John Skipper

I think that it's hard not to associate this with what's going on politically, which is why this has become a big deal.

I don't find what she did personally, and you won't find anybody any more woke than me,

I don't find that what she did was particularly offensive.

The woman has a track record.

She's been covering this team for a long time.

She creates relationships with management players.

And for her to simply say something that seemed pretty non-controversial to me, it was sort of like a schoolteacher telling a ninth grader,

And I don't mean that to be derogatory.

That actually is a lovely thing.

Saying, you know what, hold your head up.

What's wrong with that?

Did that really interfere?

If she now discovers some news about the coach that she needs to report, do we think this makes her non-credible now?

I don't think so.

It reminds me of when I first got to ESPN and there was this prohibition by the management that nobody could wear a hat.

with their favorite team on it, or they couldn't walk around the campus with a sweatshirt on.

And it just struck me that it didn't matter.

Judge them on their work, not on whether they're wearing a damn jersey walking around.

And by the way, Bill Simmons blew all this up.

Right?