ADVERTISEMENT

Jemele Hill to Leave ESPN After Accepting Buyout of Contract

Jemele Hill / Getty Images
August 27, 2018

Jemele Hill, the ESPN personality who made news last year for chastising President Donald Trump, is leaving the sports network this week, according to reports.

Sources told Sporting News that the former "SportsCenter" anchor, now a writer at ESPN's Undefeated website, accepted a buyout of the remainder of her contract with the network.

Hill's contract was set at $2.5 million per year, and her last day is Friday, according to the New York Post. She has two years left on her contract with ESPN.

Neither Hill nor ESPN have commented publicly on the news.

Hill became a "SportsCenter" anchor in February 2017, after which she become embroiled in controversy before moving to the Undefeated website this year.

Hill caused a media firestorm in September 2017, when she called Trump a racist on Twitter.

"Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists," Hill tweeted.

Trump responded with a tweet of his own.

"With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have 'tanked,' in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!" Trump wrote.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917701841466593280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E917701841466593280&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportingnews.com%2Fus%2Fother-sports%2Fnews%2Fjemele-hill-buyout-espn-sportscenter-donald-trump-white-supremacist-the-six-michael-smith-6-pm-sportscenter%2Fly01786jvvhw1e5lrfcc8xqrb

Hill never walk backed her comments and did not face any consequences from ESPN. Some conservative activists argued that the network was showing political bias by not punishing Hill when it punished former ESPN commentators like Curt Schilling, Mike Ditka, and Britt McHenry for comments they made.

ESPN ended up suspending Hill a few weeks later for her political commentary, but not about Trump. She encouraged viewers on Twitter to boycott advertisers of the Dallas Cowboys after the NFL teams's owner, Jerry Jones, said he would bench anyone who did not stand for the national anthem.

ESPN's new president, James Pitaro, wants to move the network away from politics and back to sports news and highlights, according to reports.