Suzy Kolber

0:08Welcome to the sports media podcast. I'm your host Richard Deitsch. My producer is James Jackson. One guest on this episode, but if you have watched sports in the United States, this is a woman who is very, very familiar to you, though she has not done, at least from my perspective, many public interviews, if any public interviews over the last couple of years. Susie Colber is one of the seminal figures at ESPN, working across that company for 27 years. She's here to talk about her new series for the Scripps Sports Network, which is a new free streaming television channel launched by the Scripps company early this year.

0:45Her new series is called The Originals, which will premiere on September 15th at 8 p.m. this is an interview show where suzy goes one-on-one with people who defy easy explanation her first couple of interviews include jesse cole founder of the savannah bananas john gruden former nfl coach obviously former espn er lisa salters hillary knight the great hockey player steve young goes without saying hall of fame nfl er and diana flores the mexican flag football star Again, the show premieres September 15th at 8 p.m. Eastern on the Scripps Sports Network, and I am pleased to be joined by Susie Culber.

1:26Welcome. Thank you, Richard, and you are correct. I don't believe I've spoken to anybody since I was laid off by ESPN in the summer of 2023. Susie, where is your YouTube channel? Where's your sub stack? Where are all these other things that usually happen when someone leaves ESPN? Well, right off the bat, I had a year left on my contract, so I wasn't allowed to be on the air unless I wanted to forego the last year of my deal. So we could start with that. And it was such a big adjustment for me to go from 100 miles an hour and the adrenaline of live TV to actually being able to kind of sit back and live my life.

2:16once I started going through that transition and experiencing it, I didn't feel like I had this burning desire, like I need to be on. And, and quite frankly, I never really felt like I was necessarily tied to this identity of being on TV. I loved what I did because I love sports and I love football and I loved the process, but the actual being on television was never a driving force to me. So it just sort of made sense to, you know what? Once I realized, like, I like busted my butt since I was 15 years old. What if I do just catch my breath and go to every single one of my daughter's volleyball games and actually like sit on my couch a little bit and take in a life of what I've accomplished.

3:12I'm allowed to relax. So that's the answer to, I just didn't really feel a need. We're going to get to ESPN and the post ESPN after scripts. I want to start off with what you're doing now. I have seen, you were kind enough to let me see a couple of the first episodes. They're really well done. It's a thoughtful interview show. The production quality is really, really high. There's an episode with Lisa Salters, which I would really highly recommend to people where both Susie and Lisa reveal stuff, certainly that I had no idea about them from infertility issues to pregnancy, to being a woman, to being a woman over a certain age in the business.

3:58It's a really, really, that one in I think it was a really well done episode. So I start here. How did your relationship with Scripps Sports come about? And at a certain point, whether from them or you, someone must have pitched this interview show. Well, going back to what we're discussing about kind of where was I? Almost from before the time I was laid off, I had a concept for a giveback show, which was reaching into underserved communities. and finding, spotlighting coaches and mentors who are helping kids play sports and shining a spotlight on them and getting them more funds for more kids to play sports because it just, in general, makes kids better people, I think.

4:46And in this big world of youth sports, kids' families without money are getting left behind. So I had this concept for a show called Who Inspired You? and almost from the moment I was laid off, I was like working on that because I always felt like if I had a platform, why not use it? And a good friend of mine, also another former ESPNer who had been laid off, he was head of editorial content for Monday Night Football and the NFL draft. He teamed up with me and we started meeting with industry leaders and really trying to learn this other side of the business. So I was busy, which was good because I thrive on that kind of thing.

5:32And shockingly, as many great meetings as we had, and everybody said they loved the concept, we couldn't find distribution and we couldn't find a sponsor. We even teamed up with Omaha Productions. They loved it too. In their arsenal of stuff, they didn't really have a gift back. anyway, I tell you that because this in this business is like, you never know where contacts are going to happen. I go to a great gym near my house and love the trainer. When I train with him, you know, we talk, he knows what I'm trying to do. Turns out Scripps is launching this streaming network. They are looking for original content.

6:16They hire a local media guy who is supposed to try to help them find original content. The trainer says to John, did you know Susie works out here? No. Did you know Susie has some ideas and concepts for shows? No. I was on a Zoom with him that afternoon. The next day I was on a Zoom with Scripps. The Who Inspired You concept, they liked, but there was another one I had in my back pocket, which is this show, The Originals, that they liked even more as a let's do something, you know, right out of the box. Originally, the show was called Outside the Box. And a friend of mine had said to me, you know, your whole life has been so unconventional.

7:04You were a little girl who played football and you turned that into a whole career. And it's a lifetime in an industry that's been male dominated and you had this longevity. And this whole idea of really taking what is your passion and not being afraid to follow that and to achieve success doing it. This unconventional type of life. why not find other people who have done the same type of thing and let's have this great conversation where we sort of unpack the fearlessness on how you do it. What's sort of the blueprint for that? So Scripps loved it. They're looking for original programming. I really liked the position that Scripps has put themselves in in terms of really backing, supporting women's sports and women's leagues.

8:03Really liked that whole concept. So I thought we made a really good team. We shot six episodes. I didn't know what to expect from them. They really didn't know what to expect from me. Like you said, I think the quality of the program is really well done. That was terrific. So we have six episodes in the can, a six show run, really hope to do more right now, Richard. The show doesn't have a sponsor, which I just feel like there's so many great natural ties. We really want a sponsor to be able to start lining up the next six. Well, now at least you have nothing else. You have something to present sponsors, if nothing else, full episodes so that they can see, right?

8:47And there's value in that. It struck me that in terms of the first six that you have, there's a couple people that you obviously have a long time relationship with steve young for example gruden you must know forever lisa salters obviously somebody you're close to at espn then you opted obviously to do the founder of savannah bananas that's an incredibly great business story and a very like one that's like right on the news right now hillary knight obviously is um just coming off a gold medal uh you know so like that's on the news as well my sense is in terms of who you wanted to choose you chose people maybe part that you knew and were comfortable with and then three other maybe aspirational ones you're like these are pretty interesting people to me so I'm going to do them we had a pretty good list a pretty good working list and I thought that Jesse Cole with the Savannah Bananas like he is like the quintessential like he defines what the show is about.

9:45And as impressed as I was before actually meeting him, the more impressed I was. And then I got to go to Gillette Stadium. They sold out Gillette Stadium just recently. He is from that area. It was his lifelong dream to actually be in it and experience it. And the joy that you can actually sense from the crowd. And I just loved that the motivation is fan first. We want the fans to have a good time. Never lost sight of that. Never raise ticket prices. Cut deals with networks so more people can see it, but it's always available for free on YouTube. So every single move, never lost sight of the big picture of bring more joy, something great families can do.

10:39I mean, the whole idea of that, and then layered in that is that his wife recognized that the foster care system in this country is broken. And Jesse and his wife, they have a son, but they take into not just foster care kids, to special needs foster care kids. And in every game, they bring out a foster family and the whole crowd gives them a standing ovation because what could possibly be better for that even saying now gives me chills so he sort of lays out this roadmap of the perseverance the sacrifice what it takes to do something for the right reasons in the right way and he went they went from sold their house, lived on an air mattress to$500 million profit by doing the right way.

11:35So we know the perfect fit. Yeah. I was gonna say, I know somebody was at the Gillette game and they said it was an amazing experience. So they, they have, they have figured it out that organization in terms of figuring out how to combine sports and entertainment in 2026. Yeah, and I really appreciated that at the core of it is a live game with competitive real athletes that they're able to play the game and also throw in trick plays. And oh, by the way, Broadway level singing and then steps out on the mound and throws a great pitch like the quality really of the talent is off the charts. So he was, we were, they are so media friendly that, that he said yes.

12:21And that's, that was our, you know, we went to Tallahassee and shot their opening weekend. And I was just so pleased with that. John Gruden, we, there were, you know, a number of discussions with John. Like he knows, he knows me well. And Jim, my partner in this knows Jim very well. Jim does a lot of his prep and work with him still. But, you know, we weren't going to ignore the fact that he's not coaching and why. And he had to be okay with us going there. But he was very forthcoming, even with what he wants for his future. So Scripps loved that show. That show is number two because they felt he was very forthcoming.

13:06My personal show with Lisa, I mean, that's really like the centerpiece of the whole series. but I didn't want it necessarily to all, but this series to be about me. So we wanted to establish the show with other guests and then, okay, here's the reveal. I mean, you know, me through the years, painfully private always was people never had any idea what was going on with me off camera that, that I was navigating wanting to be a mom and I was single and going through all of that while I was on the road and that whole sort of experience. I mean, nobody had any idea. That's one of those, man, you can really compartmentalize stuff.

13:58Yeah, no, it was, there's, again, if you're someone who's followed ESPN for a long time, there's things in there you would have you just would never have known about both Susie and Lisa Salters yeah and Richard the whole idea of the show is inspiring people and inspiring people to like don't be afraid follow your passion and that's really the hope there is that like you can do this you can like be working at the highest level and you can have this too you can You know, I shouldn't assume it, but it seems rather obvious. On top of obviously being the on-air presenter, you're a producer of this, co-producer.

14:42Is that your title as well? That would be fair that I am executive producer of the show. Executive producer. Okay. John Leighman is the gentleman that I said he was looking for the original content for scripts. So John is named executive producer and Jim Carr, who is lead editorial for Monday Night football and the NFL draft and so many great things for ESPN. And he's, he's, he went to work for Caesars. He's had many roles and just such great depth and knowledge and great at finding stories and telling stories. So all of us are listed as executive producers. That's cool. I believe Jim Carr and I have conversed at least a couple of times, maybe via email over the years, although it's been, it's been a bit.

15:22I did want to ask you this because this is just, you know, I don't know what your interest is here, but you mentioned scripts in terms of like what they have in terms of live rights and they have their live rights inventory is really impressive they have just in terms of just a listing a couple of the leagues they're partnered with the wnba nwsl pwhl mlv as suzy mentioned earlier they really have um they really have walked the walk when it comes to women's sports they've invested money uh talent time and they have a good portfolio they also have the big sky they have five nhl teams and then i believe again this is not an entire list i think they have the pistons and the las vegas aces too in terms of individual contracts so one of the first things uh susie when i learned that you were doing this one of my first thought was that like do you have any interest perhaps in being part of their live sports um properties and or do they have interest in you because it would seem like, you know, they have an opportunity to have somebody who's worked at the highest levels of sports television and you, and they have these properties that are sitting there, even though I understand they've filled a lot of the talent spots for sure.

16:31Yeah. Eight, that was one of the first discussions that we had. And I just felt like at, I'm not saying no, and I would never say never. And if the right opportunity presents itself, yes, let's talk about it. But I think one of the things about me is that I only know how to do things one way and at the highest level. And I respect all of these leagues and all of these women. And that's kind of how I did my job all these years. Like out of the ultimate respect is I'm going to pour my heart and soul in because I respect what you're doing. So you in turn respect me. It's a lot of work to speak about a sport at that level and present it to the audience.

17:18And honestly, I just don't know if I want to go to that level again. Like this to me, what I'm doing is this really great mix of, I get to do a show. Hopefully it inspires. I want to do this other show who inspired you. I hope it reaches into communities and helps coaches and mentors. Like that's the platform I want to have. I want to do things that can help make a difference and bring about a change. Again, I don't really need to necessarily be on TV or live TV. The adrenaline I got from that, it was like a big time withdrawal for me to come off of that.

18:03It's not an ultimate goal. if it's something super and it's there and as this relationship with scripts develops who knows but that for me is not the top of mind i appreciate you answering that okay i want to head back in time a little bit um it's been three years since you got let go by espn and you mentioned a little bit at the top that um for you it was really like a welcome recalibration in some ways once you probably wrapped your head around it you got a chance to obviously um be with your your daughter, it probably got a chance, I would think, to just mentally stop for a little bit. And just like, because you basically for 27 years, covered major venture, traveling all over the world, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

18:49Where would you say, where do I want to start with this? Okay. Yeah. Let's, let's start here. I remember reporting at the time, I wasn't the only one that, you know, there was a lot of talk that ESPN was going to have layoffs. And so, you know, people obviously in certain positions, depending on salaries, age, etc. You know, you're always, we're all in that same boat at a certain age group. You're always sort of in perhaps the crosshairs. Was this something that you expected at all, were cognizant of? We'll start there. I'll say first, never in my whole career did I ever take for granted there would be another contract because that's the nature of the business.

19:29And it's cruel, cruel and competitive. And as you alluded to, especially for women, I believe as they get older. So when this first came up and I want to, I want to ask you a question too, is I still, I don't understand what it is about the interworkings at ESPN that these leaks happen. How does it help some executive on the inside who has this knowledge to leak this stuff? Like you're the one trying to find that information and you're digging, but what does it do for that person? Yeah.

20:43you get your podcasts. No, I'm happy to answer this. And again, I'm kind of now at the moment out of the transactions business and like, you know, for transactions in terms of the good part of transactions, when somebody gets hired, that's an exciting moment. The bad part of transactions, obviously, is layoffs. And in this one, I think my colleague at the time, Andrew Morshan, I think, was more all over this certainly than I was. I would say, but historically, obviously, I have been in that situation. And from my perspective, it doesn't always come from the executives of the place that has experienced layoffs.

21:18Many times it comes from agents in the world who have heard that someone else at the organization is being laid off, or perhaps that their own client is being laid off, and they'd like to get ahead of the story by at least putting it out there to have the client create their own narrative. Whether that's a good idea or not would probably depend obviously on your agency and who that is. There are probably some cases where there are people probably for political or personal reasons who probably get off on the fact that I have this information and I want it known that this person is on the chopping block.

21:55The one thing that I always tried to think about, hopefully I was successful, but that would be up to other people, is that these are real people. It's not, I think, not I think, I know this, especially on social media, like who is laid off at major places, if you, especially if you're well-known in the sports world, it becomes like kind of a sport, like to comment on it or to get clicks for it. So at least from my perspective, I was always trying to think, all right, there's a, like, you have to try to do this at least with some sensitivity because there's real people here. And I always tried to let the person know if I could, obviously before reporting it in the event that they didn't know.

22:33And I do think what's happened, and I'm sure this didn't happen to you, but this happened to others. What is kind of gross is when a reporter tells you what's going to happen when your own organization doesn't. And that has happened a couple of times in my space, including once from my end. And that's pretty bad. So I wouldn't say it's always nefarious, Susie. Sometimes it's strategic from some places and then others. And there's the last one, and you know this you worked at espn for 27 years some people just like to freaking talk like some people just like the fact that they know information right and then you know what i'm saying and like it's just they're like um they're they're how do i sort of say this they they get off on the buzz of knowing something that that few people know at their organization and if it's a person who likes to talk and you have a sourced relationship with them they may just say it I 100 % agree with you that people love to tell you what they know.

23:32And I have prided myself as being, I feel like, within the industry, one of the few people. And when it came to my trust with whether I'm talking to coaches or GMs or players, like I knew how to keep a secret. Yeah. Like Chris Mortensen. Say anything, you know? Like total, total trust. So anyway, about three weeks before my layoff, as you know, Steve Young and I were the poster child for that round of layoffs. And as I kind of poked around a little at ESPN with one of my bosses, you know, the answer wasn't no, you're safe. And I remember that day sitting next to my daughter in the kitchen. And for years, I've said, you never know.

24:19And I sat down next to her and I cried. And I said, I think this is really happening. And then Steve Young called me and he said, you know, I'm hearing all this stuff. What do you think? And I said, Steve, you know our place where there's smoke, there's fire. This is coming from inside. So I'm not shocked. I did about a week before I asked Jimmy Pataro, president of the company, if we could talk. I always think he's very gracious. he did not BS me he said Susie there's a whiteboard and your name's on it and I don't really know for sure right now but your name's on it so again not shocked tried to prepare myself but the morning of that layoffs I came out of the gym and Norby Williamson everybody I feel like in the industry now knows his name he and I go all the way back to the beginning of the launch of ESPN two and sports night.

25:21And I always thought we had a, you know, pretty good relationship. I was glad Norby was the one who was making the call. He texted me. Can we talk? And I texted back because I had one year left to go on my contract. Yes, we can talk a year from now. And I said to him seriously, like, can you give me a chance to get home and just get myself prepared? Which we did. Interesting conversation that from a legal standpoint, it has to be his conversation needs to include certain things and be very black and white. The only part where I lost it a little and may have cursed was when he said, you know, you may not say anything disparaging about the company or we can take the last year of your contract, which I had a year to go.

26:14And that's when I kind of lost it. And I said, I have been like the ultimate good soldier. There's all the crap I've seen. I have never said one negative thing about this company. Like, do you think I'm going to start now? And he's like, Oh, you know, I had to say it. I'm sorry. And the other thing was you have seven days to like clear your email and your office here um 27 years and it was a holiday weekend so i really had four days the executives were pretty good about that they pushed back on let's give her some more time which they did i wound up having the summer to clean out my i had only the only email i ever had in my life was my espn email yeah because that's how long ago i started so i had to transition my whole life over I had never owned my own laptop.

27:05My laptop was from ESPN. So like even going to Best Buy on July 4th weekend and buying a laptop, like this was, it was, it was tough. That weekend was tough. And then, as I say in my show on Scripps, probably the most emotional couple things was ESPN said, Norby said to me, we're not going to say anything. and I just thought after 27 years of I was the first person hired for the launch of ESPN2 I was the first person assigned to the x games I went and shot the marketing tape for it Monday Night Football's moved to ESPN I was part of some you know pretty big franchises you're not going to say a word not thanks for 27 years just just acknowledge it I didn't understand that.

28:12And so I created the post and I had alerted Adam Schefter, who has so many followers, like, Adam, I'm going to post this. Can you repost for me? And also Chris LaPlaca, who is a longtime executive at ESPN and in PR. He also knew I was going to post and he said, we'll repost. And I crafted it. And as soon as I saw it go live. That's when it hits. I had a good three to five minutes of full on sobbing. It was real. and then I went to work. I went and bought a laptop and created my own email and just started moving ahead with my life. I'm a very positive and optimistic person. I also know it was just business.

29:09It was not personal. It was just business. But one thing that I had always wanted to clear up was that it was written in the lead up to the layoff about maybe they'll offer her less money to do whatever or she's making too much money. The contract prior to the layoff, I took a 39 % cut. Wow. And at the time, to the point of older women in the industry, ESPN was negotiating with superstar up and coming younger person. I knew at the time they were offering to triple that person's salary. And here they were asking me to take a huge cut. I thought about how much I love what I'm doing. Love the people I work with.

30:07Even stuff like medical coverage. I have a teenage daughter. Like I took all of that into consideration and said, it's not about the money. I want to keep doing this. But my pushback to the company was I've worked year round my whole career and my daughter is 14 and we've never taken a spring break because I'm prepping the draft and my summer ends at training camp. And so can I have my life back? That's when my assignments were pulled back to just Monday nights and the draft and the Super Bowl. Up until then, And I was still doing a full array and working year round and full time. So that was my pushback.

30:55That was the natural thing. And I did think the 39 % cut was going to get me to the end. There's a lot to sort of follow up on that. And actually, something you remind me, Kenny Mayne was on this podcast. He told me that they offered him a 61 % pay cut, which got a lot of pickup. I think people were surprised about that. Okay, let's sort of start with something that you said near the beginning of this. Did you ask to have some kind of like goodbye press release or something like that? I wonder on your end. No, but I understand like from their perspective, they – I don't even want to get into their head, but was it thought that like we want you to do whatever you want to do as opposed to us?

31:36because they have since or before, right? Like have done, hey, thank you so much for your 30 years of work here, right? You've been an incredible employee. Here's your last sports center, right? We're gonna sort of do the going away party. So that's a little curious to me that you did not get that after 27 years. You're not a seven-year employee here. This is three decades. And again, like part of some pretty big stuff with the company. Massive stuff, yeah. I feel like we were all proud of. So that just, I'm a human. It just, that hurt. Why not? Yeah. And did you ever get anything to your satisfaction on the why not?

32:22No. Okay. All right. Next, so the next thing on this is the Bataro thing. I actually, I don't generally reflexively like want to praise CEOs, but I actually am impressed by that because he is the one person it feels like in this who was at least transparent with you. Did not write, did not try to sort of say, hey, we love you. You're great, whatever. And then you wake up the next day, right? And you're on the list. So that's, you know, that's impressive to me, if nothing else, that what happened you didn't particularly like. But he was at least that doesn't happen a lot in our business. He was at least one person there who's very transparent about this stuff.

33:04Agreed completely. And also it was somewhat satisfying to be able to say all the things I wanted to say. Yeah. You know, even just the timing of a woman in this industry and my age and how does that look? And just like I was able to kind of vent in a business like way. We had a very professional conversation and I did. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So something else that, again, and I think maybe you start to think about this more when you get older, and ASPEN is not the only place on this. I live this at Sports Illustrated, too. I think you see sometimes a little bit at the athletic as well.

33:43There seems to be – the idea of institutional knowledge has gotten more devalued and devalued. like someone who has put a lot of time in an organization who stands for the organization, who knows how the organization runs, right? And like what the organization's value should stand for. I feel like that you, you to me stood for that at ESPN. But if I look at today's ESPN, what might be more valuable for them today would be someone who would connect, who's a, who might, someone who connects with the 18 to 40 year old male college football demographic. I was always the ultimate team player, but that's sort of me at the core.

34:24It's sort of old school, hardcore. It's all about the team. The way we produced Monday Night Countdown or any other shows that I was working on was about, let's make it a great show. It's never about a particular person. It's let's all work together to make this a great show. And I don't want to sound old by saying it. Like, I think those of us who've been in the business a long time are sort of nostalgic for that type of feel that like, that's what it was really about. Like, let's all work together to make something great. The other thing I want to ask you about is, and this is not a total black and white thing, because there are women in the business now, Doris Burke, Holly Rowe, Pam Oliver, who are, you know, of a certain age, and they're doing great work.

35:12They have long-term, yeah, Hannah Storm, they have long-term contracts, right? So it's not necessarily like these places are cutting every person who's over the age of 50 or 55. That said, I do want to ask you this, from your perspective, once you got into, let's say, your 50s, did you find it more challenging to work? I don't think your work quality was still great. Did you find it more challenging for your bosses or for people in managerial positions to appreciate what you did, given so much of the business always feels to be like, who is the next flavor of the month, right? Who is the next hot prospect?

35:54I was aware. I think you'd be naive to not be aware. It's a visual medium. It's television. I just think overall in the scope of television, you see more older men than you see older women. That's just like, that's the nature of it. And this is sports, right? And we are trying to reach, you want things to be youthful. I was always really proud of, like, I worked really hard to take care of myself. Yeah. I eat great. I go to the gym. I feel youthful. I feel I always did. And I feel like I always present it in a youthful sort of way. And there's not – control what you can control. Like what am I supposed to do?

36:40It's better than the alternative. I'm getting older. Yeah. And you had said – I know you have sort of said this before, or maybe you said this on the Lisa Salters interview that like what you're really proud of is longevity. And I think you can really put your hand up in terms of some of the most significant on-air figures in sports during your time in terms of how long you worked at a major, major place. And you are correct. There are more men who could say, hey, I had a 27-year career there than women. And so if nothing else, I hope you are proud of that because I have no doubt, and I've talked to Pam Oliver about this and Holly Rowe about this, there are so many women who are younger than you who saw you on television, and because you existed, they believed it was possible.

37:35Like Pam Oliver has told me many, many times she's gotten so many notes from women, and especially as a black woman on television, basically saying to the effect of, like, I didn't know I could be a sportscaster. But then I saw you on Fox NFL sidelines, and I thought to myself, okay, maybe I could do this. And I'd have to think you – you probably have had people write to you and tell you this stuff, right? Because I think for a lot of people, you were probably that person. You are right about the being proud of the longevity piece, probably what I'm most proud of, that not only in television, but in sports television, to have longevity is incredibly difficult in this super competitive type of industry.

38:18So, and I think one of the things that really helped me was versatility was having been a producer for many years. That's how my career started behind the scenes and learning the ins and outs. And I think that made me better as a host because I knew what everybody else's job was. And I felt proud of, on our shows, partly being producer as well, being able to do the sidelines, being a reporter, being a host. all of those things I think contributed. And it's what I tell young people all the time, that there shouldn't be just an easy path, that all that is really important. But I would say, like, among the blessings of the timing of my layoff, you know, I've never been big on social media.

39:05I find that's cool for women, especially in this business. So I never, ever followed myself, followed my timeline, engaged in conversation, too much negative energy for me. I never opened myself up to it. The day and maybe the day after I was laid off, I had friends say, we know you don't ever read it. You need to read it today. And Ed Werder, who was laid off twice by ESPN, And Ed said to me, it's like, it's like, it's your own funeral. You get to listen in, but you're still here. And in a sense, he was right. Like to actually be able to like hear like the people that you inspired to be in the business or that you, that sports can uplift and bring people together and make their day.

40:06and they recognized that I had poured my heart and soul in and really loved it. And that came through. And that was all, that was really special. It was. Because I was always so like game face and head down and working hard. I was never thinking about, I'm a pioneer in this business. Like, it just wasn't. That's just not me. So to take a minute to be recognized for that. And then I've gone back to, you know, no, don't follow. Smart. It's much better for take it from me, someone who's on it too much. You're much better for your mental health space. All right. There's a couple more things I want to hit on here.

40:48You again, this just because you're built differently, maybe this wasn't a factor for you. But I've talked to so many people who have left ESPN who have gotten inspiration from those who have also left and then found success elsewhere. Maybe the most patron saint of this is a guy like Dan Patrick, who obviously created this whole empire after the fact. But Dan is not even close to alone, whether it's like, you know, Trey Wingo or, you know, I can name a ton of people who they've just created their, whether it's they've created their own media companies or YouTube space. You know, Linda Cohen just recently went out and now is doing a ton of YouTube.

41:24did um did that like um i don't know did that at all in the last let's just take the last couple years or the last 16 months when you're doing the script sports stuff like did that inspire you or did you note that that like hey like you know yes like once upon a time maybe maybe getting laid off by espn in the 90s maybe that was the death knell for you nationally but we live in a different world now we live in a creator economy now where you can suzy colbert inc can can get her own you know fan base pretty significantly and pretty fast. Yeah, I do believe that a number of us were institutionalized by ESPN.

42:03We had been there a really long time. And maybe I am the anomaly that while I really appreciate what Trey has done and Dan has done and Linda, it's awesome. So that, um, it's just, wasn't where the main motivations of my life were at. And, uh, again, the, the blessing of the timing of things for me was, you know, I spent a lot of time on the road as my daughter was growing up and I took every imaginable first flight, last flight, whatever it took to be there and not miss anything important. But I still, I, I was gone, you know, and she got to see a, a strong woman who does what she loves and comes home and our relationship is spectacular.

42:54But I've never had more fun than going to her volleyball games. That's cool. There's nothing in my life better than watching her succeed and spending time with her and TV naturally because it was my career and that's where I was, then that held this important place. But once that part of it was taken away, I wasn't eager to replace it. My greatest joy and priority in life was her. And I feel really fortunate that timing-wise, it was her sophomore year, the junior year of high school, and senior year of high school. I got to be here to help her achieve her dreams, which she wound up being able to attend her dream school.

43:52And there's just nothing better than that. No, I agree with you. It's like my this is the first year in a long time where I don't have as much full time responsibility and to be able to have twins younger than yours. and it's just amazing just to be able to sort of be around and they know that, you know, they'll always know when I'm gone that I was around and that's really important to me you mentioned your daughter and I did want to ask you about this, in the Lisa Salters episode you are very, I mean more honest than I've ever seen you be about your personal life, which as you said, you really did keep behind the glass you know, Lisa talked about um fertility and ivf i don't know how much i don't want to give away everything here because people can watch it um but there is one like you did i will ask you about this like you talked about having a miscarriage on a flight back from an assignment once and like i have to be honest like that sort of stopped me cold that you would be um willing to share that um with the audience so i just wanted to like sort of ask you just like was that hard to do on camera and um um Did you just feel like maybe you're at a point now in your life and obviously your daughter is here and exists and thriving in college that maybe you can talk about this stuff.

45:13But you are not one who ever mentioned that in all the many interviews that you did over the years as an on-air personality. No, there was never a photo of her that appeared. Everybody would get a thrill out of bring your kid to the set and all of that. I was just very protective of our privacy, personal life. And I think, too, like being a single woman, just I don't know, a lot of it, just very protective over all of that. I was never looking for a spotlight in that way. You know, I had I had been trying to get pregnant for two years behind the scenes and, you know, trying all of this in hotels alone and on flights and all of the different things.

45:53And I was offered to host NASCAR when NASCAR was returning to ESPN. And I went to Rich Feinberg to kind of like see the whole setup and discuss it. I didn't know I was pregnant. I said yes. so now I'm wading into this NASCAR world and Monday night football at the same time every weekend and a reporter thought it was um like really ambitious to be doing those two sports together in the same weekend but it was so early on I didn't tell him in the interview that I was pregnant doing it wow so I navigated a whole season of NASCAR and Monday night football up till December pregnant. Wow. Which, yeah, was a lot.

46:53So, you know, there was a lot of things that people, you know, they think they know you when they watch you that you don't know. And I just thought there was value in sharing the journey because lots of women go through this and the struggles of it and sort of the importance of remaining optimistic through it. I share in the show that when I first found out that my fertility level was low because I was 40 and I was happy building my career and working hard. And I thought I just didn't consider the clock was ticking because I'm healthy. I'm, duh. But when I found out that my fertility level was low, the doctor said to me, you have a, but based on all your numbers, you have a 1 % chance of having a baby.

47:53And I share this. I said, if you, as long as you're saying it's not impossible, it's possible. And, and I I just truly believe in life. If you are willing to work harder than anybody else, if you believe enough that you can have it. And I guess that's my message is I want to be able to inspire other people. Don't give up. You can have it. I really, really wanted that. I really respect you sharing. That's not that's these are not easy things to share it certainly publicly when it you know it's going to air on a on a network somewhere. All right. A couple more things and we'll wrap up. How much ESPN do you watch today?

48:49Monday night football. OK. So you're still you're watching games still but that's maybe that's where it sort of ends stop begins and ends. That is correct. Okay. All right. Is it, is it, I don't know if painful is the right word, but is it weird to watch your, the place that you were at still three years after the fact? I, trust me, I, I, I can understand if it would be, I would think it would be normal for it still to be a little odd when you're watching one of ESPN's channels. I think I've gone through the whole range of emotions. Initially, I was engaged with everything the way I had always been.

49:27I think that was just like a level of comfort I needed. I needed to. I'm watching. I love Monday Night Countdown. I love everybody on it. I'm watching. I'm watching everybody. This is my family. Yeah. They're all my family. I'm watching. I'm cheering everybody on. And then maybe it feels like a bad breakup in a relationship. And then it kind of hurts. And maybe I had a year there or two where it was sort of just, you know what? Now it just feels kind of painful. And I'm not enjoying watching. And I think I'm back now.

50:15super bowl this year and like that was always on our radar is how cool you know and i'll be cheering everybody on but um yeah i think for a chunk there it was just painful when when um when the news broke or got out and i don't know your situation at that time with agents or anything like that did and you don't have to mention if any specifics i'm just more interested if it happen. Did anyone reach out from who, like other places that have the NFL, either game inventory or talk about the NFL in some form or fashion, just to check in and say, what's your contract status? Do you have any interest in talking to us?

50:56I don't mind telling everybody that not have an agent. And that really was a result of when my contract that I was under, when I went to renegotiate that, I was told by a number of agents, like, we know you're going to take a big cut here. We don't really want a cut of that, too. You are better off advocating for yourself. And quite frankly, through most of my career, even when I had agents, and I had some great agents who were so cognizant of, I kind of did it myself, they didn't even take a percentage. I'll say really, like, classy, high level. so I went into that last negotiation without an agent and that was where I was at at that moment would that have changed things I don't know because I was under contract for a year and in this business if you're young and in this business not being on the air is is a killer yeah but if you've had all together since my producing days 39 years right then i was okay sitting for the year and what did that do to potential things but again we've kind of covered that yeah i wasn't scratching and clawing to i want to travel i want to be on that big show i no i i want to go to high school volleyball do you does any you know i like i remember um your work on the night of the injury to damar hamlin uh which you should be very proud of and everybody from booger mcfarland to um to everybody to lisa salters obviously i mentioned everybody was part of that like that was sort of the best of espn um and in doing my prep for this interview i thought to myself um suzy really like if she wanted to um could like find her own platform and offer like very thoughtful interesting stuff you're not really a hot take artist but you do have like a repository of stories and contacts and stuff like that does that it may not at this point because you may at this point just like want to do things at your own speed but is there does that interest you at all to maybe like now at this point, like you have your own YouTube channel, you post whenever you want, if that's your interest.

53:27If you're interested in writing, you start like a sub stack or a beehive and you just sort of have it out there. I'm not saying doing it for money purposes. Maybe there is money, maybe there's not, but it seems like strikes me as creatively, you'd have something to say. Is that of interest to you at all? I have had meetings with people to just talk about the process and what that would be like. I am also, and you've covered this so often with people that you interview, the time and the level it takes to really dig in with people in the know. And then for me to be able to offer real true insights, to spend the time, the time on the phone, the time talking to coaches, general managers, players, I've been very aware over this time.

54:20Like so many people are calling them and pulling at them and taking up their time. Like, unless I have like something, like a true reason to be disseminating that information, I don't want to bug them. Like maybe I do self-conscious in that way, but it would have to be something I feel like big and real for me to want to take anybody's time. And, and that's where I always thought was my strength really was diving in at a different level than most people that were necessarily like hosting the pregame show or like that's kind of reserved for, you know, like the sideline reporter or the insiders, but that's how I did my job at, at the Superbowl.

55:06There weren't really many hosts at the team breakfast and talking to the assistant coaches. And that's how I did my job. Again, it's the only way I knew how to do my job was to get real concrete information from the inside. That's what I wanted to share. So if I'm not doing my job that way, I don't know if I want to do it. I want to offer real information. Yeah, that makes sense to me. Is there anything that I did not ask you that you would like to add? Wow. Let's see. Should I go through my notes here? No. I think we did a really good job of it, maybe to circle back to the beginning about these script shows.

55:57And it was a really fun tour of some people that I truly love. Like Steve Young will be the final show because I think he also is like the picture perfect of the first lefty in the Hall of Fame that he taught himself pretty much how to throw a football because of that. And that the gift he gave that he didn't even know he had to give was that he did it with debilitating anxiety. And he wrote a – he didn't even intend to write a book, but it became a book. And talk about giving people real strength and recognizing somebody like that and his path through life and being a Mormon in the NFL. Yeah.

56:42So many unconventional things. I mean, I just – I loved hearing the stories. I hope everybody else does as much. And you mentioned, you know, we, we, the women's sports are represented here. Hillary Knight is teamed with a good friend of mine, Digit Murphy, who was a pioneer of women's hockey and won many championships with, with Brown and, and Sam Rappaport was head of DEI for the NFL. She's teamed up with Deanna Flores in that episode. What's, what's hotter sport than flag football. So I hope we, covered a number of different things and can be of interest to a number of people. Well, I know you're in a good mental health space now, but I will say, and I hope you sort of know this, that the amount of people who have been laid off by that place who are really talented, thoughtful, smart people has grown exponentially in the last decade.

57:42So even recently, Damian Woody another guy's not really a hot take artist just smart like a lot of credibility and it doesn't seem like there's a place for a guy like that at that at that company right now so it's not going to make you feel better per se but like you should know that like you're in a now large group and community of people who like did things the right way and it I feel like uh how do I sort of say My late mom was a therapist, which, by the way, never be a child of a therapist. It's really just a nightmare of psychological proportions. But the point is one thing she did say to her clients and her children as well was you take your talents with you, meaning that no matter where you work, you're not going to work at one place forever, for most of us at least, right?

58:34But your company never owns your talents. You own your talents, and you have to always remember that because it's hard when someone says you're not here anymore, right? or you're not part of this anymore, it's mentally, inevitably, you think to yourself, what did I do wrong? Why don't they want me anymore? But she always counseled and she was correct on this, is that you control the next step. Your talents are your talents. They never own that. And so you are a great example, in my opinion, with this project now that you're doing of sort of recognizing it. I took my talents with me, and now I have this really good interview show that the quality is really, really high.

59:12And that's you. That's not ESPN. That's Susie Colbert. Thank you. I think I did a good job of not taking it personally. And for everybody else who Charles Davis, Tom Palacero. Yeah, again, right. Pillars of great. Carl Ravitch. Another one. Yeah. Who, by the way, I think found out from a reporter. Right. Who found out again, I'm all about respect and, and I just don't understand some of the disrespect, you know, and I, and it's a place that I, I mean, I worked for twice that I, again, loved and considered family. so that's where the hurt comes from not the business part of it that it's business and yeah like don't take that part personally and I guess the nice thing about like being out there and doing the show and I think one of my strengths was always interviewing and getting to the depth of the interview it's been nice to kind of be reminded of that oh yeah I do have that skill.

1:00:21I have that skill. Like that's, oh, that's still there. That has been, that's been kind of nice. Yeah. You got some great stuff out of, uh, Jesse Cole in the first episode too, which is cool. All right. So a little, uh, by the way, I hope you come back. I'm going to invite you back in a couple months and then we can actually do your career. Fox ESPN. There's a lot of this. I haven't even, you didn't even hit the surface of everything you actually did. There's a lot of stuff. Yes. We'll, we'll do that. We'll do that. We'll do that next time. Susie Colber is the host and, as she mentioned, one of the executive producers of a new series called The Originals.

1:00:56Premieres September 15th at ESPN. At ESPN. I'm losing it. September 15th at 8 p.m. Don't cut that, James. Let my screw up be on there. September 15th, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, where she goes one-on-one with people, as she described, throughout this podcast, who sort of have defied expectations and have just done things successfully in a very interesting way. The debut episode is Jesse Cole, founder of Savannah Bananas, which is obviously blown up. That's followed by John Gruden. And then episode three is Lisa Salters. Check that out again on the Scripps Sports Network, which is free, free streaming television channel, which you should be able to get no matter where you're listening to the United States.

1:01:42For those of you in Canada, I am not 100 % positive on that. It's available on all the major streamers. I'm going to personally, I'm going to watch it on my Amazon Prime. But it's on all the streamers, and then it will also be on their YouTube channel. Awesome. All right, there you go. So you'll be able to catch that actually no matter what country you're in. Susie, I can't thank you enough. I know you'll be doing more press, but I really appreciate that this was the first long form you did. Thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate the way you do business and how you conduct interviews.

1:02:16I'm always thoughtful, so my pleasure. Thank you, Susie. Susie Culber, everyone. Susie, stick around here for one second as we – unlike you, a professional host, you'll now watch a mediocre host close this up. If you enjoy these kind of conversations, head to the – and we appreciate Susie Culber very much doing this – head to the archives. Previous episode before this, another very interesting person in the sports media business, Gabe Spitzer, vice president of Global Live Sports and Entertainment for Netflix. We went through sort of Netflix thoughts on how they approach live sports, talked about the Women's World Cup, which is a master project for them in 2027.

1:02:53Their interest, perhaps, in the Men's World Cup. And then obviously they have the big NFL game coming up in Australia between the Rams and Niners. We've done, obviously, a ton of stuff on Tony Romo and what's going to happen with him. also did the athletic release against Diana Rossini investigation. So head to the archives. You can check that out. If you're into women's basketball, Gina Ariema was on this podcast in August. If you're into documentaries, Jason Hare, the director of the Novak Djokovic, the Wolf in Winter, was on this podcast on August 20th. I want to thank James Jackson for all his hard work.

1:03:25Thanks to everybody at Autism for their support. And thank you for listening. We'll see you soon on the Sports Media Podcast.

1:04:04We'll be right back. Ends November 15th. Details at fourseasonsheatingcooling.com slash details.