Keith Olbermann does not have a habit of leaving employers on good terms, as his abrupt departure from Current TV last year reminded us. But according to the New York Times, he’s apparently trying to make nice again with ESPN, where he made a name for himself in the nineties, but left in 1997 on very bad terms. “He didn’t burn the bridges here, he napalmed them,” one ESPN executive told the Washington Post. Apparently the statute of limitations on that figurative act of arson has run out, because after Olbermann had dinner with ESPN president John Skipper, the two had nothing but praise for one another.
“I agreed to dinner with Keith because I assumed he’d be provocative and witty and fun to have dinner with, and he was indeed lots of fun,” Skipper said. Olbermann was even more effusive about Skipper: “His vision and charm were readily apparent, and judging by his leadership, his family name was prophetic.” But one dinner will not be enough to get Olbermann in good enough with his former employer to start collecting a paycheck again. “After the dinner, at that point, there was no real appropriate place for Keith to come back, nor did I feel like I was prepared to bring him back,” Skipper said.
