Linda Cohn

Linda Cohn

ESPN SportsCenter Anchor and ESPN Radio Host

Linda Cohn in April 2010.
(ESPN)

Linda Cohn Kaufman (nickname Cohn-Head or L-Co) is a Jewish-American sportscaster who joined ESPN on July 1st, 1992, anchoring the network’s flagship sports news and information program SportsCenter. Cohn is the co-anchor of the daytime SportsCenter weekend mornings on ESPN Networks. Linda is an huge sports fan of the New York Giants of the NFL, the New York Mets of Major League Baseball and the New York Rangers of the NHL.

Linda has also been the fill-in co-host on The Scott Van Pelt Show (now Russillo & Kanell), The Doug Gottlieb Show (now Coach & Company) and Mike & Mike], and also co-hosting selection editions of SportsCenter Saturday on ESPN Radio as well as co-hosting Hockey Night in New York, the New York Rangers' pregame radio talk show on ESPN New York 98.7 FM as well as Rangers' postgame shows during the playoffs. Cohn had also posted her own blogs on ESPN.com, SportsCenter.com and ESPNNewYork.com.

The day after its debuted, Linda Cohn (right) anchored her first SportsCenter from ESPN's new Digital Center 2 studios in Bristol, CT alongside her daytime co-anchor David Lloyd on June 23, 2014.
(Linda Cohn/Twitter)

Linda has straightforward style and natural humor create an easy rapport with viewers, including her passion at sports and broadcasting, and as well as spending more time with her kids, Samantha and Daniel while Linda was married to her college friend Stew Kaufman until the separation of the two in 2006.

Linda has hosted Baseball Tonight, NFL Live, National Hockey Night, NHL2Night, RPM 2Night, The Blitz, and College Football Countdown. She has also contributed to ESPN’s NFL Draft coverage, Major League Baseball playoff coverage, and the ESPYs. During the 1998 season, she was one of three alternating hosts for The NFL on ESPN Radio, ESPN Radio’s Sunday-long coverage of NFL games. She also provided play-by-play of ESPN and ESPN2’s coverage of the LPGA (1998-1999) and serving as play-by-play commentator for WNBA games and hosting the league’s All-Star game and Finals on ABC Sports, and the Draft on ESPN2. 

On August 13, 2013, Cohn signed an contract extension with ESPN, that would allow Cohn to continue anchoring SportsCenter on ESPN Networks and co-hosting ESPN Radio as well as adding a number of new roles such as hosting select New York Rangers pre and post-game shows on ESPN New York 98.7 FM starting in the 2013-14 NHL season and co-hosting her new ESPN podcast Listen Closely To Linda Cohn that debuted in late September. During the 2014 NHL postseason, Cohn was honor to co-hosted WEPN's studio coverage of the Rangers' Stanley Cup Final alongside Don LaGreca from Games 3 and 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York City to Game 5 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles where the Rangers lose the championship series over there, it won't be long until Cohn anchored the first of some SportsCenters on-site for the first time in eight years when it was broadcasted at the World Series in Kansas City prior to Games 1, 2 and 6. 

When Cohn's not at the studio, she host special coverage on some N.H.L. games prior to and after the game (primarily her "beloved" New York Rangers) since her regular SportsCenter segment Ice Time with L-Co became popular for hockey fans when they tuned her on the show, the first one was at the annual NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Eve and Day of 2015 in Washington, D.C. and at the Florida Panthers practice arena on March 16th, 2015 when Linda precipitated in the "Goal of a Lifetime" contest.

Linda with Chris Myers (right) at the SportsCenter desk on December 9, 1992.

There has been number of good moments during her time at ESPN, On June 7, 2004, Linda had the honor of co-hosting the first-ever SportsCenter with Rece Davis in high definition from ESPN’s new Digital Center in Bristol, CT. Linda co-anchored the 6:30pm edition of SportsCenter along with Charlie Steiner and Craig Killborn during ESPN's 15th Anniversary on September 7, 1994. On September 28, 2010, SportsCenter made history, when Cohn ending the 9 a.m. edition along with Hannah Storm, and turned it over to Chris McKendry and Sage Steele for the 12 p.m. edition, it was the first time since SportsCenter started in 1979 that four women had ever been involved in that transition. She co-anchored the 11pm SportsCenter with Steve Levy on October 16, 2011, the day when Dan Wheledon died in wreck crashed during the IndyCar World Championship finale, the June 15, 2011 edition with Robert Flores as she provide highlights of a historic Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks, as well as the March 6, 2012 edition of the 8-11pm SportsCenter when the Indianapolis Colts part ways with Super Bowl XLI MVP quarterback Peyton Manning after 14 seasons with the team. On November 7, 2013, Linda Cohn became the anchor of weekday 1-3pm E.T. edition of SportsCenter alongside David Lloyd, in addition she use this daytime program along with her podcast Listen Closely to Linda Cohn (which debuted on September 30, ended on September 29, 2014) as double duties (mostly Mondays and Thursdays). Ten years after the first SportsCenter broadcast from the original Digital Center, Linda anchored her last show there on June 19, 2014 and four days later on June 23rd, she hosted one of the first SCs airing from the newly-built Digital Center 2 studios. In Fall 2015, Cohn moved to weekend mornings and as of today, viewers can find still her regularly on SportsCenter before both the college and pro football games even kick-off.

Linda co-hosting ESPN Radio's The Scott Vab Pelt Show on July 26, 2012, interviewing Oklahoma football head coach Bob Stoops.

Outside at ESPN, Cohn has made media appearances on NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly, TV Guide Network, local television and radio stations, and as well as an expert for ABC’s Winners Bracket. Cohn appears several episodes of the Michelle Beadle Podcast and some hosting some NHL playoffs episodes of Hockey Today on ESPNRadio.com.

Prior to ESPN, Linda began her career in sportscasting in Patchogue, N.Y., as a news anchor, writer and sports reporter for WALK-AM/FM in 1981. She continued her work with three other New York radio stations until 1987: WCBS NewsRadio 88 (1984-87); WCBS-FM (1984-87); WGBB-AM (1984-85). In 1985 she began working for WLIG-TV on Long Island as a part-time anchor and reporter. She also worked as anchor, news director and chief correspondent for Long Island News Tonight, a daily television news program (1985-86). Cohn's radio experience is highlighted by her becoming the first full-time female sports anchor on a national radio network (ABC Radio Networks) in 1987. She was a sports anchor for the ABC Radio Network and for WABC TalkRadio from 1987-89. Her work continued as she hosted a call-in show and provided sports updates at WFAN in New York from January-October 1989. Beginning October 1989, Cohn worked at KIRO-TV in Seattle where she was a weekend sports anchor/reporter. At KIRO, she covered the Seattle Mariners, Seahawks and Supersonics, the Washington Huskies, the NCAA Basketball West Regional in 1991, and the Goodwill Games in 1990. Prior to that, Cohn served as a sports reporter for both SportsChannel America and News 12 on Long Island (May 1988-October 1989). Cohn received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from SUNY at Oswego in 1981. As a senior at Newfield (N.Y.) High School, she served as the goalie on the boy's ice hockey team and in college on the Oswego women’s ice hockey team.

Linda is a huge New York Giants fan, so far she and her son Dan went to Indianapolis to see Super Bowl XLVI, in which her Giants (led by 2-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning) beat the New England Patriots for the second time in 4 years.

Cohn’s accomplishments includes the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2009, SUNY Oswego State Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2006, the Women's Sports Journalism Award from the Women’s Sports Foundation, the 2009 Women of the Year Award from The Mann Foundation, and most recently, the CableFAX Programming Hall of Fame class of 2010 (joining the lives of Chris Berman, the face of ESPN and another SportsCenter anchor who inducted at the inaugural event in 2008).

Cohn has been known for her own ego knows as “Cohn-Head”, in 2008, Linda publishes her own auto-biography book “Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys' Club.” She ecounts her passion for sports and her experiences working at ESPN and it’s a tell-all about her rise to the top of a male-dominated sportscasting world, the success of her book that would lead to join the social networking and microblogging service Twitter in April 2009 and then later on Facebook. Linda also had her own website, which launched in 2008 as CohnHeadFans.com, now know as LindaCohn.net. the site has been relaunched in 2011, updating her SportsCenter on-air schedule as well as her profile and photos.

Linda Cohn, now celebrating her 31st year in broadcasting and her 20th year with ESPN. she is the longest female anchor to work for SportsCenter on ESPN "The Worldwide Leader in Sports", and as well as on ESPNews, who joined the network during its inception in 1996. Outside of SportsCenter, Linda contributes to the ESPN Radio network as well as flagship station WEPN (ESPN New York 98.7 FM) in New York. she also works for ESPN on ABC, a unit of the ABC Television Network, ESPN and ABC Sports are both owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Name: Linda Cohn

Network: ESPN

Born: November 10, 1959 (age 54)

Debut: July 1, 1992

Title: SportsCenter Anchor, Author and
          ESPN Radio Host