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Yep, There Will Be Blood: A Brief Rundown Of ESPN Beef Resulting From That Book Everyone Is Talking About

Details have begun to trickle out about Those Guys Have All The Fun, the ESPN oral history that will be released next week. And guess what? Tons of ESPN people aren’t crazy about one another. We have our copy and will be posting more tidbits later, but for now, let’s take a deep breath and run down some of what we know so far.

- There were parties, there was screwing. “A couple…drunken orgies” at Christmas parties (along with some other drugs), according to one former staffer. “Stairwell stories,” according to another. One of the main culprits leading to these types of stories, according to many: ESPN’s placid location (Bristol, Conn.).

- Keith Olbermann could be a tough guy to work with (shocker!). Of course, plenty of people considered him to be the best anchor SportsCenter ever had, which is a rather important fact as well. But to get that extraordinarily talented Olbermann, you had to deal with a “terribly unhappy person” – unhappy enough that some felt “unrestrained fucking joy” when he was done at the network. Olbermann’s take: “Pretty much true.”

- Chris Berman and Tony Kornheiser: not fans of one another. Their relationship is so frosty, in fact, that Berman actually blamed Kornheiser for spreading a rather famous Berman-centric internet story.

- Bill Simmons didn’t hold back in talking about executives, and were it not for his good relationship with a couple ESPN bigwigs in particular, he’d already be gone.

- Jim Gray said ESPN knew what was coming regarding the widely-derided way he handled The Decision, and said any criticism of him by ESPN after the fact was merely “convenient” for the network.

- Michelle Beadle watched the Erin Andrews peephole video.

- Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico didn’t have the greatest working relationship.

As you can see…a lot there. And more to come. Should be fun.