A longtime SportsCenter anchor is hanging up his ESPN mic.
Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel broke the news that Stan Verrett’s time with the Worldwide Leader will conclude later this summer.
Per FOS, “There are plans for Verrett to anchor the news-and-highlights program in the coming months, and to appear at stops when SportsCenter does a promotion of ‘50 States in 50 Days’—an event that kicks off on June 27 to promote the company’s upcoming direct-to-consumer launch—but the network does not plan to renew his contract, sources said.”
Verrett took to social media shortly after the news broke to offer a confirmation, noting that he’s not retiring and is “really excited about the future and some incredible opportunities.”
“We’re grateful for Stan’s many contributions and all he has brought to SportsCenter over the years,” said Dave Roberts, Executive Vice President, Executive Editor, Sports News and Entertainment in a statement. “We thank him and wish him continued success.”
Verrett joined ESPN as an anchor for ESPNEWS in 2000 and moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to co-host the 1 a.m. edition of SportsCenter with Neil Everett. The duo worked together until 2023, when Everett retired (“We are brothers for life,” said Verrett). He hosted the show with Linda Cohn until this week when it ended its LA-based run.
The New Orleans native and Howard University graduate worked as a weekend sports anchor and reporter at WDSU-TV in New Orleans before his break with ESPN.
“My agent sent a tape to ESPN, and I had been meeting with Al Jaffe, who had hired every anchor that came to ESPN,” Verrett told Awful Announcing in 2024. “I had been meeting with him every year at the NABJ Convention. He had been tracking my career. He saw my work in New Orleans. I got the interview at ESPN and got the job in 2000.”
In that interview, he also reflected on his proudest moment with ESPN.
“I did a town hall with President Obama in 2016 on race, sports, and culture,” he said. “I was told he was given a list of anchors to potentially host the show. He chose me. I was blown away by that. The show came off the way we envisioned it. President Obama was gracious and brilliant. I don’t know that I’ll ever do anything in my career that will top that because it was just so well done and it was such an honor to sit across from him. I got to know him a little bit from that experience and I’ve since run into him a couple of times playing golf. We both reflect fondly on that show. It was a real highlight of my career.”