George Bodenheimer is the President of ESPN and ABC Sports, (replacing Howard
Katz as the latter in 2003). He is the overseer of all sports programming for
ESPN.
You can thank Bodenheimer for ESPN Original Entertainment, which is responsible
for Playmakers, A Season on the Brink, 3, Beg, Borrow and Deal, and I'd Do
Anything. You can also thank him for that ESPN Mobile phone you never knew
existed. (You know, the one they put Kirby Puckett's face on the night he died?)
Notable quotes: "Anybody looking for the demise of ABC Sports is barking up the
wrong tree." - Bodenheimer in 2005, approximately a year before ABC Sports
became ESPN on ABC.
Under Bodenheimer's watch, ESPN has acquired the NBA, Monday Night Football and
NASCAR, while jettisoning the National Hockey League and losing postseason
baseball. During that same time period, ABC lost the NHL, NFL, Bowl Championship
Series, golf, Keith Jackson and Al Michaels. Oh, and the "thrill of victory" and
"agony of defeat", too.