RIP John Saunders

[Cosmo]

Per multiple reports on Twitter. Was 61. Damn.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Was he sick at all? I hadn't heard anything like that.

 

[Cosmo]

I hadn't heard anything either.

Longtime ESPN host Saunders dead at age 61

 

[Huggy]

Damn, remember him in his early days doing sports on City-TV here in Toronto. RIP

 

[Earthman]

***. He had just jumped to NBC and was going to be the lead on Thursday Night football

 

[JackReacher]

Didn't he suffer a stroke or something a few years ago?

 

[JackReacher]

***. He had just jumped to NBC and was going to be the lead on Thursday Night football

What now?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Damn it.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Didn't he suffer a stroke or something a few years ago?

You're thinking of Lee Corso.

 

[JackReacher]

You're thinking of Lee Corso.

No, I'm thinking of Saunders. I could just be wrong. I thought that's why he slurred his speech. Maybe it was something other than a stroke, though.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

A lot of the write up has ties to cancer research and Jimmy V stuff ... Did he have cancer?

Wow..
He was a pro. R.I.P.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

And somewhere Jim Valvano has someone to hug.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

A lot of the write up has ties to cancer research and Jimmy V stuff ... Did he have cancer?

Wow..
He was a pro. R.I.P.

He and Valvano became very close in the couple of years they worked together when V was an ESPN analyst.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Hannah Storm called his death "shocking" when she announced it on-air this morning - so I'm guessing he wasn't ill beforehand.

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/hannah-storm-announces-live-on-sportscenter-that-john-s-1785085661

 

[Batman]

***. He had just jumped to NBC and was going to be the lead on Thursday Night football

You're thinking of Mike Tirico.

 

[Cosmo]

Feel for Hannah having to be the bearer of that news. That's why she's a pro, though.

 

[JC]

You're thinking of Mike Tirico.

He knows.

 

[MileHigh]

That was a tough watch with Hannah Storm delivering that news. RIP.

 

[exmediahack]

Damn.

Saunders was steady, professional and still able to insert irony and humor where appropriate. Never a caricature.

He'll never go down as a Berman, Ley, Mees, Scott, Olbermann/Patrick but he was there for decades, always with a solid role.

 

[exmediahack]

That was a tough watch with Hannah Storm delivering that news. RIP.

Total pro.

A decade ago, I had to read the news of a Marine killed in Iraq who was the younger brother a close friend from college. Co-anchor on vacation so I couldn't flip the reads. You try to hold it in but it doesn't always work.