In June of last year, ESPN laid off Jason Fitz and many others. Before that, he had played a significant role in many different capacities for the network. He worked on the digital show(s) First Take and Your Take and on the radio side with various co-hosts in recent years.
Fitz, a 13-time Grammy-nominated musician, is best known as the Musical Director and multi-instrumentalist for country artists The Band Perry.
Since being let go by ESPN, Fitz has become a multi-platform host for NFL, Fantasy Football, and college football coverage on Yahoo Sports. Recently, he appeared on Awful Announcing’s Short and to the Point podcast with host Jessica Kleinschmidt, where he discussed his departure from the Worldwide Leader.
“I think everybody needs somebody to open a door,” Fitz responded when questioned about his gratitude mentality despite being taken aback by his ESPN layoff. “I don’t care what you’re trying to do. I believe you have to be great at what you do, and you have to work your tail off. And I believe you have to bet on yourself recklessly in life. I believe you have to put yourself out there without fear of consequence, and you have to go. Whatever you’re doing in life, you have got to go.
“When I got the offer to take an ESPN show, it was a usage deal in the industry. I could’ve been fired after one show if it sucked. I quit the band with no idea if I was gonna be able to keep my lights on. I had no idea if I was going to make a dime doing it. I had no idea if they wer’re going to keep me. I bet on myself recklessly because ESPN bet on me. And the way I looked at it is, if I didn’t, then I may never get that shot again. So that’s always how I’ve lived my life.
“But what really hit me, genuinely, the moment I got the call from my boss was like, man, what a chapter, what a moment because you spend years fighting to get to ESPN. And so many people in sports, if you injected a truth serum in their veins and said, ‘Where do you want to work?” The answer is ESPN. When I started a podcast that nobody listened to, that got me to ESPN; I was telling my friends that I needed one person to listen. I need one person to hear this podcast, believe in me, change my life; it’s gonna get me to ESPN. That was always the goal.”
A healthy dose of reckless self-belief was the key for Fitz to unlocking unexpected doors, including at ESPN.
“When I got there and being able to leave there, it changed my whole platform,” he added. “It was stunning to me when I started to get calls from other companies, and one company, in particular, called and said, “So, I don’t know anything about your music background; tell me about that.’ And to have gone from somebody when I first got on ESPN, people were saying, ‘Why are we listening to this guy’s opinions? He’s a musician,’ to getting to the spot where a major company saying, ‘I didn’t even know you were a musician,’ speaks to the power of the four letters.
“Anybody can say what they want about the company. Nothing changes the fact that every bar in America’s got ESPN on. Every Airport in America has ESPN on. Every time I would host College Football Live on the network, my phone would blow up for days…That’s so powerful and so meaningful. And to have had a chance, to have been a chapter of that, to be part of what launched SportsCenter on Snapchat. Mike Golic Jr. and I launched the very first ever livestream show on ESPN. There wasn’t even a livestream department. There used to be a Hall of Fame walk at ESPN — there was a picture of me in a Halloween costume, sitting next to GoJo.
“There’s this moment for me if you can’t appreciate that like it changed my life. ESPN absolutely changed my life. I could not be happier where I am at Yahoo, and I wouldn’t trade anything. Yahoo has shown me not only that there’s life outside ESPN, but there’s beautiful life outside ESPN. You can do amazing things, and you can make content you’re proud of. You can still feel valued. You can still have a voice. All of these things I was worried about for an hour after the call that I got. But I wouldn’t be at Yahoo if it wasn’t for ESPN. So every single brick that’s been laid on my path was laid (with) a future in sports, particularly because of ESPN. I’ll be forever thankful.”
Fitz added that when he was in Houston for the National Championship game, one of his favorite things was going to dinner with the people who fired him.
“I love them as human beings,” Fitz said. “And there’s a spot where we’re all a number on a spreadsheet, and sometimes your number doesn’t make it. But, the one thing I’ve always said is I’m gonna be consistent in who I am. I’m gonna be consistent in the work that I do. And I’m gonna trust that. It’s done me well now. It did me well at ESPN. I have nothing but incredible gratitude for the people that gave me a chance — that’s real.
Short and to the Point with Jessica Kleinschmidt is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.