Maura Mandt, beloved ESPYs executive producer, dies at 53

The Ringer

Mandt, who died unexpectedly on Friday, was the longtime producer of the ESPYs and NFL Honors, the NFL's Super Bowl-eve awards show. She also won the first Emmy for ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series. In a tribute, ESPYS writer and producer Aaron Cohen writes that Mandt pursued unforgettable TV moments. "Maura treated every year as a new chance to create moments that would inspire, as well as provoke thought, awareness, and maybe even controversy," he writes. "It was Maura who convinced 140 of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse survivors to come to Los Angeles and flood the ESPYs stage together while receiving the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. It was Maura who crafted unforgettable tributes on the show to heroes like Pat Tillman, Billie Jean King, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Nelson Mandela, and Bill Russell. It was Maura who campaigned to honor a 15-year-old football player who was a victim of senseless gun violence, and a forgotten boxer who’d been wrongly imprisoned for more than a quarter-century. It was Maura who honored Caitlyn Jenner in her first major appearance in the world, in many ways amplifying a conversation about shifting gender norms in our society. She had everyone from Peyton Manning to Justin Timberlake to Tracy Morgan to Jon Hamm on speed dial. Always speed-talking and bouncing around from topic to topic, Maura had a funny habit of referring to everyone by their first names in conversation, leaving you to determine on your own that 'Aaron' was Aaron Rodgers, or 'Brett' was Brett Favre. (She was tight with both of them, by the way.)" Mandt was responsible for Favre and Rodgers' awkward reunion on stage at NFL Honors in 2013. Robin Roberts wrote on Instagram of her former ESPN colleague: "Maura was as brilliant as she was relentless. We first met working together at @espn back in the day, encouraging one another. Maura was a phenomenal storyteller, a force of nature, a fearless, creative producer who among her endless accomplishments became the longtime executive producer of the ESPYs."