I took the time yesterday to poke fun at Keith Olbermann for forgetting who Chauncey Billups played for, so this seems more than appropriate.The Big Lead tracked down an article from the just released New Yorker magazine about Olbermann that also gives us a very quick glimpse of his days at ESPN.
Olbermann’s tenure at ESPN was characteristically contentious. One of his co-anchors, Suzy Kolber, has said that Olbermann was sometimes so overbearing that she would lock herself in the bathroom and cry. Another colleague, Mike Soltys, has said that when Olbermann left the network, in 1997, “he didn’t burn bridges here—he napalmed them.”Hey, if you're going to leave a place, might as well napalm it for good measure. Sgt. Kilgore approves.
By the way, I'm not overly shocked to hear this. It's not hard to understand how Olbermann could have rubbed people the wrong way. Although admittedly, he was probably the best anchor SportsCenter ever had.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think this video may speak to why Olbermann wasn't liked at ESPN. Having Roger Clemens beat up your fellow employees will do that.
One Angry Man [The New Yorker]
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