternatives on three events. Every time he requested her to fulfill with him for drinks, she mentioned. She declined, as she mentioned different ladies at ESPN informed her to not meet with Becoming alone exterior of labor. Mentioned one other feminine staffer: “Girls had warned one another to take heed to interactions with him.” Becoming mentioned by means of his spokesperson that it was widespread for him to get drinks with women and men as a part of his job.
Throughout Becoming’s rise, ESPN took motion in opposition to some males accused of misconduct. In 2006, Sean Salisbury was suspended for exhibiting photos of his genitals to co-workers at a bar; his contract was not renewed when it expired in 2008. In 2009, Steve Phillips was fired for having an affair with a manufacturing assistant. One connection between these two circumstances: The wrongdoing was reported on by media retailers.
Across the time of the Phillips affair, ESPN additionally let two vice presidents go after the consensual relationship they had been in — which had been earlier disclosed to higher-ups — was reported on. Throughout the firm, that transfer was thought-about pointless and reactionary, proof that the corporate was reeling.
Williamson known as a gathering of individuals in management, and the message he delivered was that the corporate “wasn’t placing up with any of this,” mentioned one attendee. However a lot of the alleged wrongdoing by Becoming shared with The Athletic occurred after that assembly. And regardless of Williamson’s message, many ladies at ESPN nonetheless believed that in the event that they raised the alarm about Becoming’s habits it could value them their careers.
“It’s survival,” mentioned one lady.
The individual current when Becoming allegedly made the joke concerning the lady being good at fellatio rebuked him on the time as a result of a younger feminine workers member was additionally current. “If I laughed alongside to that, I’m instructing them it’s OK,” the individual mentioned. However that particular person didn’t increase the matter to HR or anybody else as a result of, that individual mentioned, Becoming was removed from the one man at ESPN who acted that means and that individual doubted that reporting him would change something.
The girl he allegedly despatched the textual content message to that learn “You look scorching” concluded that escalating the problem was too fraught. Her producer understood her predicament: “Lee Becoming has extra energy and juice than you, so when you say one thing, you set your job and livelihood in jeopardy.”
The girl who mentioned Becoming texted her asking if he ought to get a resort room for his or her assembly in New York disclosed that interplay to a male government at ESPN. Nevertheless, she determined to not report the matter to HR and requested the male government to maintain her disclosure quiet. (That government corroborated her account.)
“I used to be attempting so arduous to maintain the job and get extra alternatives,” mentioned the lady. “You get blackballed when you say something. Are they gonna preserve me or Lee Becoming?”
There have been important adjustments at ESPN because the arrival of CEO and chairman Jimmy Pitaro from guardian firm Disney in 2018. (Kyle Grillot / Getty Photographs)
Skipper, throughout his run as ESPN’s president, championed range points and the careers of many ladies on the community. However he was additionally working ESPN when a lot of the alleged wrongdoing by Becoming happened. Skipper mentioned he was by no means made conscious of any issues or complaints about Becoming’s habits when he was at ESPN.
“I did invite folks and made it clear that if there have been points (with any staff), folks may come to me and inform me. They usually did (relating to others). Then again, I acknowledge how arduous it’s to go all the way in which to the highest of the corporate and inform the president,” Skipper mentioned.
Talking typically about folks coming ahead, he added: “It’s a arduous factor to do. You’ve received to resolve. I imply, when you’re uncovered to one thing, possibly it’s anyone who’s going to resolve what your bonus is subsequent 12 months. If it’s a colleague, you realize, it’s flawed, however folks nonetheless have the outdated ‘I’m not going to inform on anyone’ factor.’ After which, till an organization establishes a observe report of truly holding the folks accountable, you all the time worry you’re mainly going to get into the unhealthy elements of being a whistleblower. Will these folks resent you and (then) they’re sad?”
Skipper abruptly resigned in 2018 to hunt substance abuse therapy in what he later mentioned was a cocaine extortion plot, and Pitaro moved over from guardian firm Disney and have become ESPN’s president. In 2020, he added the title of chairman — ESPN’s first who didn’t rise by means of its ranks in Bristol. In accordance with a number of sources, Disney tried to insert Pitaro as Skipper’s No. 2 earlier, however Skipper rebuffed these efforts, protecting of ESPN’s insular tradition. However with Skipper gone, Pitaro had a transparent subject to power change.
He was shortly labeled a “boy scout” by some long-time ESPNers as he pushed the corporate’s inner enterprise and tradition to be extra synergistic with Disney’s, to tug “Bristol nearer to Burbank,” as one ESPN government put it. He reworked the human sources division. Longtime chief Paul Richardson departed in 2021 and senior vice presidents Sonia Coleman and Judy Agay arrived from Disney.
Among the many adjustments they made: Preseason conferences with reveals throughout which members of the human sources group that handles complaints deal with present workers and emphasize making a welcoming work surroundings and description sources to assist deal with issues. A member of that workers additionally visits every present throughout the season and reiterates these messages. The corporate additionally created an government ladies’s discussion board with an open line to firm management to deal with points.
“It often takes rather a lot to get fired by ESPN,” Miller and Shales wrote in “These Guys Have All of the Enjoyable.” However as these adjustments took maintain, and with Pitaro empowering the brand new leaders in human sources, that was not true.
Rob King, a senior government who oversaw “SportsCenter,” ESPN.com and particular initiatives throughout his tenure and had been with the corporate for nearly twenty years, was fired in March 2023 amidst harassment allegations. When contacted, he referred The Athletic to an announcement he posted on his private social media account shortly after the information surfaced: “The time is correct for me to depart the corporate. I’m trying ahead to spending extra time with my household and mates, and need the corporate continued success.”
SportsCenter anchor Max McGee was let go in February 2024 after the corporate obtained a criticism about him from a feminine worker, based on ESPN sources. McGee mentioned he had been suggested to not remark and referred inquiries to a spokesperson, who didn’t reply to a number of requests searching for additional remark. In November, a “SportsCenter” producer was let go after being accused of inappropriate habits towards subordinates.
The primary signal of hassle for Becoming got here in 2023 when ESPN realized that “School GameDay” was integrally concerned in a scheme that concerned sending falsified submissions to The Nationwide Academy of Tv Arts & Sciences, which operates the Emmys, and led to “School GameDay” receiving greater than 30 statuettes that it didn’t earn.
That scheme, made public by The Athletic, led to Becoming being banned from future Emmy participation, based on a number of sources. Then, in July 2023, an HR official contacted some staff who had labored with Becoming a few “confidential matter.” In accordance with a number of sources, a criticism had been made in opposition to Becoming, prompting an HR inquiry.
The individuals who participated within the probe mentioned they had been requested questions reminiscent of: Did you ever really feel strain to drink or socialize? Did you ever really feel such as you needed to have interaction in flirtatious habits? Did you ever really feel such as you had been handed over for a possibility primarily based on something apart from advantage? Had been inappropriate feedback ever made about your look or your physique? Had been ladies ever pitted in opposition to one another within the office?
Those that participated within the probe mentioned the questioning finally centered on Becoming. A number of folks mentioned they described to an HR official cases during which they believed Becoming engaged in inappropriate conduct and/or discriminated in opposition to ladies. Two present ESPN executives briefed about the results of the HR investigation mentioned the findings gave the corporate little selection however to let Becoming go.
Becoming, by means of his spokesperson, declined to deal with why his employment was terminated by ESPN.
Some ladies who labored at ESPN had been shocked that the corporate lastly reduce bait with Becoming. Others lamented the years of transgressions that went unseen or ignored. Just a few expressed reduction that their careers may be allowed to flourish now with out having to pretend being “one of many guys.”
The importance of Becoming’s ouster was underscored when ESPN put Amanda Gifford, who joined the corporate in 2004 and got here up by means of the radio facet of the corporate, accountable for school soccer occasion manufacturing. Early on, Gifford met with ladies engaged on “School GameDay” to listen to about their experiences and clarify that she was there for them if that they had points or issues.
Becoming, in the meantime, was solely out of labor for a number of months. In January 2024, he was employed at WWE, an organization embroiled in a sexual assault and trafficking scandal allegedly involving founder Vince McMahon that has prompted a federal investigation. McMahon characterised the allegations as “baseless.”
WWE’s president is Nick Khan, who was beforehand a expertise agent who represented various ESPN personalities.
Becoming produces “Monday Evening Uncooked” and “Friday Evening SmackDown,” and people broadcasts now extra carefully resemble “School GameDay.” On the time of Becoming’s hiring, Khan known as him a “phenomenal chief”; Paul “Triple H” Levesque not too long ago heralded him as a “game-changer.”
A WWE spokesperson mentioned the corporate had no touch upon the allegations in opposition to Becoming.
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Picture: ESPN)
