USA Today‘s Michael McCarthy lands an interview with Jim Miller. The Those Guys Have All The Fun author offers a few interesting nuggets about the forthcoming book, facts that pertain to the writing of the tome and what we can expect once it’s published.
“I interviewed athletes,” he says. “Some said off the record they were afraid to piss ESPN off. They didn’t really say anything. So they’re not in the book.”
Miller specifically mentions speaking with Landon Donovan, Peyton Manning, Jeff Gordon, Cal Ripken, and his personal favorite, Mike Tyson.
The revelation that athletes are worried about making those in Bristol, CT mad shows just how much power the Worldwide Leader possesses. Then again, that’s not really surprising in a world where frequent appearances on Sportscenter‘s Top 10 Plays will raise a Q rating (and contract value) more than success.
But there’s more.
ESPN isn’t a unified place.
One thing I learned doing this book, is ESPN is not one person, or one thing. It’s a big place with a lot of people and lot of complexities. There’s a reason why you can get a lot of different responses. There’s a reason why some people were mortified by The Decision and others thought it was the greatest thing in the world – within the same company. There’s people who think their product is the greatest. And there’s people who look at another network’s version of the same sport and say, ‘They kicked our ass this season.’ I’ve heard that. I think there’s a real interesting divergence of opinion.
This is going to be the takeaway from Those Guys. The WWL is far from a unified organization.