As much as sports fans love to watch ESPN, sometimes religiously, this doesn't mean that all of its pundits are tolerable. In fact it's the opposite. There are so many ESPN personalities that sports fans love to hate that making an Ultimate List seems like the right thing to do. Some of these guys love to troll their viewers, anger their studio guests all in the name of high ratings. There are so many great examples to choose from, but the one sports personality that people love to hate is Skip Bayless. It's hard to believe but at one point, Bayless was a highly respected sports journalist. Nowadays, he's the co-host of First Take with another mutually despised personality, Stephen A. Smith. While Smith is a bit more respected than Bayless, his loud and often obnoxious way of phrasing things is a turn-off to many sports fans.
Other ESPN personalities that people consider the worst are from the network's NFL coverage. Chris Berman and Keyshawn Johnson represent the professional football faction on this list of ESPN anchors. While Johnson's merits can be disputed, Berman's act has grown stale after 30 years. His incessant calls and annoying TV persona has alienated football fans who want meat and potatoes coverage. That alone has landed him in the category of worst sports personalities, from SportsCenter and all across ESPN.
This is a list chock full of people on ESPN who you wish would just shut up - and many of them are among the worst sports announcers. It's up to you to decide which of these pundits should be called the worst that ESPN has to offer.1
1,502795Skip Bayless
Pardon the Interruption, First Take2
1,275728Colin Cowherd
SportsNation, Roar of the Crowd3
1,3781,0174
639384Jay Bilas
Dark Angel, Home of the Giants5
1,0958536
27646Jesse Palmer
ESPN College Football on ABC7
680468Keith Olbermann
SportsCenter, 30 for 308
403105Kirk Herbstreit
Saturday Night Football, College Football Live9
30387Mike Golic
Valentine's Day, Just Wright10
711696Dick Vitale
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, Love & Basketball11
1786312
446245John Kruk
Baseball Tonight, The Best Damn Sports Show Period13
706729Chris Berman
Necessary Roughness, Monday Night Football14
55056015
1686716
31929417
56660918
62968519
55433320
393386Bill Simmons
30 for 30, Into the Wind21
529572Keyshawn Johnson
Dancing with the Stars, Monday Night Football22
459475Merril Hoge
Mike & Mike, NFL Matchup23
500502Mike Greenberg
Valentine's Day, Just Wright24
312367Mark May
College Football Scoreboard, College Football Live25
11347Rex Ryan
Mike & Mike, NFL Monday Night Football