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Sean Salisbury is at a transitional period in his life and talks rapidly — almost haphazardly — about anything that pops into his head. He's overtly defensive at times, and in our almost 2-hour phone conversation yesterday, he went through a deliberate unloading process. It was therapeutic, unhinged, and veered dangerously close to being completely out of control and incomprehensible during certain segments. Sure, it might be a calculated move for him to agree to this interview due to his new role at OPEN Sports, but he hasn't talked about what happened to him at ESPN or being at the ass-end of so many jokes, "rumors", and blind criticism until now. He was as candid as he could be, but for the always charming legal reasons, he can't go into specifics on some things. He admits in the interview that the last two years have been the "most miserable" ones of his life: the death of his father, the suspension at ESPN, not having his contract renewed at ESPN last March, and, of course, those stories ("rumors...lies!")about him on the internet a lot of which had originated or were trumpeted by Deadspin. (There's a reason why Sean Salisbury was a Deadspin Hall of Fame nominee last year — not for good reasons, either.) Due to its length it will be broken up into two parts. The second one will run tomorrow. It is edited for clarity and brevity, but not as much as either one of us or you, frankly, would like. But it doesn't feel right to present it any other way. Part one, after the jump. More »
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