Stan Verrett Can't Stop Tweeting About OutKick After ESPN Firing: Bobby Burack

We assumed Stan Verrett would be embarrassed to continue his creepy obsession with OutKick after ESPN fired him in May. After all, he once predicted on Twitter that OutKick would be out of business by 2023. Two years later, OutKick is headed for another record-breaking year. Meanwhile, ESPN canned Verrett.

Yet, DEI Stan seems more fixated on OutKick than ever. On Sunday night, he announced his new little Twitch project—destined for irrelevance—and immediately mentioned us:

"[OutKick] will be the first to subscribe….they are locked in to everything I do, it seems. They love me, they just don’t know how to express it. I’m gonna send them an invoice for the content they do involving me."

Admittedly, we don’t know if Verrett is mentally compromised or just stupid. His entire "OutKick loves me" narrative collapses under the most basic scrutiny. In reality, he’s the one constantly posting about us, not the other way around. According to an X advanced search, Verrett has tweeted at or about me 42 times in the past 12 months—forty-two. I've tweeted at or about him seven times, five of which were about mocking his firing.

He even spent his past two Friday nights posting about whether I’ll one day end up "unemployed" like him and Norman Chad--another aging, jobless far-left sports pundit:

If Verrett is telling the truth when he says I was a topic of conversation in the newsroom, that could explain why he often struggled to pronounce athletes’ names--he was too busy talking about me, instead of preparing.

Verrett's Obsession with OutKick

Verrett can’t stop mentioning OutKick because he understands we know what really led to his ESPN exit. Other reporters probably know, too, but they are too afraid of upsetting ESPN PR and his washed-up agent Sandy Montag to report the truth.

So, let's back up a bit. Here’s the timeline:

On January 6, I posted on X arguing Josh Allen had a stronger MVP case than Lamar Jackson. My case: Jackson won the MVP award a year prior because he had a higher seed than Allen, despite inferior individual statistics. Last season, it was the inverse. Allen and Jackson were again the two best quarterbacks in the regular season, but Allen won more games while Jackson had the better numbers.

Verrett, tweeting from his blocked account, immediately started chirping at me.

"Jackson is better in nearly every statistical category. 41 passing touchdowns to 28 for Allen. The numbers don’t lie. You do, though, to make it about race, because that’s your lame answer for everything," he ranted in one reply to me.

Race? Who mentioned race? Only Verrett. To him, it’s apparently the first and only lens for football analysis. In the end, voters agreed with me: Josh Allen won MVP.

Verrett got so heated that he tweeted a (now-deleted) lie that OutKick had fired me. Since that came as news to me, I asked ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro via email for comment (see below). Days later, Pitaro sent a stooge to tell me the network had "addressed" Verrett’s unhinged posts toward me multiple times in the past. A source familiar with my email informed OutKick that Verrett's contract was up later in the year and ESPN didn't want to retain him.

On March 5, we learned from a reader that Verrett ran a segment without proper attribution using our exclusive reporting on NFL kicker Justin Tucker. Verrett borrowed Tucker’s statement to us but refused to say our name out loud, instead referring to us dismissively as an "internet outlet."  The only credit we got for our reporting was in the chyron that appeared on-screen. We initially asked his producer, Aisha Chaney, for a reason. Chaney didn't respond but forwarded our email to management, who apologized to us. 

On March 9, two sources inside ESPN informed us during an off-the-record conversation that the network did indeed plan to cut ties with Verrett.

Our ESPN sources didn't want us to report the news because they hadn't told him yet. Truthfully, I didn't want to break the story before it was official. I feared that my reporting would give Verrett ample time to play the race card in an effort to keep his job. And it probably would have worked.

Sources say ESPN told Verrett about his ousting in mid-May. The timing was likely not a coincidence. See, Verrett had cited in the annual review that he was "the only black SportsCenter anchor in Los Angeles," two sources say. But by hiring Trevor Scales, he could no longer make that case. Notice that ESPN leaked to the press Scales' signing on May 21 and Verrett's ousting on May 23.

It was strategic. It took away Verrett's ability to blame racism.

The Los Angeles Lie

Since then, Verrett has been tweeting that he chose to "stay in Los Angeles" rather than continue with ESPN. He did so again Sunday night. 

He's lying. It wasn't his choice. And his excuse makes no sense.

For one, ESPN still runs "NBA Today" daily out of LA. Rich Eisen just hosted a "SportsCenter" special from LA last week and will host more in the coming months.  ESPN is also acquiring the NFL Network’s brand-new LA studios.

If ESPN management wanted to keep Verrett, staying in Los Angeles wasn’t the issue. Two sources say Verrett even told leadership he would fly to Bristol, CT, to keep his job. ESPN passed.

Of course, Verrett’s fragile ego won’t let him admit he was fired. His constant tweeting about me is a coping mechanism. It’s humorous, but also sad.

And since he mentioned OutKick the moment he announced his new vlog, we’ll be sure to update everyone on how those numbers look when it debuts.

Stan craves our attention. For fun, we’ll occasionally indulge him—just to highlight how desperate, pathetic, and creepy he is.