Sports Media Biggest Losers In 2023

There were so many losers in sports media this year that we had to limit ourselves to just five.

So, just because someone didn't make the list does not mean we don't consider them a loser. We probably do.

Nonetheless, here are the five biggest losers of 2023:

Bomani Jones

Bomani Jones recently called himself a "winner." But the year 2023 says otherwise.

Jones started the year employed by both ESPN and HBO. Yet he ends the year not employed by either.

As OutKick first reported, HBO canceled Jones' weekly television show, Game Theory. A month later, ESPN informed him it would not renew his contract.

Both networks canned Jones for the same reason: he poisoned their ratings.

Jones had been giving television shows that follow John Oliver, Bill Maher, and Stephen A. Smith -- three of the biggest draws in television.

On average, he lost 80% of their viewership.

Bomani Jones' last three shows -- one on HBO, one on ESPN television, and one on ESPN Radio -- have all ended in cancellation following record-low ratings.

Does that sound like a "winner" to you? Let us know.

The Athletic

The New York Times-owned Athletic smeared former-star pitcher Trevor Bauer after a troubled, unreliable woman accused him of sexual assault and strangulation.

Athletic writer Ken Rosenthal pressured the Dodgers to cut Bauer over the unproven allegations. He eventually took issue with how long it took the team to ruin the player's career:

“Dodgers’ decision to cut ties with Trevor Bauer shouldn’t have been difficult at all,” Rosenthal headlined a column last January.

Rosenthal's colleague Molly Knight tweeted, while employed at the outlet, that Bauer fractured his accuser's skull. However, per a lawsuit Bauer filed against The Athletic, Knight had in her possession medical records that showed there was no fracture.

She eventually deleted the tweet.

But neither Knight nor Rosenthal mentioned a video from October in which Bauer read aloud obtained text messages from his accuser, seemingly proving his innocence.

The woman's texts to her friends read as follows:

“‘Next victim. Star pitcher for the Dodgers,'” Bauer said in the video. “A text Lindsey Hill sent to a friend before she ever even met me. ‘What should I steal?’ she asked another, in reference to visiting my house for the first time. The answer? ‘Take his money.’ So how might that work? ‘I’m going to his house Wednesday.’ she said, ‘I already have my hooks in. you know how I roll.’ Then, after the first time we met, “Net worth is 51 mil” she said. ‘b—h, you better secure the bag’, was the response. 

“But how was she going to do that? ‘Need daddy to choke me out,’ she said. ‘being an absolute whore to try to get in on his 51 million,’ read another text. Then, after the second time we met, former Padres pitcher Jacob Nix told her ‘you gotta get this bag.’ ‘I’ll give you 50,000’ Lindsey replied. Her AA sponsor asked her at one point, ‘do you feel a tiny bit guilty?’ ‘Not really,’ she replied.”

The Athletic smeared Trevor Bauer. The outer helped damage his life and career. Yet its journalists had no interest in informing readers of the new evidence showing his accuser lied.

Pathetic. Unethical. And libelous.

Mark Jones

There are quite a few anti-white racists in sports media. Simply put, it's a good business decision.

But ESPN broadcaster Mark Jones is different. He is not actually an anti-white racist. In fact, he is married to a white woman.

Mark Jones just pretends to be a racist, hoping it'll make him more appealing to anti-white Twitter and Gilbert Arenas.

Jones is the face for trying too hard -- whether it's rapping and dancing in the booth during football games, hating on white basketball players, or sharing posts calling Stephen A. Smith a "coon."

We put together a running list of Jones' highlights:

As we said, he tries too hard to prove he's a racist.

Several people inside ESPN say Jones' inappropriate and often racist tweets do not sit well with management or his colleagues. They, too, know he's a phony. And a mediocre broadcaster, at best.

But sources say ESPN could not fire him off during the layoff period in July because he is the only black play-by-play commentator at the network. ESPN feared firing him would stir a racial backlash.

My take: hire another black play-by-play commentator. Or two. Or three. Because Mark Jones is an embarrassment:

Even Barstool knows he sucks:

Deadspin

The remains of Deadspin ran a hit piece on a nine-year-old Chiefs fan accusing him of wearing blackface and "hating black people and Native Americans."

The outlet showed only one side of the kid's face: the side painted black:

The Deadspin article omitted the full image of the kid's face, revealing he painted his face black and red in support of the Kansas City Chiefs.

He was not wearing blackface.

Take a look:

Deadspin lied. The outlet knew it lied. The editorial staff refused to correct said lie. The author of the piece -- he's not famous enough to be mentioned -- doubled down on his lie in a now-deleted tweet.

Deadspin didn't correct the lie until the family of the kid threatened legal action.

A subsequent editor's note claimed the outlet was unaware of the full photo of the fan's face. That is also a lie.

Here's proof:

If you lie about children to harm them, you are a loser.

Dan Le Batard

There is no bigger hypocrite in sports media than Dan Le Batard.

Le Batard spent several segments this year railing against men with histories of domestic violence, such as Dana White and Tyreek Hill.

Yet Le Batard had no problem hiring Howard Bryant, a man arrested for beating and choking his wife.

OutKick contacted Le Batard about his hypocrisy. He didn't provide a comment.

Elsewhere, Le Batard defended Deadspin for lying about the little kid wearing blackface. He also said wearing red and black face paint is a form of racism.

Got it.

In September, Le Batard criticized HBO for turning its Max streaming service into the home of "low-quality crap."

In November, he signed a deal for Max to stream his daily podcast.

Speaking of his podcast, Le Batard complained that ESPN chose Pat McAfee over him because ESPN didn't like Le Batard's lefty politics.

As a result, we crunched the numbers. And, uhm, it wasn't the lefty politics that led to ESPN choosing McAfee...

Who was the biggest loser in sports media this year? Let us know on X, @OutKick.