ESPN informed digital employees earlier this week that executive Cristina Daglas is no longer with the company. Daglas, who joined ESPN in 2016, had worked her way up to become the digital group’s second-ranking editor. Here is the timeline of events:

• In mid-January, Daglas was placed on administrative leave after multiple employees filed HR complaints about her. The specific nature of the complaints is unknown. FOS first reported on the situation in mid-February. 
• In March, an attorney for Daglas sent ESPN a cease-and-desist letter accusing the company of “unlawful harassment, retaliation, and investigation,” and mistakenly also sent the letter to FOS.
• In early April, senior deputy editor Elizabeth Baugh, who had also been placed on leave in connection with the Daglas investigation, left ESPN to join Turki Alalshikh’s The Ring Magazine as head of marketing, communications, and branding.
• Also in early April, ESPN notified digital employees that senior deputy editor Heather Burns, who oversaw NFL coverage, was no longer with the company. The reason for the parting was not available. 
• This past Wednesday, Daglas’s exit became official. Daglas and ESPN could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Jamie Erdahl worked her first NFL Draft telecast for the NFL Network on Thursday night. The host of NFLN’s Good Morning Football had one of the key jobs in the network’s draft coverage: interviewing the players onstage just after they’re selected during Rounds 1–3 on Thursday and Friday nights.

Erdahl spoke to Front Office Sports senior media reporter Michael McCarthy the day before NFLN kicks off its 19th straight year of draft coverage from Green Bay, Wis.

Front Office Sports: Tell us your approach to interviewing draftees right after their biggest moment.

Jamie Erdahl: Well, I have been preparing for this now ever since the list has been finalized. I would say about a week ago, it felt like we got the final list of 15 or 16 guys. And since I’ve never done this job before, I started to prepare and I finally landed on why it felt like a familiar thing to me. And it was as if I was preparing for my old sideline reporting job, SEC games, NFL games. It’s tracking the story of the player. Being as well-researched as possible, but then being prepared for the moment to change the trajectory of the conversation. So I can know every single guy’s hometown, I can know their moms, their dads, their siblings, the whole story. But the second that player walks to me and has tears in his eyes, or he’s screaming or yelling, I have to ask about that. And so it’s their moment, as you just said, and I feel very, very strongly that I want to handle it delicately.

As a parent myself, I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be the first person that your child is gonna talk to after their lives just changed. I understand the magnitude of that. So I’m just trying to go into it and be as prepared as possible, but also don’t allow that to strip away from the immediacy of the moment and what those guys might be feeling.

FOS: Is that why we love the draft so much? Is it about hope?

JE: It is about hope. I also think it’s about hard work. And I think people can see the path. I think that’s part of what the NFL Network and ESPN does so well, is track the path. And if you’re a fan of that young man from college, and you want to see where he goes, or if you are a fan of the team which just drafted that young man, you immediately resonate with the relief that they feel—and the hard work that they just put forth.

It’s like a bottled-up version of any form of hard work that maybe you yourself just watch unfold and how their dreams are coming true. And I also just think it’s about football fandom. You’re seeing a story develop and you are allowed to fall in love with these guys a little bit more.

For more about Erdahl’s approach and how NFL Network’s coverage differs from ESPN’s, you can read Michael McCarthy’s full story here.

• Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions is teaming up with Vice Sports and NFL Films to launch a new series with the working title, The NFL Playback. Each episode will take viewers back to a classic NFL game and feature commentary from star players involved as well as celebrity fans who watched those games. During a launch event in New York on Wednesday, the former Colts and Broncos quarterback didn’t point to one of his own great comebacks. Instead, he wants to go in-depth on little brother Eli Manning and the Giants’ improbable 17–14 upset of Tom Brady’s 16–0 Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in 2008.
• Powerhouse talent agency WME has signed both Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird for representation, according to Deadline. The two Olympic gold medalists will be working with the agency across brand partnerships, books, scripted and non-scripted TV and digital, and podcasting.
• Popular host Scott Hanson says negotiations for a new contract with NFL Network are “ongoing” during an interview with Yahoo Sports. “The NFL has told me they want me back. I certainly want to be back as host of RedZone,” said Hanson. “Sixteen seasons of what’s been called the greatest football show there is. We have to come to an agreement. We’re not there yet …”
• Jackie Bradley Jr., the former MLB player and two-time Men’s College World Series champ, is joining ESPN’s college baseball coverage.
• MSG Networks is reducing the fees it pays the Knicks and Rangers by 28% and 18%, respectively, and is expected to avoid bankruptcy. The New York Post reported this could potentially pave the way for a merger with YES Network.

46

Number of consecutive years ESPN has televised the NFL Draft. The network’s biggest stars, from Mike Greenberg and Chris Berman to Mel Kiper Jr., Adam Schefter, and the late, great Chris Mortensen, have all played key roles over the years. Sister Disney network ABC is offering its own college-football-oriented version of the draft for the seventh straight year. New NFL analyst Peter Schrager made his debut on ESPN’s Thursday night coverage.