Background and Early Life

Born on November 10, 1959, Cohn used to sit in front of the television with her father, who is a huge sports fan, and watch sports. In her 15th year, her mother discovered a hockey league where she could compete against boys, despite the boys being eight or nine years old. Cohn demonstrated exceptional goaltending ability as a teenager, earning a spot on her high school's boy's ice hockey team. Even though she didn't make her high school hockey team as a junior, she did so as a senior, and she was delighted with the outcome. After graduating from Newfield High School, Cohn went on to play ice hockey for the women's ice hockey team at SUNY Oswego, where she was the team's goalie. In 1981, she received her bachelor's degree in arts and communications from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2006, Cohn was honored with induction into the Oswego State Athletics Hall of Fame.

Career

Early years

She started her career as a sports anchor in 1981, for now, WALK-FM, a New York-based radio station. She left there in 1984 and anchored as a sportsperson for four different radio stations up to 1987

1987–1991

She made history to become the first full-time female sports anchor in 1987 on national radio. This was when she got a job at ABC. Between 1978 and 1989, she was in charge of the WABC TalkRadio. SportsChannel, American, top competitors with ESPN, hired her, and that was her she got her first TV break. She was the host of a call-in radio sports show in 1989. This was in New York. KIRO-TV hired her when she was a reporter at SportsChannel America. She was employed by SportsChannel American rival ESPN in 1992 and worked on SportsCenter. She is now a famous face among viewers of the show. On July 11, 1992, she anchored the first show with Chris Meyer, a former ESPN anchor. In 1994, her clients almost fired her. According to them, she wasn't adding passion to the sports on TV. Recognizing the importance of her job, she had to hire a video coach to salvage the crisis.

She wrote a book in 2008 about her biography, Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys' Club. She spoke of how passionate she was about the sports and recounted her working experiences at ESPN. The book talks about how she rose to the ladder of a widely dominated sport by men.

1991-Present

In 1992, Cohn returned to the East Coast when ESPN hired her to work on the SportsCenter program. On July 11, 1992, she and Chris Myers co-hosted the first episode of SportsCenter. She has also appeared in a number of commercials for the show, including the This Is SportsCenter series. Despite her success, Cohn came close to being fired by the network in 1994, claiming that she wasn't demonstrating her enthusiasm for sports on television. After six months, the company allowed her to improve and hired a video coach to assist her.

She made a name for herself as a prognosticator during the 1997 NCAA men's basketball tournament, in addition to her work as a sports journalist. Her bracket for ESPN that year accurately predicted Coppin State University's shocking victory over South Carolina in the first round, which remains to this day one of the greatest upsets in the tournament's history.

In 2005, Cohn signed a contract extension with ESPN, which expanded her responsibilities to include play-by-play for WNBA telecasts.

According to an announcement made on June 20, 2008, Cohn would serve as a regular anchor for the new morning block of SportsCenter, which premiered on August 11 that same year. She co-anchored the first three hours of the block, from 6 to 9 a.m. ET on weekdays, with Steve Berthiaume, and she was to have done so with him. However, a few weeks later, ESPN announced that the new SportsCenter morning block would be reduced from nine to six hours in length.

On February 21, 2016, she hosted her 5,000th episode of SportsCenter, breaking the previous record for SportsCenter anchors.

Every Monday through Friday from 1–3 p.m. ET, Cohn will continue to anchor SportsCenter. She is also the host of the podcast "Listen Closely to Linda Cohn," available on iTunes.

Throughout her ESPN career, Cohn has reported, commented, interviewed, written, and called play-by-play for various sports.

She has joined Neil Everett in co-hosting SportsCenter from Los Angeles during the weekends since 2016.

After Cohn claimed in an April 2017 radio interview that the network's left-wing bias had contributed to a drop in subscriber numbers, the network suspended Cohn on the spot.

ESPN issued a press release in mid-July 2018 announcing that Cohn had "signed a new deal to remain with the company for years to come." Cohn has been with the company since 2002. The contract called for the continuation of anchor duties on SportsCenter as well as increased ice hockey coverage in the future. Cohn has "hosted more SportsCenter's than anyone else," according to Executive Vice President Norby Williamson, who has been with the network for 26 years. According to the agreement, she will continue to serve as the primary host of In the Crease on ESPN+, which will expand to five nights a week during the NHL season. According to the agreement, she will also contribute hockey-related interviews and features to SportsCenter and other ESPN platforms.

Personal Life

Cohn's long-term marriage to Stew Kaufman came to an end in 2008, and the couple decided to file for divorce. During the early to mid-2010s, Cohn had a long-term relationship with minor league hockey goalie coach Matt Voity. Cohn was named one of the top 25 most influential women in sports by Sports Illustrated in 2014. Cohn is Jewish and has a daughter named Sammy.

She is a die-hard supporter of the New York Giants, the New York Mets, the New York Knicks, and the New York Rangers, among other teams.

She has never mentioned her boyfriend in any of her books but had once mentioned her divorce. In her book, she said she thought she loved him and frequently said that she loved him. She was afraid of giving up everything as she wasn't sure whether she would gather all the pieces together and move forward.

She met Stew during her college days and fell in love with him. Her marital life with Stew lasted for almost 28 years. She tagged her life with Stew as a sympathetic character. She said that Stew is a regular guy and the life with a marketing research guy was kind of dull. There were no rumors or reports about extra-marital affairs or other problems that would have led to the separation. Thus, it is assumed that they both grew dull of each other and got divorced. The reason behind the split is not revealed in any news or her books. Though she is in her early fifties and with two children, she looks pretty young for a woman of her age. There are rumors that she has undergone plastic surgery. Her 'age' became debated when she started dating Matt, who is 17 years younger than her and could be like her son.

The age difference between Linda and Matt caused a lot of controversies. Yet, she continued as the best sportscaster, and her book is becoming more popular among her fans. She is not ready to reveal more about her personal life, and according to her, she is proud to be a mother whose children see her as a perfect mother. Her relationship with Stew after their divorce is also not revealed. This was all that was admitted to the public. She has spoken quite extensively in her recent book about her divorce. After the split, her ex-husband, Stew, did not comment anything about their marital life, relationship, or separation. The details about the divorce settlement and the custody of the kids are also not revealed. Since there are no rumors and reports, it is assumed that the terms between Linda and Stew are smooth.