EXCLUSIVE: Colin Cowherd explains why he stuck to sports as ESPN became 'rudderless' during Trump's presidency

Colin Cowherd reveals why he's one of the only main sports personalities where no one knows where he leans politically, and explains why ESPN mixing politics with sports was losing their fanbase.

When Colin Cowherd left ESPN for Fox Sports and iHeartRadio in 2015, there was an expectation that he would delve more deeply into politics. At the time, ESPN had mostly avoided political discourse on air.

Instead, the opposite happened.

Several commentators at ESPN used their platforms to spread political messaging following Donald Trump's candidacy and eventual presidency. Meanwhile, Cowherd largely avoided politics on his new show.

To this day, Cowherd is one of the few major sports commentators whose political leanings and views on Trump remain largely unknown.

Colin Cowherd, via The Volume (The Volume.)

EXCLUSIVE: Colin Cowherd Opens Up About Selling The Volume, Scaling Back Three-Hour Show, and Retirement

Cowherd sat down with OutKick this week for a wide-ranging interview. Among the topics, we discussed why he chose to stick to sports when much of the industry did not.

"Well, I always said I love Bill Maher, but I don't want to hear his football picks. I think Ben Shapiro is smart. I don't want to hear his picks either," Cowherd said. "My broadcast corporate executives pay me to talk sports."

"I've always thought I was sort of a radical centrist. Sort of left on social programs, kind of center-right on fiscal policy. That's how I viewed myself," he explained.

"Like a lot of my friends, I think there have been times since COVID when there's been Democrat overreach in policy and certain cultural shifts I don't necessarily agree with. There are times on the right where I don't think every time Trump gets on a plane and