Ryen Russillo leaving ESPN to join The Ringer full-time

Longtime ESPN Radio and podcast host Ryen Russillo is leaving the network to join The Ringer full-time.

Russillo, who spent 14 years at ESPN, had been doing some work for Bill Simmons’ The Ringer over the past year, which included numerous podcast appearances. According to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, who first reported on Monday about Russillo’s full-time move to The Ringer, Russillo will host the “Dual Threat” football podcast and be a guest on several other of The Ringer’s podcasts.

“This is not an anti-ESPN move. It’s a pro-Ringer one. I have wanted to pursue other things for a while, and Bill (Simmons) gave me this opportunity,” Russillo said in a statement.

Simmons also announced the move on Twitter.

Happy to confirm that @ryenarussillo will be working exclusively for @ringer for all multi-media stuff starting in September. Will be a regular on my BS Pod as well. Subscribe to his “Dual Threat” podcast here because there’s going to be a lot of them. https://t.co/rUq0ZfPiw6

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) August 6, 2019

Russillo, 44, will begin working for The Ringer in September.