ESPN To Obama: No, Thanks

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 16, 2008 8:35PM

Yesterday, ESPN nixed an interview with presidential candidate Barack Obama. The interview was to take place with Bill Simmons, ESPN.com's most popular columnist, for his weekly podcast. It was the second time in recent weeks that ESPN has canceled an interview with Obama. The sports and politics blogosphere is abuzz with conspiracy theories, mainly pertaining to the fact that ESPN President George Bodenheimer donated $1,000 to the McCain campaign.

ESPN defends its action, saying they're waiting until the Final Two are set. Says the network's spokesman, Josh Krulewitz:

It's absolutely not an issue about any one candidate. Our position is that when they're down to the final two candidates, we'll look for options to interview each accordingly. Fans don't expect political coverage on our air.

We kind of understand the decision by ESPN brass to forbid Kenny Mayne from yelling "Obama!" during basketball highlights; keeping up appearances of neutrality and all. But given the popularity of both Obama and Simmons, we're not sure why they canceled such a huge opportunity and, instead, seem intent on pissing both off. Seeing as how Obama is a well-known pick-up hoops player and Simmons is known for his NBA knowledge, we imagine the conversation would have been pretty entertaining. From Nixon's alleged infamous play call to the current President's love of baseball, sports and politics have always collided. As a source told the NY Daily News, "They landed the hottest politician in 50 years, and they couldn't even see the interview through? This is insanity." [Ed note: Obama was on Real Sports last night.] [NYDN]

Image of Obama with former NFL greats Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris courtesy of barrackobamadotcom