Former ESPN star Sean Salisbury says political arguments wore out fans who just wanted sports

"If I want that, I'll get it on a different channel," he told OutKick.This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners.If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may be compensated.

This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.I spoke with the former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst in October about the network where we both worked.Salisbury spent 12 years there, leaving in 2008.

I arrived in 2012 and stayed until 2021.ESPN’S FAVORITE INSIDER ACCIDENTALLY EXPLAINED WHY MOST AMERICANS DON’T TRUST THE MEDIATo me, ESPN was at its best in the early 2000s.Salisbury was part of that, along with the people who made you want to watch a studio show even when you already knew what happened in the games."It was sports first with entertainment personalities," Salisbury said.Former NFL quarterback Sean Salisbury, pictured in 2015, told OutKick that ESPN lost its way when it leaned into politics over sports.

(Getty Images)He remembered watching the same edition of SportsCenter several times because he enjoyed the people delivering the highlights.Salisbury's father was a blue-collar worker, and that shaped how he thought about the people watching him on television.Someone who had spent all day working construction probably wanted to sit down and enjoy a game or some highlights.Salisbury believes ESPN made that harder by letting political and social arguments take up too much of its programming."We really weren't concerned with what the color of the skin of the quarterback was because we were just talking football," he said of his years at the network.He also blamed the pressure to generate a reaction on social media.

In his view, talking about the sports news increasingly gave way to trying to become the sports news, with arguments designed to get people sharing clips.CNN PANELIST BLAMES 'CULTURE WAR' RETRIBUTION AS REASON FOR RYAN CLARK'S ESPN DEPARTUREI think that's a big part of it.Once getting a reaction become...