Mina Kimes, one of ESPN’s star NFL analysts, admitted Saturday night that she made a “colossal fuck-up” by promoting Papaya Gaming’s app Solitaire Cash on social media.
Will the other ESPN personalities who did the same promotion follow suit?
In recent days, Kimes, Dan Orlovsky, Laura Rutledge, Ros Gold-Onwude, and Kendrick Perkins all promoted a #BeatStephen challenge with ESPN superstar Stephen A. Smith on their X/Twitter feeds. Kimes, Orlovsky, and Rutledge have since deleted their promo tweets; Kimes is the first to publicly distance herself from the company.
Their journey is a good example of why sports media talent should be careful with the outside marketing company they keep.
The controversial Papaya is currently embroiled in a federal lawsuit accusing it of falsely marketing games of skill and of using “tailored bots to control the outcomes of tournaments.”
“The truth is: I didn’t spend any time looking into the whole thing, and that’s 100% on me,” Kimes wrote on X/Twitter. “Thought it was just typical marketing work, and I’m deeply embarrassed I didn’t vet it. A colossal fuck-up on my part.”
Madison Avenue endorsements typically represent a windfall for sports media TV/radio talent. Everybody likes extra cash with little effort. Just ask Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal of TNT Sports, among many other sports personalities.
But these marketing deals can also backfire if a TV talent’s personal brand gets tangled up with a shady company.
Given that ESPN just shuttered ESPN Bet to align with DraftKings instead of Penn Entertainment, and amid a massive ongoing NBA betting scandal, gaming promotions of any kind could again become a third rail for top talent.
ESPN declined to comment Saturday night on whether Smith and the others will follow Kimes’s move. But Kimes’s public mea culpa indicates talent see the damage their reputations took from the solitaire affair.
She received plenty of kudos for owning up to her mistakes on Twitter on Saturday. And in response to critics who asked whether she’ll give back the money she was paid from the endorsement, Kimes said on Bluesky: “Haven’t been paid a dime (we’ll see what happens now!!) but it [sic] I do I’m certainly giving it away.”
