Last year, OutKick questioned ESPN's decision to extend Monica McNutt and to elevate her as a contributor to its top-rated programs, "Get Up," "First Take," and "SportsCenter." 

The move appeared to reward McNutt for her coverage of Caitlin Clark’s rookie season. Specifically, McNutt drew headlines for shaming Stephen A. Smith for not covering the WNBA before Clark's debut, accusing "little girls" of liking Clark because she is white, and tying herself in knots while arguing that Angel Reese deserved Rookie of the Year.

We understand that the optics of promoting a rabble-rousing black woman with a clear racial bias against Clark appealed to ESPN. And, of course, the network won the press release when announcing McNutt's extension. However, there are inherent risks in elevating someone solely based on their identity and incendiary views of white people.

Case in point: McNutt revealed on-air that she is unfamiliar with Barry Sanders, one of the greatest football players in NFL history.

McNutt hosted ESPN's flagship "First Take" program this week with Stephen A. Smith. On Friday, comedian Druski appeared on set wearing a standard edition of the iconic Honolulu blue, No. 20 Barry Sanders jersey. Apparently, McNutt thought Druski was wearing a Shedeur Sanders jersey with the wrong number and team colors.

"Obviously, this ties to one Shedeur Sanders," McNutt said while pointing at his jersey. Dumbfounded, the comedian corrected her after an awkward moment of silence:

For the record, Shedeur Sanders plays for the Cleveland Browns. Their jerseys are brown. He also wears No. 12. So, yeah. 

And yet, McNutt appeared baffled when Druski told her whose jersey it was. She looked like someone who had never heard of Barry Sanders and was unaware of what team the blue jersey represented. 

While an inexcusable lack of knowledge for an ESPN host, we aren't surprised. ESPN is no longer in the business of promoting accomplished journalists with backgrounds covering the sports on which they commentate on television. Instead, the vast majority of recent ESPN hires were lucky enough to be born with the "right" skin color (not white), have the "right" type of social media following (impress Black Twitter and the New York Times), and the "right" opinions (everything is racist).

Commentators who fall into this category don't understand the history of sports or the legends before them. They mostly only know of the athletes who trend on social media, like Shedeur Sanders. We seriously wonder if McNutt would recognize a No. 18 Indianapolis Colts jersey. Our guess: she would have to really think about it.

ATLANTA - Monica McNutt attends Sports Power Brunch for Women in Baseball, presented by New Era Cap at Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta on July 13, 2025.  (Photo by Derek White/Getty Images for Sports Power Brunch)

Call it DEI or whatever term you prefer—Monica McNutt lacks the requisite knowledge for her position. That's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for her, but more so for ESPN management. 

As the largest sports network in the country, ESPN could hire almost any commentator it wants. But instead of hiring the most qualified, skilled, and knowledgeable, the network opts to hire based on race, gender, identity, and political ideology.

Consider all the talented names ESPN has fired, just to promote someone like McNutt.

She isn't alone. There are primarily four pundits who account for 95 percent of ESPN's negative publicity. They are McNutt, David Dennis Jr, Ryan Clark, and Elle Duncan. Each weaponizes the ESPN brand to promote their own radical political, racial, and social opinions. They undermine the credibility of the network and are hardly important enough to justify the headaches they cause.

ESPN executives Jimmy Pitaro, Burke Magnus, and Dave Roberts ought to take control of their programming and get back to hiring and promoting based on the qualities that matter.

Monica McNutt did not respond to a text from OutKick asking if she believes not knowing who Barry Sanders is should disqualify her from commenting on the NFL.