Maria Taylor, who was the target of a co-worker’s racial jaw-jacking, may be leaving ESPN. For weeks, rumors have swirled that she would leave the network after she asked for more money than they wanted to pay as a part of her new contract.
Earlier this month, Taylor’s co-worker, Rachel Nichols was caught when a conversation she had last year was leaked in which she expressed her thoughts that Taylor had only gotten her job because she is Black. Of course, Nichols tried to apologize directly to Taylor after she was busted but ended up giving a mea culpa on her show.
ESPN reprimanded Nichols and Taylor eventually responded to the situation with an inspirational tweet.
Little did many people know that Maria Taylor had her own business to work out with the network. On July 8, the New York Post reported that ESPN offered Taylor $3 million on her new contract. While that is an impressive amount of money, she wanted $8 million.
Some criticized the demand saying that the higher figure was near what veteran sportscasters like Stephen A. Smith earn. In fact, ESPN had offered Taylor $5 million but she rejected it hoping they would come back with a more lucrative figure. They did not.
Now, with the Olympics on the horizon and the NBA Finals still in progress, NBC has made its move, the New York Post reported. Taylor’s contract with ESPN ends on July 20. A possible Game 7 of the NBA Finals that Taylor is covering would be on July 22. The Olympics begin July 23. Time is of the essence.
There is no announcement from her yet, but it looks like Maria Taylor is not going to let ESPN play her like a boyfriend who dates a woman for a decade without a ring. NBC and Amazon have been interested in Taylor as the new host of Football Night In America.
If Taylor can secure the bag she wants and not have to put up with racial nonsense, we endorse the decision to tell ESPN, “Boy, bye!”
