Shane Gillis took a bite out of sports’ biggest names during his opening monologue at Wednesday night’s ESPY Awards.
And it was a real sign of cultural health.
The performance felt like an infusion of wheatgrass — cleansing out the residual crud left over from more than a decade of hyper-political correctness.
The comedian went after everyone, slaughtering sacred cows on both sides of the political aisle and from all sensibilities. He mocked Shedeur Sanders’ nepotism, Simone Biles’ height, Aaron Rodgers’ vaccine resistance, Shohei Ohtani’s gambling scandal, the WNBA and professional girlfriend Jordon Hudson. Even Caitlin Clark made it into some zesty one-liners.
Comedian Shane Gillis roasted the sports world as host of the 2025 ESPY Awards. Getty Images
And then there was Donald Trump, whose Hall of Fame-worthy way of inserting himself into nearly every big sports moment made him a prime target. Gillis’ line about an Epstein joke