--- title: Olbermann’s New Sports Talkshow Pulls No Punches (Well, Maybe Just a Couple) description: God bless Keith Olbermann; the man always comes out swinging. Olbermann, his daily hourlong talk show, debuted live Monday night on ESPN2 without introductory credits.... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7117943/olbermanns-new-sports-talkshow-pulls-no-punches-well-maybe-just-a-couple/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-08-27T09:45:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T05:34:02.695Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Olbermann’s New Sports Talkshow Pulls No Punches (Well, Maybe Just a Couple) og:description: God bless Keith Olbermann; the man always comes out swinging. Olbermann, his daily hourlong talk show, debuted live Monday night on ESPN2 without introductory credits.... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7117943/olbermanns-new-sports-talkshow-pulls-no-punches-well-maybe-just-a-couple/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce5bd836af450c4a/698a8e7e929fad1f5ec021f8/174358662-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2013 Summer TCA Tour - Day 1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Olbermann’s New Sports Talkshow Pulls No Punches (Well, Maybe Just a Couple) twitter:description: God bless Keith Olbermann; the man always comes out swinging. Olbermann, his daily hourlong talk show, debuted live Monday night on ESPN2 without introductory credits.... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce5bd836af450c4a/698a8e7e929fad1f5ec021f8/174358662-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Olbermann's New Sports Talkshow Pulls No Punches (Well, Maybe Just a Couple) > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. Ally is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: July 2026. ## Ally: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Ally is a digital financial services company offering online-only banking, including checking and savings accounts, through Ally.com and its mobile apps. Launched in 2009 as an original disruptor in financial services, Ally was built to challenge outdated banking norms with a simpler, more convenient way to bank. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Aug 27, 2013 9:45 AM UTC  BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JULY 24: TV Personality Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 24, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JULY 24: TV Personality Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 24, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)Getty Images—2013 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Aug 27, 2013 9:45 AM UTC God bless Keith Olbermann; the man always comes out swinging. _Olbermann_, his daily hourlong talk show, debuted live Monday night on ESPN2 without introductory credits. It seemed like a glitch. One second ESPN’s panel was wrapping up a rain-shortened day at Flushing Meadows; the next, Olbermann was talking at us. “As I was saying,” were the first four words we heard. It didn’t put the viewer at ease. But that’s not what Olbermann has returned to the Worldwide Leader in Sports to do. He has a tortured history with the network — I’d say he [“burned bridges,”](http://deadspin.com/the-bridges-of-olbermann-county-837703222) but I’d have to put a dollar in a jar somewhere — which includes his highs as part of the _SportsCenter_ “Big Show” in the mid-1990s, and his lows, both during the trying-too-hard earliest days of ESPN2 and when he quit Bristol for Fox Sports Net. He put all of that history on display on Monday night, unveiling recurring segments “Keithlights” (which will replay some of his wittiest highlight calls from the golden years) and “This Week in Keith History” (which will evidently mock his early-90s sartorial choices and hirsutism). (**MORE:** [Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before — Olbermann at Odds With His Network](http://entertainment.time.com/2012/01/05/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-before-olbermann-at-odds-with-his-network/)) But the more relevant Olbermann history comes from his years as a political talk-show host, when he used his unique-on-TV wit to shred cable news’s witless babble. Inquiring minds wanted to know: Will he do the same thing for sports? Yes. His opening segment left no doubt. Olbermann took aim at the media circus that perpetually surrounds the New York Jets, a spectacle that gives any thinking person a headache. The latest crisis: The _New York Daily News’s_ NFL correspondent, Manish Mehta, had called for head coach Rex Ryan’s job after quarterback Mark Sanchez got hurt behind backups during the fourth quarter of a preseason game. Mehta “reasoned” that Ryan should have kept Sanchez away from the field, for his own sake, after rookie starter Geno Smith had played poorly during the first three quarters. (The unwritten central premise: Mark Sanchez, who in 2012 ranked No. 36 among the 36 qualified quarterbacks in ESPN’s QBR stats and hadn’t played well enough in the preseason to beat Smith out, was absolutely vital to the Jets’ success in 2013.) Once Mehta had locked in on Ryan, the rest of the Jets press corps — just as dopey, but more timid — followed suit, speculating on how the coach could make such a foolish decision, and when he’d be fired. The story metastasized to the point where [one writer](http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/its-time-to-fire-rex-ryan/) on _USA Today’s_ For The Win suggested that the Jets fire Ryan immediately. You know, 10 days before the season starts. (**MORE:** [The Most Snake-Bitten Franchise in Sports? A Case For the New York Jets](http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/12/20/the-most-snake-bitten-franchise-in-sports-a-case-for-the-new-york-jets/)) Olbermann beat all the writers to bits for chasing a dumb story made even dumber because a reporter’s tweet started it all. “Did you know some sports stories are made up?” he asked, playfully. Olbermann appears to be the only soul employed by ESPN — well, aside from the just-hired Jason Whitlock, who was Olbermann’s first guest — willing to question newspaper hacks and dynamite their workaday falsehoods. He noted, with sufficient appreciation for all the moment’s irony, that he had to join forces with Chris Christie to do so. And yet — It’s ESPN, so there’s always an “and yet” — one of the reporters pushing Ryan’s buttons in a press conference clip Olbermann mocked was none other than Rich Cimini, employed by (yep, you guessed it) ESPN. ESPN’s news operation has played along with the invented story, devoting plenty of time to it on _SportsCenter_ on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and [publishing Cimini’s column](http://espn.go.com/new-york/columns/nfl/story/%5F/id/9603105/only-new-york-jets-butt-fumble-qb-battle-mark-sanchez-geno-smith) headlined, “Only Jets could butt-fumble QB battle.” What’s worse, this past Friday _Deadspin_ — ESPN’s eternal antagonist (and \[disclosure!\] my former employer), which was praised by Whitlock during his visit as the best force for holding the sports media accountable — showed, with exacting video precision, how ESPN [does the same thing](http://deadspin.com/how-espn-manufactures-a-story-colin-kaepernick-edition-1185400028). That post, concerning an endlessly discussed Ron Jaworski _SportsCenter_ soundbite, has over 300,000 page views. I’ll bet anything that at least two of them came from Olbermann and Whitlock, who are both committed readers of the site. If either one saw the irony, neither mentioned it. Also unmentioned, despite the show’s admirable commitment to maiming lightweight journalists, was ESPN’s recent decision to pull out of its partnership with PBS’s _Frontline_. The team had been producing [a documentary](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-of-denial/) expected to criticize the NFL for its handling of brain injuries; now the documentary will run without ESPN’s imprimatur. A New York _Times_ [report](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/sports/football/nfl-pressure-said-to-prompt-espn-to-quit-film-project.html?pagewanted=1&%5Fr=2&smid=tw-share&pagewanted=all&) claimed ESPN bailed after pressure from the NFL, its business partner, and that too went unmentioned. When Olbermann named NFL executives his first “worst persons in the sports world,” he did it because they placed the Super Bowl in New York in February, not because they bullied ESPN. (**MORE:** [NFL Players Have a Higher Risk of Death From Brain Disease](http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/06/nfl-players-have-a-higher-risk-of-death-from-brain-disease/)) “Welcome to the Skip Bayless network,” Olbermann’s second guest, Mark Cuban, told him, referencing the disingenuous blowhard pundit who pollutes ESPN2 daily. “Welcome to the A-Rod network,” Olbermann replied, trying to make ESPN’s crimes against sports journalism look like everyone else’s. But _Olbermann_ looks like it will face the usual ESPN identity crisis, the same one that confronts [Grantland](http://www.grantland.com), _ESPN the Magazine_ and every other fiefdom within Bristol committed to doing good critical work: It’s hard to talk about what’s wrong with sports, especially in sports media, without fingering ESPN in some way. The realignment crisis in college football? That’s [ESPN’s fault](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/sports/ncaafootball/college-footballs-most-dominant-player-its-espn.html?ref=sports). The [Hot-Take-ification](http://www.psmag.com/culture/a-brief-history-of-bad-sports-writing-64380/) of so much sports writing? More blood on ESPN’s hands. If Olbermann doesn’t find an intelligent way to acknowledge his own employer’s faults, the show will still be damn fine: He’s as deft as ever before the camera, and hearing him call the highlights — including real, lengthy MLB clips, which one never finds on _SportsCenter_ anymore — was a true joy. But if he can find a way to make Bristol squirm just a bit, from his perch high atop Times Square? Then _Olbermann_ will really be something worth watching. **MORE:** [Sports Television — Why ESPN in the Crown Jewel](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993416,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7117943/olbermanns-new-sports-talkshow-pulls-no-punches-well-maybe-just-a-couple/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7117943/olbermanns-new-sports-talkshow-pulls-no-punches-well-maybe-just-a-couple/"},"headline":"Olbermann's New Sports Talkshow Pulls No Punches (Well, Maybe Just a Couple)","datePublished":"2013-08-27T09:45:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T05:34:02.695Z","description":"God bless Keith Olbermann; the man always comes out swinging. 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