NBC Sports host and broadcaster Maria Taylor reflected on her tumultuous exit from her former employer, ESPN, in a recently posted Tik Tok.
Taylor, who was at ESPN from 2013 to 2021, recently appeared back on the network when she was a guest on the ‘Manningcast’ alternate telecast of Monday Night Football.
‘So (Monday) night I was on my former employer’s network, let’s talk about it,’ Taylor said in a ‘get ready with me’ style video on Tuesday, adding that working at ESPN was her ‘dream job’ while in college at the University of Georgia.
‘I worked for 10 years at ESPN and loved my time there, but the ending came a little tumultuously.’
She departed The Worldwide Leader in Sports after her then-colleague Rachel Nichols was heard making disparaging ‘diversity’ comments about her in a leaked audio tape.
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NBC Sports host Maria Taylor talked about her time at ESPN after a ‘Manningcast’ appearance
After that leak came out in July of 2021, Taylor officially joined NBC Sports in that same month.
‘I had the opportunity to really decide what I wanted to [do] for my life moving forward and if where I was was the best place for me, and as we all know… it’s hard to go through change,’ the ‘Football Night in America’ host said.
‘But I knew in my heart of hearts that it was time. I honestly just needed more opportunities to spend time with my family to start a family and at the level I was going and the work that I was doing, I didn’t think I would have the time.
‘I still wanted to work at a very high level, but I just wanted to focus on very important quality events.
‘And I also felt like the relationship had ran its course. And it’s so funny because when I was making my final decision, someone was making the case that “well if you leave here then you’ll never ever be on television again — like no one will ever see you again.”
‘And I remember being like, “The ways in which I don’t care whether or not anyone ever sees me again” — as long as I see checks clearing into my bank account. And at that moment I knew I was onto something else.
‘And to be honest, I also kind of felt like it was just time for a brand new challenge. I was getting a little worn out of the same things, and I just wanted to try something new.’
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Taylor left ‘The Worldwide Leader’ after a controversial late audio by colleague Rachel Nichols
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Taylor was a sideline reporter and the host of NBA Countdown at ESPN before jumping to NBC
Less than a week after the expiry of her contract, Taylor made the jump to NBC Sports – just in time for their coverage of the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
‘I’m going to be completely and totally honest, I cried. I cried for two straight weeks while I was in Tokyo covering the Olympics, because I literally flew from the NBA Finals to Tokyo and I thought to myself “like what have I done, what am I doing here? I don’t know anyone here. It’s COVID,”‘ she recalled. ‘I was so sad. But to be honest, I was grieving something.
‘I was grieving the idea of what I had for my dream job – and my dream had changed. So I was walking into realizing what the new life would look like, so I was grieving and that took about two weeks.’
All of that said, Taylor is glad that she went through that process and looks back on her time at ESPN fondly.
‘I’m thankful for maturing and feeling capable and strong enough to walk away and realizing that four letters don’t define me, three letters don’t define me, my job doesn’t define me. I get to define who I am and want to be in this world and if that means I’m changing careers and locations, it means absolutely nothing — and it’s nobody’s business.’
Her video was captioned with, ‘Let’s talk abut change. Just choose you and let it by.’
In her time at ESPN, Taylor was a college football sideline host. She later became the host for NBA Countdown – the network’s pre-game show for professional basketball.
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