True, and Skinny touched on this earlier, too.

Fans want sports. They don't want Jamelle Hill spouting off crap about Congress or Roger Clemens yammering about Trump. EVEN if they agree with what's being said, for the most part 99.999999 percent of the time they don't care one iota about a coach, player or yammering nabob discussing-ranting-talking about politics. They just want the escapism of the game.

There's been quite enough said and written, too, in the last 8-10 years about ESPN telling its talking heads to not be political. That meant not being conservative. If you wanted to be more open, "diverse" and Disney-like when you're hugging on Bruce Jenner, that was fine. Say anything to the contrary and you'd be shut down, or say anything about the NFL and you'd be shut down. So all that political stuff did play into it somewhat. Fans don't like it or want it.

The financial stuff is the dagger, though. I think they'll shed more people and events in another 9-12 months, and maybe try to get out of some of their live rights contracts. Definite sea-change for sure, and all out in the open.