Wide World of Women

A true team player, and it was only three days since her episode from Rich Eisen's awesome "This Was SportsCenter" podcast dropped that the all-time leader with over 5,650 episodes hosted has called it a career.

She broke the news during an interview on ESPN Radio New York:

http://youtu.be/kD5QOtW-Axo?si=Dj02nh4YLVin7UHx

Let's all wish her the best for a happy retirement, because she truly deserves it after an incredible career .

Linda will do a few final SC's before signing off officially on June 30.

Friday 6 p.m. ET edition.

Tuesday, June 30--11 p.m. immediately after SVP, I will check the ESPN Press Room for an update.

Savor the memories everybody. There will never be another person who stays in one place for over 30 years.

She did a great job!

Not only did Linda do a great job, she did an excellent job--no matter what the subject matter or even doing interviews (the one with Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. was an early Internet meme, but not for any happy reasons.)

Friday night will be definitely appointment TV. What a legend she turned to be!

ESPN confirms that the initial report by Awful Announcing:

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/linda-cohn-leaving-sportscenter.html

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2026/06/linda-cohn-espns-longest-tenured-sportscenter-anchor-to-retire-from-espn-june-30/

Plenty of tributes on Monday, which includes some past and current ESPN personalities and a few other notable sports media columnists/podcast hosts:

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/linda-cohns-retirement-reactions-sportscenter.html

The retirement of L.C. will mark the end of an era, an era which fans would always flock to SC to get their highlights and recaps from the day/night action from the early games.

She said in the ESPN press release that she always "was a fan first" when covering the many sports in this country, and at certain times the world.

When Friday night rolls around, it will be bittersweet--but a heavy dose of gratitude even though Linda had a scaled back schedule since 2016.

Savor it while you can, folks. We are never going to see these types of personalities again:

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/sportscenter-golden-age-linda-cohn.html

Her reason for why she decided to retire was brought up in the Sports Media Watch podcast on Thursday.

The link to that and the accompanying story is below:
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2026/06/linda-cohn-espn-retirement-future-plans-interview-smw-podcast/

Awful Announcing first broke the news earlier this week that the love of living along the endless beaches in Southern California was one of several reasons for why Linda will be stepping foot in Bristol one final time tonight (Friday), for three one hour shows--one of them will focus on her favorite sport, hockey with the annual NHL Draft taking place in prime time.

Citing the "toxic" environment that on the Bristol campus has become in the last decade plus, she mentioned about Stan Verrett and how he left to New Orleans and eventually his longtime partner in Los Angeles Neil Everett quit. They have reunited for a show talking, what else but sports! They have a YouTube show, and Linda has promised in July she will have several guests lined up for viewing and commenting.

My best advice is to either catch it live, or in the same day or in the few days following so we can have the fresh memories.
Of course, there is always the archives we can enjoy 24/7/365.
I hope to provide a brief recap later tonight. Hopefully, there will be some clips on social media of her final moments on air.

The 6 p.m. edition featured one of her former co-anchors John Anderson, who is teaching English at the University of Missouri. After retiring in June 2024, the school announced his hiring as their Endowed Chair in Radio and Television Journalism and that he would assume the position in January 2025.

The first late night hour was pre-empted due to the coverage of the NHL Draft from Buffalo.

Around 11:15, L.C. joined Nicole Briscoe and Treavor Scales on the set (very large set I might add if you haven't checked out the SC's Wikipedia page).

Her longtime hockey partner in John Buccigross spoke about bringing energy to every show. He also singled out how important her coverage of the NHL during their 17 year long wait without covering the sport full time until NBC lost the rights a year after the pandemic started in 2021 was huge.

Even rapper Lil' Wayne sent a taped message thanking her for learning about the sport just by watching her.

How cool is that!

The all-time record holder for most SportsCenter episodes said goodbye to The Worldwide Leader after 34 years on the Bristol campus late Friday night/early Saturday morning depending on what time zone you were watching--either via your phone or in some cases, enjoying the big screen experience.

These were the final clips, starting from the 6 p.m. show with Kevin Neghandi and former co-anchor John Anderson:
https://youtu.be/Ks5TsEFB898?si=wPWszIRFAYCCeUnl

Shortly after 11 p.m., because the NHL Draft decided to stay on longer due to so many trades--John Buccigross in Buffalo and rapper Lil' Wayne offered some nice messages of gratitude:
https://youtu.be/0gIkBJO37ik?si=sNo8NqSm-TzSfLD1

The midnight hour had Nicole Briscoe and Treavor Scales offering their memories, especially with Nicole being one of the young girls who looked up to Linda in dreaming that someday they would land at ESPN as their dream job.
Mission accomplished.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sportsgossips/comments/1uh1an3/espns_tribute_to_the_great_linda_cohn_who_hosted/

Finally in the 1 a.m. hour, (how fitting) had Madelyn Burke and Phil Murphy led to her reading some Knicks highlights of their last 2 Finals games, as if it happened the weekend after those games. Also, some past and current anchors offered their congratulations via social media where she said "it's one of the few good things" we have online:
https://youtu.be/do5fM3p16lg?si=29XYS1FUtaCL6Cfq

What's next for Linda, you may be wondering?
In a word, plenty.
She asked her followers on social media to subscribe to her YouTube channel. She explained what to expect in a Thursday article from the NY Post:
https://nypost.com/2026/06/25/sports/in ... e-freedom/

In a nutshell, you get fired or retire from ESPN--start a podcast. In the case of Neil Everett and Stan Verrett, they started on Twitch and copied their material to YouTube.

In summary--What a run for L.C., over 5,600 episodes as the all-time leader in a third of a century. That record will never be broken.

Let's all wish her the best for a happy and fun retirement!!!


If I get some time over the weekend, I will try to find some links to other fun messages from some other past and current anchors and post them here.

Her final words on SC were truly heartfelt, especially for ladies like Madelyn Burke who is looking to create her own legacy--albeit with a different mindset with the show telling us the how and why, instead of what happened.

Linda said it herself on a few podcasts earlier this week, "I wouldn't want to start at SportsCenter now."

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/linda-cohn-final-sportscenter-secret-longevity.html

I checked all weekend researching through many past/present anchors and reporters on social media, no luck anywhere--Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook, nothing.

However, her brother Dr. Howard Cohn, who is the Founder and CEO of BioStack Your Health had a very nice message on Thursday in advance of her final 3 episodes:

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaBqhvDvNLs/

So sweet.