It’s been six years since Colin Cowherd left ESPN after his Dominican Republic MLB comments backfired. He has since moved on to FOX Sports and recently opened up about a chapter many fans have wondered about. Without spilling all the details, his words hint at a network that lost its way during a politically charged period.

“I thought the company got kind of rudderless for a while,” Cowherd told OutKick on June 19. “It was like, guys, your audience wants football. They want sports. That’s what they want.”

But while many of ESPN’s biggest personalities were quick to dive headfirst into the world of politics following the election of Donald Trump, Cowherd chose to take the other path and stayed true to his sportswriting roots. For instance, Stephen A. Smith, who is an excellent example of this contrast, was interviewed by Graham Bensinger earlier this year. He was honest enough to talk about his relations with Trump and share the advice he once gave him: “Convince someone to invest in you.”

Smith has actually been comfortable talking politics for years now, but his voice really grew louder throughout the 2024 election cycle, whether on his own podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, or in appearances across various news talk programs. He’s registered as an independent and has said his views are a mix, some liberal, some conservative, though he leans moderately left overall.

Cowherd, on the other hand, is still one of the rare big names in sports media whose political views nobody really knows.

“I’ve always thought I was sort of a radical centrist,” Cowherd said. “Sort of left on social programs, kind of center-right on fiscal policy. That’s how I viewed myself.”

So why did ESPN swing toward politics and then pull back? Cowherd thinks it all comes down to leadership.

“When [John] Skipper left, the first thing you noticed was that ESPN started talking way more NFL, Bobby,” Cowherd said. “They stopped talking politics.”

He also gave plenty of credit to current ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro for getting the network refocused on what its audience actually wants.

“I think Jimmy Pitaro has done a really good job,” he added. “I think he’s really bright, and I think they now talk about the right sports. They’ve got the right personalities. I think Fox’s leadership and ESPN’s leadership right now are very strong.”

Funny thing is, while Cowherd was explaining why he never let politics creep into his show, another big name at the network was doing the complete opposite, and it happened just months after this whole conversation started heating up.

Pat McAfee faced backlash over the Donald Trump interview

On November 11, 2025, known as Veterans Day, Pat McAfee interviewed President Donald Trump live on The Pat McAfee Show at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. The conversation touched on a wide variety of topics, ranging from college football’s evolving NIL landscape to the NFL’s new kickoff rules, plus the Ryder Cup and World Cup.

As you’d expect, not everyone was thrilled. Critics wondered why a sports network would hand its platform to a sitting president, and a few voices, including Keith Olbermann, didn’t hold back their criticism.

“He platformed a scumbag who mocked a POW for getting captured and WWI American soldiers for getting killed — and he platformed him on Veterans Day. McAfee is an (expletive), Trump hates the troops, and you work for a website filled with fascist twerps,” Olbermann wrote, per The Spun.

McAfee, though, wasn’t backing down. He explained his reasoning pretty plainly.

“I would like to say, though, for the immediate people that are mad about that happening, it’s the President of the United States. It’s Veterans Day. He’s the Commander-in-Chief. Obviously, if we have the opportunity to talk to him, we’re going to.”

Also, he stated that he had attempted to land an interview with former President Barack Obama, too, yet it simply could not be scheduled.

What is most notable here is that back in 2024, when conducting interviews, McAfee was adamant in stating that his viewers did not wish to listen to him talking about politics, which played a vital role in his show’s success. In the subsequent year, however, everything changed for one of the biggest interviews of his career.