Troll called ESPN's Mina Kimes a 'diversity hire'. Her silent video shut him down quick

Football has always been a very male-dominated sport. Even with the progress we have made today, women still have to prove themselves in this space. One such woman is Mina Kimes, an American journalist who has worked as a business reporter for Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, and Fortune Magazine. More than a decade ago, in 2014, Mina was hired by ESPN after she wrote an essay about her relationship with her dad and the Seattle Seahawks. Since then, she has climbed the ranks in the sports industry and is now a sports analyst. However, not everyone is happy about Mina's success. A TikTok user who goes by the username Randy decided to comment on one of Kimes' videos. He wrote, "DEI hire trying to talk football," followed by three laughing emojis. Mina (@espnmina), while keeping it classy, responded to Randy's comment with a video on March 3.

DEI hire stands for a 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' hire, hinting at Kimes' lack of capability to make it to the top on her own. In Mina's latest TikTok video, she responded to Randy's comment using an audio from Pedro Pascal's viral interview, in which he said, "Daddy is a state of mind." The audio is followed by George Michael's song "Father Figure". While Mina did not say a single word, she let her achievements speak for her. She captioned the video, "New addition to the bookshelf #petty." Standing in front of her bookshelf, she pretended to read Randy's comment on the screen and bent down to pick something up. When she moved out of the way, she revealed an Emmy Award for Outstanding Studio Show — Daily NFL Live 2024-2025, with her name on it. The 10-second clip has gained over 13k likes on the platform, with many supporting Mina. One user even commented, "New reaction meme dropped."

However, this is not the first time Mina Kimes has been called a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) hire. She has addressed the issue in the past, talking about how frequently she was called a DEI hire as if it were a derogatory term. In April 2025, Kimes responded to a comment that said the only reason she was working with ESPN is that she's a woman and it's "part of DEI." The user also criticized Kimes' knowledge of football. To this, Mina responded in a 1:48-minute-long video, saying, "I saw this comment, and I wanted to address it, because, look, I get called DEI all day, every day, as of like, the last year or so. And no, there was no edict from anyone at ESPN saying, 'Oh man, you know what we really need? An Asian female NFL analyst. Got to just find one. That's what the people are clamoring for.' So, I was not hired in that way." However, Mina admitted that the concept of DEI may have applied to her when she was hired more than a decade ago by the sports network. She transitioned her career from being a business journalist to a sports writer and now, a sports analyst. She concluded the video by proudly admitting, "Yeah, I am a representative of DEI, and that's a good thing."

Mina Kimes broke history by being one of the first successful female NFL analysts without ever being on the field. Kimes was not a former football player, nor was she a coach or even in the front office, when she was asked to join ESPN. According to the 2021 Sports Media Racial and Gender Report Card, a huge percentage of the workforce in the reporting industry consisted of men. The numbers showed that 83.3% of sports editors were men, 75.8% of assistant sports editors were men, 82.2% of the columnists were men, 85.6% of reporters were men, and so on. However, between 2018 and 2021, small but significant changes were seen concerning the employment of women. Women sports editors went from 10% to 16.7% of the work force in a span of three years. The number of women columnists rose from 16.6% to 17.8% in between 2018 and 2021, and women reporters jumped from 11.5% to 14.4%.

Coming back to Mina's response, her followers applauded her for clapping back at the troll comment. Lauren H said, "And she didn’t have to beg someone else to give it to her." @damiexmdbry also added, "Love it when someone brings up DEI, and they have absolutely no clue what DEI actually is," followed by laughing and crying emojis. Vincent Martino also praised Kimes as a sports analyst by commenting, "Mina knows ball more than 99.9 percent of other analysts."

You can follow Mina Kimes on TikTok (@espnmina) to keep up with more sports content.

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