As president of ESPN, John Skipper was among the most important people in sports. He dropped billions of dollars on professional leagues and college conferences to broadcast their games. He dictated when and how we watched and talked about them.
And then, suddenly, he walked away. Skipper, 62, abruptly resigned from his throne on Monday, citing a substance addiction that he said he had for many years, though even co-workers and confidants said they hadn’t known about it. The resignation stunned them and left the network without a frontman for the makeover that Skipper and his boss, Robert Iger, Disney’s chief executive, had spent the past several months engineering.