Ley grew up in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he attended Bloomfield High School. He got his start in broadcasting as a sportscaster and program director at WSOU at Seton Hall University, and interned as a production staffer at WOR-AM in New York City. After graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, Ley worked several minor broadcasting jobs, including public address announcer with the New York Cosmos soccer team, before landing his first major position with ESPN just three days after the network’s launch in 1979.

Ley joined ESPN on September 9, 1979. In 1980, he hosted the first televised NCAA Selection Show, though the airing would switch to CBS two years later. Starting in 1990, Ley hosted ESPN’s investigative program Outside the Lines. He hosted SportsCenter for much of his career at ESPN, and on August 9, 2004, he hosted an “old school” edition with longtime broadcasting partner Charley Steiner.

On September 7, 2014, in recognition of ESPN’s 35th anniversary as a cable network, he was honored as one of 19 “ESPN Originals”, employees who have been with the network from the beginning. Ley took an indefinite sabbatical from his ESPN hosting duties starting on October 1, 2018. On June 26, 2019, Ley announced his retirement from ESPN, effective at the end of the month.