āI was part of the mass layoffs at ESPN last April and I had 18 months left on my contract. So we had non-compete clauses in our contracts. What that means in simple terms is if I wanted to go work for another company I was free to but by doing so ESPN was no longer required to pay me the remainder of my contract. So to get paid the remainder of my contractā¦I could not work for a third-party. However, I was able to tweet on my personal Twitter account. Also put information on my personal Facebook account because that was not a third party.ā
āSo when I got laid off, I had a decision to make. You know, I could sit on my couch and eat lime Tostitos for the next 18 months, which I did a lot of anyway, and not work and hope I get a job in 18 months or I can continue to try to report news, break news, via Twitter or Facebook, and try to stay relevant. So when my contract is up in August of 2018, then hopefully Iāll be more attractive to be hired somewhere else. So basically thatās what I did. I said Iām gonna bust my ass and Iām gonna try to keep working.ā
āI just figured the way the industry was, if I didnāt stay relevant or try to stay relevant, any value I had to a future employer 18 months ago would diminish greatly if I wasnāt doing anything for the following 18 months. So I kinda worked while I wasnāt working, if you will, and tried to stay relevant, and here we are.ā