Michelle Beadle: ESPN’s Female Rebel, Raw and Uncensored



The Daily Beast - GAMECHANGER - 06.08.155:09 AM ET
Marlow Stern

She’s become the most outspoken female voice amid an infamous boy’s club, calling out domestic abusers Ray Rice and Floyd Mayweather. Meet the woman changing the culture at ESPN.

It’s a dismal May morning in the City of Angels—closer to Heat’s icy-blue hellscape than the sun-soaked playground of Entourage—and the pall cast over the nation’s yoga and Botox capital has extended to the hallways of ESPN.

Earlier that day, the news broke that the self-anointed “Worldwide Leader in Sports” had decided to part ways with its resident rabble-rouser Bill Simmons, closing the door on a rocky 15-year relationship. And the timing was curious, with the Grantland EIC, podcast host, and commentator getting canned just one day after ripping into NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, repeating an apparent offense that had earned him a 3-week suspension last year.

As fate would have it, I’m in L.A. to profile Simmons’ ESPN compadre, Michelle Beadle, who shakes her head despondently when I bring up the Simmons situation. “I’m super bummed out about it,” she says.  Read More

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