Katie Nolan Opens Up About ESPN Tenure, New Apple TV+ MLB Job and Much More
1. “Jimmy, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to give a stock answer? OF COURSE not. Even the day that they called, and they were like, ‘We have an idea; we want you to do this,’ I was like, ‘Yeah, O.K., no. It’s a big no for me.”
That was Katie Nolan on a new episode of the SI Media Podcast that dropped Thursday morning when I asked her whether she ever expected to be calling MLB games.
But that’s exactly what Nolan is doing these days, working the late game on Apple TV+’s Friday night package as part of a three-person booth that includes Stephen Nelson and Hunter Pence.
Nolan talked about what the experience has been like for her, what Apple is trying to accomplish with its broadcasts, how she prepares for the games and reveals what happened during her first game when she stayed silent for multiple innings.
Nolan landed at Apple after her tenure at ESPN came to an end in late 2021.
She opened up about her time with the company on the podcast.
Jimmy Traina: You’ve had some time since you and ESPN parted ways. How would you summarize your tenure there? Was it a good experience? Bad experience?
Katie Nolan: Hmm. I would say it was a good experience. The people that I met through that job, becoming friendly with Mina Kimes, I don’t even want to say “friends” because I don’t want her to have to claim me. Mike Golic Jr., [David] Jacoby, Elle Duncan, I have this incredible network now of people who I respect. That was far and away the best part of working at ESPN.
The other thing is I think I learned a lot. Right off the bat, I don’t know if you remember, at ESPN, I did an interview on Vice for Desus & Mero, back when they were on Vice, and I said something that before in my life would’ve been a completely innocuous statement and it became this big … right away I learned, “Oh, you work here? You are ‘ESPN’s Katie Nolan’ in the headline.” So you just have to know everything you do, someone is looking for that to reflect on ESPN. Which was a tough lesson to learn, but also it is a valuable thing to know going forward. At a certain point, you can’t just speak freely. You have to speak freely while also being responsible and mindful of the fact that people are looking for something for you to say something that’s gonna give them the chance to want you fired. I don’t know. Some people just have that urge, you know?
JT: Do you think they knew how to use …
KN: No.
JT: You in the …
KN: I don’t want to be mean to them. I had six different bosses throughout my time at ESPN. There were reorgs that I didn’t even know happened and then suddenly were under somebody else, and I had never met that person. We were also in New York. They have that new Seaport studio. Well, it’s not really new now. And I think there was a lot of confusion about who was gonna be there at the Seaport studio and who wasn’t, and I was O.K. with this, but we were the lowest on the totem pole in that office so it was hard to get the attention for the thing that we needed.
So I don’t think they knew how to use me. I wish they did. They convinced me they did before I got there. Again, they’ve got a million people that work there that they have to be worried about. And I understand why it didn’t work out, but just to be honest about myself, I wanted it to. I believed it was going to. And then I just think too much happened and I don’t think they had the time or resources or belief that devoting any resources to me would be good for them in the long run.
***
Nolan went into greater detail about why things didn’t work out with ESPN and what she learned about how to navigate the media business during our conversation, the dark times of not working, why she doesn’t have a podcast at the moment and much more.
You can listen to the full podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
2. If you've listened the SI Media Podcast over the past couple of weeks, you've heard me say more than once that I've been very into the NBA playoffs.
Therefore, the scheduling is important to me, so I need to vent.
• The league already screwed up last Sunday by putting Game 1 of Bucks-Celtics on at 1 p.m. ET instead of at 7 or 8 p.m. ET.
• There are no games scheduled tonight. None. Zero. Zilch. That just shouldn’t happen period.
• Golden State and Memphis played Game 2 on Tuesday. They don’t play Game 3 until Saturday.
• Philly and Miami played their Game 2 on Wednesday. Their Game 3 is Friday.
How does this make any sense?
3. TNT’s Ernie Johnson gave his Inside the NBA colleagues a little treat last night by singing a song from Hamilton, and Charles Barkley seemed genuinely impressed.
4. If you were on Twitter on Wednesday, you know there was a whole big kerfuffle on First Take between Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and JJ Redick, with Redick saying that Russo sounds like a “Fox News host” because Russo isn’t a fan of Draymond Green’s antics.
Of course, there was plenty of fallout, with everyone offering their take on the First Take segment.
The worst take I saw—by far—was The Daily Beast referring to Russo as a “shock jock.”
One of the ongoing jokes among Russo’s listeners from his former WFAN days and his current SiriusXM days is that he has often said, “He doesn’t work blue.” Russo and his old partner, Mike Francesa, have often said they are proud of the fact that they generated huge ratings on WFAN without “doing guy talk.”
Russo literally scolds his SiriusXM callers if they ever drop a dirty word, won't ever curse on his own show and has spent the past couple of weeks talking about Benjamin Franklin and Marilyn Monroe.
Say what you want about Russo, but to call him a “shock jock” is beyond comical and pretty embarrassing for The Daily Beast.
5. The First Take debate between Russo and Redick started with Draymond Green flipping the double bird to the Memphis crowd Tuesday. The most famous double-bird flipper in sports over recent months weighed in with his thoughts yesterday.
6. Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave us a truly great tirade last night, with the highlight being the line “He’s six f------ seven” after he exploded on home plate umpire Marty Foster because of low strikes called on Aaron Judge. It also needs to be mentioned that Boone’s explosion began with him heaving his gum.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Tomorrow, May 6, is the 21st anniversary of Pine Barrens, arguably the most popular episode of The Sopranos, airing on HBO. I will give you one clip today and one tomorrow to celebrate the occasion.
And here's the inside story on that scene.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
