 | |
Type of site | Media and entertainment |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | ESPN Inc. |
| Editor | Raina Kelley |
| URL | andscape |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | May 17, 2016 |
Andscape, formerly The Undefeated, is a sports and pop culture website owned and operated by ESPN. Launched May 17, 2016, [1] the site describes itself as "the premier platform for exploring the intersections of race, sports and culture." [2]
In 2014, ESPN announced the creation of a new website "that will provide in-depth coverage, commentary and insight on sports, race and culture directed towards the African-American audience". [3] Editor-in-chief Jason Whitlock described the then-unnamed site as a "Black Grantland", [4] a reference to the now-defunct ESPN sports website overseen by popular sports columnist Bill Simmons. Whitlock said the name "The Undefeated" was inspired by a passage from American poet Maya Angelou: "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated."
While the site was still in development, a Deadspin report alleged that Whitlock was "poisoning" The Undefeated with an unconventional management style that made it difficult for the site to attract and retain prime talent, with several anonymous sources documenting an extremely negative work environment. [5] On June 12, 2015, Whitlock had been removed from his post, [6] and he attributed his dismissal to "numerous reasons, including my foolish belief that I could manage like a football coach. I learned there's an art to corporate politics that I'm not good at." [7]
On October 19, 2015, Kevin Merida, author, journalist and Washington Post managing editor, took over the editor-in-chief position at The Undefeated. [8] He left to become executive editor of the Los Angeles Times in 2021. Raina Kelley, who was the managing editor since 2015, became editor-in-chief. [9]
On February 27, 2022, The Undefeated officially changed its name to Andscape. The name change was because Andscape intended to expand into book publishing, live experiences, music, television and film, but ESPN and Disney did not own The Undefeated trademark outside of news and commentary. [9]
On June 25, 2016, Michael Jordan issued an exclusive statement to The Undefeated announcing his $2 million donation to organizations working to improve police-community relations. [10] In August 2015, The Undefeated hosted a town hall meeting entitled "An Undefeated Conversation: Athletes, Responsibility, and Violence." [11] The event occurred at the South Side YMCA in Chicago. Among the panelists was Chicago native and Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade, who appeared via satellite. Other panelists included Chicago Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo, former Detroit Pistons point guard Isiah Thomas, WNBA/Chicago Sky guard Cappie Pondexter, and ESPN analysts Doug Glanville and Marcellus Wiley.
On October 11, 2016, the site hosted "The Undefeated Conversation with President Obama: Sports, Race and Achievement", a forum at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. [12]
Around the Horn (ATH) is an American sports roundtable discussion show, conducted in the style of a panel game, produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002, as a replacement for Unscripted with Chris Connelly, and has aired daily at 5:00 p.m. ET on ESPN ever since. The show has been recorded in New York City since September 8, 2014, and has had over 4,000 episodes aired as of 2020. The program emanated from Washington, D.C., where it was located in the same facility as Pardon the Interruption (PTI). Production still is based in Washington, D.C. The moderator for the show is Tony Reali, who has hosted the program since 2004, replacing Max Kellerman, and also served as the statistician on Pardon the Interruption until the show's relocation to New York.
William John Simmons III is an American podcaster, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website The Ringer. Simmons first gained attention with his website as "The Boston Sports Guy" and was recruited by ESPN in 2001, where he eventually operated the website Grantland and worked until 2015. At ESPN, he wrote for ESPN.com, hosted his own podcast on ESPN.com titled The B.S. Report and was an analyst for two years on NBA Countdown.
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is an American sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with celebrities, sports analysts and sports figures.
Robert "Scoop" Jackson is an American sports journalist, author and cultural critic currently contributing to ESPN.com.
Jason Lee Whitlock is an American sports columnist, podcaster, and former football player. He hosts a program for the conservative media company Blaze Media titled Fearless with Jason Whitlock. Whitlock is a former columnist at The Kansas City Star, AOL Sports, Foxsports.com, and ESPN. He was a radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area. Whitlock played Division I college football at Ball State as an offensive lineman.
The Sports Reporters was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning. It featured a roundtable discussion among four sports media personalities, with one regular host and three rotating guests. The show began in 1988, patterned to some extent after the Chicago-based syndicated show called Sportswriters on TV.
Deadspin is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media, Univision Communications and G/O Media, it was sold to Lineup Publishing in March 2024.
Elzie Lee "LZ" Granderson is an American journalist and former actor, currently writing for the Los Angeles Times as a sports and culture columnist. He was a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine, a co-host of SportsNation on ESPN, afternoon co-host at ESPN LA 710 and a columnist for CNN. Granderson was named the Los Angeles Times Sports and Culture Columnist in January 2019.
Undefeated or The Undefeated may refer to:
The Big Lead was an American news blog. The website mainly covers sports news, although it also touches on a varying degree of other news topics ranging from politics to pop culture. Launched on February 24, 2006, it was co-founded by former sportswriter Jason McIntyre and his college friend David Lessa. In June 2010, McIntyre sold the site to Fantasy Sports Ventures for "low seven figures." Gannett purchased Fantasy Sports Ventures on January 24, 2012, integrating the site into the digital network of USA Today.
Grantland was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. Grantland was named after famed early-20th-century sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880–1954).
Kevin Merida is an American journalist and author. He formerly served as executive editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw and coordinated all news gathering operations, including city and national desks, Sports and Features departments, Times Community News and Los Angeles Times en Español.
Greg Wyshynski is an American sportswriter and radio personality, best known for creating Yahoo! Sports’ ice hockey blog Puck Daddy. He has written two books, Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer and Take Your Eye Off the Puck.
Amy DuBois Barnett is an American magazine editor. She was formerly editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine. Barnett was also the editor-in-chief of Honey and Teen People magazines, and the deputy editor of Harper's Bazaar. She was the first African-American woman to run a major mainstream magazine in the United States. Barnett is also an award-winning fiction writer with several published short stories. In 2008, she published an NAACP Image Award-nominated advice book for women: Get Yours! How to Have Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More.
Rembert Browne is a writer who primarily focuses on pop culture, politics and sports. Previously Browne wrote for Grantland, then for New York Magazine.
William Jerome Barnwell Jr. is an American sportswriter and staff writer for ESPN.com. He has written about a wide range of sports including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and mixed martial arts.
The Ringer is a sports and pop culture website and podcast network, founded by sportswriter Bill Simmons in 2016 and owned by Spotify since 2020.
In gridiron football and its variants, American football and Canadian football, the quarterback position is often considered the most important on the team. While there have been a growing number of players of African or minority descent throughout the history of collegiate and professional football, black players have historically faced difficulty in landing and retaining quarterback roles due to a number of factors. In addition, some black quarterbacks claim to have experienced bias towards or against them due to their race. Black players as a whole are disproportionately over represented in the NFL, being only ~13% of the U.S. population yet 67% of NFL players are black, with 17% of quarterbacks being black.
Soraya Nadia McDonald is an American writer and culture critic. She was previously a reporter at The Washington Post, and has been the culture critic for The Undefeated since 2016. McDonald was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Mallory Rubin is an American editor and podcaster. She is most well-known for her work at The Ringer, and for the Binge Mode pop culture podcast which she co-hosted with Jason Concepcion. She is one of the founding editors of The Ringer and currently serves as Editor-In-Chief.
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