Following major talent layoffs, ESPN today announced that it has re-signed senior writer Seth Wickersham to a new extension and hired Joel Anderson and Phil Steele. Each will bring their expertise and experience covering the NFL, college football and basketball, and sports betting, among others. All three journalists will contribute across ESPN linear, digital and radio platforms, just in time for the upcoming football season.
“Seth has long been one of our most talented journalists whose stories on the inner-workings of the NFL have elevated our coverage and delighted fans,” said Chad Millman, ESPN vice president, editorial director, domestic digital content. “Re-signing him as well as adding Joel and Phil increases what’s possible for our editorial team and elevates our ability to serve fans.”
ESPN senior writer Seth Wickersham will continue his enterprise and investigative reporting for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, for which he has written since graduating from the University of Missouri in 2000. In addition to appearing in print and online, his work is often featured on Outside the Lines, SportsCenter, NFL Live, The Ryen Russillo Show, and E:60. Although he primarily covers the NFL, including his recent Richard Sherman profile and groundbreaking stories on the Deflategate scandal and the Oakland Raiders move to Las Vegas, both co-written by senior writer Don Van Natta, Jr., Wickersham has also written about race horse euthanasia, the plight of a fired college basketball coach, Gregg Popovich, suicidal Kenyan runners in Alaska, and NCAA compliance officers. He will continue to contribute to various programs on linear networks and audio shows.
Wickersham’s work has been anthologized or cited as an honorable mention seven times in The Best American Sports Writing. He was also anthologized in Next Wave: America’s New Generation of Great Literary Journalists and in Words Matter: Writing to Make a Difference. In 2015, he won a Folio Award for Best Single Story – Sports, and received a second-place National Headliner Award in Magazine Feature Writing. Additionally, he has won seven awards from the Pro Football Writers of America. He was part of the staff at ESPN The Magazine that won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence three times (2003, 2006, 2017).
Joel Anderson joins ESPN from BuzzFeed News as a senior writer, covering college football and college basketball. During his four years at BuzzFeed News, Anderson wrote news and narrative stories about the role of race, justice, and sports in American life. In addition to profiling public figures including Michael Sam and Ben Carson, Anderson reported on the protests at Mizzou, Ferguson and Baltimore and from Charleston following the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. His 2014 piece, “The Two Michael Sams,” was featured in Best American Sports Writing 2015.
Phil Steele joins ESPN full time as a reporter and analyst after contributing to ESPN Insider and ESPN The Magazine for the past several years, covering college football and sports betting. As a premiere voice in college football coverage, Steele has been producing what is commonly referred to as “the bible of college football” for the last 23 years and the go-to source for all things college football, the “Phil Steele College Football Preview.”