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Try Gusto today at gusto.com slash TWSC and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash TWSC. One more time, gusto.com slash TWSC. Welcome to the inaugural episode of This Was Sports Center, a new show that I'm thrilled to bring to the Disney family of platforms. Over the next six weeks, I'm going to be sitting down one by one in this first of hopefully many seasons.
I'm going to be sitting down with some old friends of mine. From back in the Sports Center day, and just stroll down memory lane and recall the days of Sports Center. When I used to do them, and maybe when you were younger or in a different spot in your life. getting ready to go to school, sitting in college, watching Sports Center, and just enjoying what we were fortunate enough to put on. Camera for all of you.
And the first guest of This Wiz Sports Center here in his beautiful facility in Connecticut is the person who I would not have wanted. To start this episode or this series without. He is a guy from back in the day that was there for me, and he still is, Dan Patrick. How are you, DP? Good to see you, sir.
Ready to open up the scrapbook here. Yeah, that's what it is.
So, um, Let's start with your first day. I Sports Center.
Well, 1989, right? Is that what it was? Yeah, I had left CNN. And I didn't have an agent. I didn't know what I was doing in the business.
I knew ESPN was where I wanted to be. And I went to CNN, I did headline sports, and then I was a reporter. Actually, I replaced Keith Oberman in New York covering sports, Baltimore, Boston, Philly, New York, DC. And my contract was running out, and I asked for $60,000. I was making $50,000.
And my boss, the legendary Bill McPhail, who started CBS Sports. He came back at 55. And I thought.
Well, then he doesn't want me to I didn't know negotiations Like he was saying 55, he wasn't going to give me 60. If I asked for 65, he would have given me 60.
Next thing you know, I go. I'm just going to call ESPN. You did yourself? Yeah, I didn't have an agent.
So I cold called. John Walsh, who had just gotten there to start Sports Center. The godfather of Sports Center, essentially. Yes. I talked to his assistant.
Um and I said, you know, it's Dan Patrick calling from CNN. Can I talk to John Walsh? And she put me through. I started talking to John. I said, You interested in hiring me?
And he goes, Yeah. And um He said, when can you get up here? And I said, it was a Friday. And I said, Tuesday and I went in. I did negotiate.
I said, you pay me whatever you think I'm worth. And I remember that first contract was $100,000. And I was. Thrilled. Yeah.
Like I I'd found, you know, I'd made it. I'd made it to ESPN.
So for the first three months, John Wall says, I want you to observe. Chris Berman, Tom Mees, Tim Brando, Carrie Ross. And I would go in at night and I would sit there and watch them prepare the show.
Well, for three months is a long, long time. And I think after five days I said to John, I said, look, I I think I can do this. And so I'm there in Berman. Kept calling me the Charlotte Observer because I was observing. I got it.
So the newspaper, you know, it's the Charlotte Observer. And I eventually convinced them that I'm ready to do Sports Center.
Well Chris is doing the Sports Center at 11 o'clock. Right. Gets done. And he says. I'm going to do your first show with you.
Like he stayed. To do the two o'clock sports center. He double-dipped that day to do it with you. Yes. Hello, once again, everybody.
This is not CNN, this is the ESPN Sports Center. What is that voice? Who is this guy? I'm not Nick Charles. I'm Chris Berman, and we'd like to welcome into our fold from CNN coming over here to the Sports Center, Dan Patrick, and I'm sure you will enjoy him.
As maybe you did before at some other place. Welcome aboard, pal. Thank you, Chris. It doesn't get any better than this. That's why I changed area codes.
It was one of the. Nicest gestures because you want to go to ESPN, you want to be on Sports Center, you want to be on with the guy who really invented this genre. Sure. Here I go. That's our show.
I'm Dan Patrick. You're one of us now, pal. I'm Chris Berman. Steph. And I remember saying to him on on the air, with a two-shot.
Man, you're loud. Come on! That's what you said? I did. I don't know why it hit me, but I just said.
Damn, you're loud. And he goes, you know, if it's too loud, you can go back to Nick and Fred, you know. Yeah, that's true. Still to come. I need earmuffs with you.
Yeah. You pay the price. And so I slug my way through that. And then All of a sudden, I get an opportunity to do the 11 o'clock sports center. Bob Lee.
The ultimate professional.
Well, if you go back. Five and a half, six years earlier, I'm trying to get a job in Dayton, Ohio in sports, and I can't get a job. I rent out equipment. I ran out camera, sound, get a guy to run camera, and I had lib five minutes of sports. That's all.
And I send it. to Bob Lee at ESPN. He sends back a one-page critique. of my tape. Six years later, I'm sitting next to Bob Lee on SportsCenter Set.
And I walked in at a time that was perfect because Pete Rose. story was breaking with the gambling. And it just so happened, I'm from Cincinnati, outside of Cincinnati. Just so happened that my bookie. Was a bookie who took bets.
From Pete Rose's bookie in Cincinnati. I knew exactly what Pete was doing. What he was betting on, how much he was betting. No kidding. I don't think there's too much of a surprise, but there's still the element of shock.
Pete Rose and baseball not together anymore. An extraordinary day when you sit back and take a look at it. And I had to keep up with Bob. Because Bob was the ultimate professional, did it the right way, no bells, no whistles. Good writing.
Uh Be smart. Don't be gimmicky. There is a document at the commissioner's office saying Rose does not admit to betting on baseball of the Cincinnati Reds. But his sentence, a lifetime ban, fits that crime. And I'm fortunate that I had that.
Because I think if I had come in years later, where it was a little more catchphrasy and everybody's a little bit looser. Yeah. I wouldn't have developed, I wouldn't have had that sort of template that allowed me to continue my career to where I am today. Pete Rose says one day he will give his side of this story. In the meantime, we are left with some unanswered questions.
For instance, if Pete didn't bet on baseball, then why is he willing to accept that lifetime ban? One question Pete Rose does answer. is does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Pete says he's done his part. Yeah.
I didn't know that Pete Rose and Bob Lee and Berman and anything, because I was going to ask you who your first sports center was with. No idea that that was. All part of your first few steps there in Bristol. And I remember. You know, when I showed up in 96, That um There was on the wall Um pinned up every day on a bulletin board.
There was um the there were the ratings. of the Eleven O'Clock Big Show, which we'll obviously get to in this conversation, with you and Keith, the six o'clock Sports Center, with Rob and Roberts, the aforementioned Bob Lee and Charlie Steiner, and the ratings of the CNN you know, Sports Tonight program with um Nick Charles, Fred Hickman, right? And so CNN was a big A competitor. They were better than Sports Center was. When we were at CNN, Nick and Fred were better.
Than ESPN at that time. When you were at ESPN? Or when you were at CNN? When I was at CNN, and Nick and Fred did Monday through Friday. It was a better show.
They were a tremendous team. I learned so much from Fred and Nick. Nick, how to write, Fred, how to deliver. And I wrote like John Walsh. Said CNN Sports Tonight was better than Sports Center.
He wanted to bring CNN Sports Tonight. To Sports Center. And were they standing in your way in a way? Did you feel? Like, for you to say, I need to go somewhere else.
Yes. I didn't think I was on their level. I thought, you know, maybe I'll just be part of the ESPN machine. And then when I got there, I realized that I could do this. I could hold my own.
I knew sports. I always questioned: you know, do I lost a job because I didn't look? Uh good enough. In Dayton, Ohio.
Okay. The guy who got the job during weekends, Ken Kettering. Blonde hair, blue eyes. But wasn't necessarily a sports guy. And I was, you know, a guy who had hair parted down the middle, acne, 6'3, 160 pounds.
And, you know, I'm. I didn't look good on T V. And I remember Ken even saying you should have gotten the job. But it's local news.
So local news, you got like the anchor here, and you got the female co anchor, and you got the goofy weather guy, and then you got the sports guy. And can look better on camera.
So, having kind of an inferiority complex of even to this day, I don't like TV. I always I've always loved radio. Because I just thought my voice. Uh, being able to be a voice in your head instead of TV is. You know, you kind of have the pictures there.
You just try to complement it. And so I think when you lose out on a job. And you want to do sports for a living on TV, you know, I thought, God, I'm not going to get on a Monday through Friday, 11 o'clock. And John Walsh. To his credit, he would always say, I just want good writers.
He wasn't concerned how you looked. He wanted to know how you sounded. And I and I was appreciative of that. and probably have no reason to be as insecure. But when you lose a job because of that, And then I went to headline sports at CNN where I'm not on camera.
So, once again, it's like, damn, is it me? You know, like, can I get on camera? And then Nick and Fred look great on camera. And I thought.
You know, maybe I'll just do radio. Like, I just wasn't sure. Yeah, I remember they were a competitor, and so you had left them, obviously, which. Did show some confidence to do something like that, to just cold call John Walsh and say, you know, no, he was naive. There wasn't any complication in your life.
I was just stupid in the business. It worked out, obviously. When did you get hooked up with KO? When did you and Keith Oberman get hooked up with?
Well, we crossed paths his last day in New York at the New York Bureau. Right. And that was at One World Trade Center.
Okay. And I think we were on the 18th floor. And Keith was doing his last show and he was taking a job in Boston. And I had never been to New York. This is it, CNN?
CNN.
Okay. So my boss says, you know, hey. What do you know about New York? Because I knew Keith was leaving. And I said, you know, I know the teams, and I'd never been to New York.
And so I lied. And said You know, and I'd love to do it. I got up there. I stayed in the downtown athletic club. And I went.
to work and then came back. I was supposed to stay a month. I stayed three months because I didn't know where to go. I was scared to death. Like, I don't know what you do.
I'm not riding that subway. And can I get in a cab? Like, you know, I'm a kid from a small town in Ohio. And I remember going over there, Keith leaving. I went to his going away party.
I remember his last words as he walked out of the bar. He goes, Good luck, you're going to need it. And I'm going, What am I getting myself into? That's where I cross paths with Keith. Yeah.
What is your name, sir? Dan Patrick. Who do you work for? Cable News Network. What's that?
That's an inside joke. And then I remember being at ESPN. And Management brought me in. Steve Anderson and John Walsh brought me in. It was like 5:30 in the afternoon, right in the support center.
He goes, Hey, can you come in and shut the door? I'm like, damn, they found out about it. The chick's up, not fooling anybody out there. Time's out, shoulder tap coming.
So. They go, um. What do you think about Keith Oberman? I said He's awesome. Uh We're thinking about bringing him in.
And putting Bob on the six o'clock Sports Center and having Keith come in and co-anchor with you. And I said Is that it? And they said, yeah. I said. Oh.
We're done. Bring him in. And um And and we didn't have a lot in common. Um But when he came in. I had to teach him how to do Sports Center.
Welcome to Sports Center. I'm Keith Overman. He's Dan Patrick, but you knew that already.
So baseball is just beginning. The Final Four is just ending. Stories we will take apart and put back together again in a moment. But we start with the NBA, which wraps up in June. Or is it July?
August or September? Mid.
Well, we're not sure. Keith did local in Los Angeles, where. You get four minutes and you're cramming every line you got, catch phrase, I mean, everything in four minutes. I said. He did that at the first sports center we did.
He was exhausted after the first segment, like 14 minutes in, he was like, I said, Keith, you got to pace yourself. It's an hour.
Meanwhile, the problem for the Red Sox was the tailoring. The Stockings may have to wear their spring training togs for the opener at Yankee Stadium Tuesday because their regular season road uniforms arrived and the pants are too tight. And to think, long-suffering Red Sox fans have always insisted it was their collars that were too tight. Got a long time to put up with this, don't I? I don't know if teaching is, you know, the word, but I think he was watching how I did it so he could understand.
It's an hour-long show. Don't waste all your good lines up from the beginning. And we stayed there together for five and a half years. Dad, it's over. I survived.
We'll do it again on Monday night. Thanks for joining us. I'm Dan Patchett. I'm Defe Bolderman. I support your Willis.
So you were told in the beginning.
So I've always been fascinated by this. your team. Basically. But I've been with Bob Lee for. Right, but you were told Keith was coming in, you're going to do the 11 o'clock.
Yeah. Who came up with the big show? Hello, good evening, and welcome to the big show. Greetings. Welcome to the big show.
Live from World Headquarters, it's the big show. Welcome to the big show, alongside tag team partner Keith Oberman. I'm Dan Patrick. Keith did. He did.
Because once again, management didn't want us to know anything.
Okay. We didn't know if people were watching. We had no, and you know, there's no social media. We don't know anything. We're just doing a show for our camera people.
You wonder, though, about the women's college basketball, what kind of role model do you think Charles Barkley is to those young women trying to make a success in college basketball? Shut up. Charles Berkeley was fined 10 grand. He set out the game tonight. And you can't control him with money.
Remember that. You can't. And we tried to make each other laugh, them laugh. We entertained each other. But we have no idea if we're successful or not.
We can't control him with money either. Not that we've tried. Shut up. I'm Dan Patrick. I was Keith Oberman.
We used to work together. Wow, the knife. What ha I think what really Spin Magazine Came in and did a feature on Seeth and I. And I'm like, damn, like somebody's watching this show. Right.
And then uh TB Guide had Top 10 shows must watch. Back when TV Guide was a thing, and they put our picture on the cover of TV Guide. Because management One member of management famously said, we don't need another Berman. They didn't want people who were bigger than the brand. And I'm thinking, why don't you want brands like Chris?
So I think that they did their best to kind of Sequester our egos a little bit.
So, how come two more former all-stars were traded tonight? But first, enough already. Contain your enthusiasm, please. We knew it was working. We were having fun, but you don't know the impact you're having.
Until That ha like 95 95, 96 kind of got boy band crazy. A little bit. You go into the SPs. And that's when They're coming up to you. Like you go, oh my God, is that Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica?
He's coming up here. Hey, hi, you know, Will Smith or Bill Murray, or then it kind of hit that we were doing something. That was a little bigger than us. This was Sports Center, it is presented by Gusto. Right now, everyone is trying to run leaner, tighter budgets, smaller teams, higher expectations.
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That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash TWSC. One more time, gusto.com slash TWSC. And that's when I arrived in 96. And I showed up from Reading, California. Market size 200 or whatever.
There are more people in the newsroom than In one Glance. Than I had seen in my entire operation where I came from. Where interestingly enough, when I sent my tape to a headhunter, To just see if I, what would happen if I sent my Reading materials somewhere. It came back. A note.
Send us another tape with your best written material. To your point about the writing was key, your writing, your on-camera writing, your lead-ins, your ability to communicate with a wink and a nod. Like that was a metric that they wanted to see. And it's something that I tailored my. Tapes to watching you and Keith, like flat out and Berman.
Like those were you three were the ones that I wanted to emulate. And suddenly now here I am and you're my colleagues. And my head was spinning. Absolutely spinning. And part of what was also an adjustment was what you just said, which is.
If they're looking for a personality-driven form of information. Infotainment, if that's what we're looking for, then why are we not? Verbalizing, that's what we're looking for. You know what I mean? To your point where You know, about wondering about what's going on with you and Keith.
Stuart and I, we were never told we were a team. Not once. Hey, you're a team. We would just open up the computer, open up the schedules, and see that we were doing it together to the point where one time in a commercial break, Stewart turns to me and goes, Are we a team? Like it was probably like 2.40 in the morning.
I don't know what was going on. In his head to ask that question of me during a commercial break. But he's are we a team? And I'm like, Yeah. I think we are.
They always wanted to keep you guessing. I didn't understand that. And I never got that ever. Keith and I got called in.
Okay. Did I always joke that the more wood paneling, the more trouble you're in?
So I walk into this. meeting room and I look around and I go shit There's a lot of wood paneling. We're in trouble. Yeah. And it was true.
Oh, yeah. Because it was Keith, myself, Mike McQuaid, who was our producer. He's still there now. Big role. Yeah.
And then you had all management. And I remember But One of the our bosses, Bob Eaton, was pounding the table. And I'm and it was so out of character for Bob because he's such a nice person. And they were basically saying to us, Get your act together. We're not going to be dealing with this goofy stuff on the air.
He said, Did you know that you at least partially see-through? And he went, No, but obviously you did. Make the smooth segue to baseball tonight. Let's see, if you can see through the back of Dan's head, you can see Kyle Ravich over there in that sort of direction standing by with baseball tonight.
Now, were we taking liberties? Because we used to have words that we would put. We end the show. Knowing if management was actually watching at 11:30 at night, then we'd hear about the next day. Like what?
Oh, it could be just some well, okay, famously. Yes. Bob Eaton would come out of his office. and he was running Sports Center and he'd go, Hello! Patsy Room!
To everybody in the newsroom. Hello. And we'd go. Hey, Bob, you know, and then that night. Do you want to highlight?
I think it's Jerry Dubzinski from the Cleveland Indians has the ball go through his legs, and Keith goes, Hello! And I went. Oh shit. We're gonna oh my god. We don't hear anything the next day.
I'm like, all right. Why don't we just throw in little things that our bosses say to us and just see if they're watching?
So then that's when it started. And then, you know, we got full of ourselves. Um And that's when we got called on the carpet. And I remember walking out of that. We still had to do a show that night.
And I remember I walked out. And I had three kids at the time. And I I just remember, I can't get fired. I got three little ones at home. And I said, I said, what do you think?
And he goes, DP, fuck them. And I go. Fuck him, you're Or too big. Backham. There we go.
Alright, fuck him. Like I'm I just like, okay. And to his credit, Like Keith was so far. I mean, he's the best person I ever worked with. He was a great teammate.
He, if he had your back, he had your back, and he would fight for you. But I just He had so much confidence. He made it look so easy. He could write a script in 30 minutes. He was so knowledgeable historically.
Um And I he kept saying D P. We're worth a million dollars. And I'm going. And he goes, You know how much money they're making off of this? And I go, I don't know.
Like, I just wanted to do sports. I did. I wasn't going to take on, you know, I don't want to. rage against the machine here, but He was right in what we were giving them. We couldn't even get a makeup room.
Okay. Yeah, the Sports Center commercial where you and Keith are in the bathroom making yourselves up was born out of real life. Like you could have somebody in the stall behind you.
Well, you know, it's 10:42 and you're putting makeup on, and somebody's dropping it. You're checking underneath, see whose shoes they are. It's like, oh my God. Those Howie Schwab shoes. Oh, Howie.
Rest in peace, Howie. We'd put on our own makeup.
Well, I'd borrow my wife's makeup.
So here's Sports Center making probably $100 million or something crazy. And they said budgetary reasons we couldn't get makeup. I don't know what I'm, I might have looked like a Picasso painting. I'm just putting stuff on. I don't know what it, if I didn't know blush or rouge, the difference, a foundation, powder, all of this stuff.
I'm like, is this the big time? Like, you know, have I made it the big time? But we would put on our makeup and we would have a conversation. That's the only time we really talked.
So when people say, How much of what you say with each other is scripted? None of it was ever. Because Keith wrote and then I wrote. And then We would never read each other's scripts. Coming up on Sports Center, we'll have highlights and reaction to Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, but first, I'm not their coach.
You're not their coach.
So, who is their coach? The viewer must be the coach. Oh, no, no, no. It's sort of like a reverse of their watery. The New Orleans Saints are two and six.
Monday, their head coach of 10 seasons tenure quit. I wanted to react to him like the audience would, and vice versa, the audience to me as well, and him to me. Right. And That was the fun of it. It's live TV.
Which is awesome. The two and six Saints now have neither a chance nor a head coach. They'll try again tomorrow to get somebody to take the job. As Jim Morrow would say, diddly poo. Dan?
Thank you, Keith. But I had a great partner who I knew if something happened, made a mistake. Like one night I forgot my microphone. Show starts, and I go, hey, welcome to the big show. We start with Jose back in the town where that little home run bounced off his head.
That was two years ago when he was playing with the Rangers. And then Keith takes off his microphone and puts it on me. And then I start talking, and you know, fans booed Kinseko's two performances and even pounded on the truck he was in when he left the park last night. And then all of a sudden, Keith goes. Yeah.
So I'd take the microphone off and I'd give it to him. Can we give you the mic? Thanks. In the National, the prime matchup was the Braves and Greg Maddox against the Reds and C.J. Nitkowski.
Like, just. Just crazy, fun, stupid stuff. You can keep yours. I have my own now. Thank you.
Management kind of fought us. along the way, which I just never understood. Um And, you know, when you have a boss. Uh Mark Shapiro. Oh yeah.
Big time guy. I'm negotiating a new contract. And he tells my agent I'm over the hill and I'll never get another job. And so I panic and I go, well, then I better sign this. Or, wait a minute, why does he?
If I'm over the hill and nobody will hire me, then why are you going to give me a five-year contract? But I signed the contract. Another boss, Steve Bornstein, at lunch. Said to me at one point, he would always say this. I don't know if he ever, he probably didn't say it to you because I finally.
totally not say it anymore. He would say, you're just fucking talent. That was always his. No, he never said that to me, and he's hired me twice.
Well, he said that to me at lunch. Right. at McCormick's And uh I just remember. I said And he said it to me one more time. And I said, Steve.
Do you think I could do your job? And he's like, why? I said, do you think I could do your job? And he goes. Yeah.
Do you think you could do my job? He goes, no. I said, don't. Call me talent, just fucking talent again. And he never did.
Yeah, I've never heard that from him once. And I respected him. I thought he was one of the brilliant people at ESPN. And Shapiro was a really sharp guy. It's just, I think they were programmed to kind of browbeat us a little bit.
For sure. And, well, I mean, Mark Shapiro was in charge when I got my cardboard box, you know, and you can draw a connected line from one to the other there. But what you said about Keith, too, just from my perspective, I don't know if I've ever told you this story, but. I'm Again, just two, three months into Sports Center, you're out for some reason. I don't know.
You might have been on the NBA Finals or something like that. And so I did a show with Keith. And It was a rare thing that he wasn't in the ideas meeting. Because every sports center has an ideas meeting hours before, where you're sitting around with the line producer and the coordinating producer and the assistant producers, and you're going over ideas for that night. And so Bill Fairweather.
Billy Fairway, who you have to say his name with a Boston accent. Full name, too. Billy Fairweight. Just one of the best to ever do it. A great dude, great guy.
He's producing that night. Keith is not there. He's at a doctor's appointment or something. He's showing up later. And there is enough room in the rundown for what was called a home-cooked piece, which you know, where a producer would write a piece or you would write the piece and collaborate.
And it would be like a two, three-minute feature that night on something in sports that was going on.
So, yeah, this is probably right at the NBA Finals because it was about game seven goalie performances in the Stanley Cup. Final. And we're going around the table trying to come up with great Game Seven performances. And we mention one and another, Patrick Wab this, Martin Brodur that. And then we run out of steam.
And I'll never forget fair weather goes, we'll just we'll wait for KO. And I'm like, okay. And so I'm sitting in the newsroom. It was that old newsroom that was set up like a NASA control room, one row after another after another. and I'm sitting in the middle of those rows, in walks Keith.
In like a Letterman baseball softball jacket. with a pipe in his mouth. and a bunch of like what looked like encyclopedias underneath his arm. Walking into the newsroom and Fairweather stops him. Hey, KO, we have this idea.
Tells him what the idea is. And he says, You got any ideas for it? And he's like, something along the lines of 1937 Stanley Cup final. Rangers are in it. Game five, goalie takes a puck off the face because they're now.
Yes, Patrick. You've heard this story. Like Craig Patrick comes off the face. He's just like, coach comes in, shut out in game five, shut out in game six, shut out in game seven. I'll write the piece and the lead-in.
I've got a picture of him at my desk for the on-camera over-the-shoulder lead-in. And I remember watching that going, holy shit. I know. Do I have a long-ass way to go to get to that spot?
Well, nobody gets there. Holy shit. Nobody gets there. But I will say there's a common theme. Like Berman was really smart.
Chris is really smart. Yeah. Bob Lee, very smart. Right. You know, there's a correlation, though.
I mean, you've got to be able to be quick, be able to write. What kind of sports memory do you have? Uh on the fly. Can you be creative? Can you have fun?
Like, there were things you would just check the box on a lot of these things. And I just remember. that Chris came off as Fred Flintstone doing highlights, but he was so much more than that because there was so much more thought. behind that. And I had great appreciation for those who could write because when we told people that we have to write our show Like that was the first thing they'd be like, you write the show?
Yeah, it takes hours, hours to do it. Just when the media thought it had a firm grasp on the stereotypical college athlete, along comes Peyton Manning to alter the mold. He was tempted by the fruits of turning pro, but refused to bite. The Tennessee All-American quarterback told a PAC press conference in Knoxville, Tennessee Wednesday he was still BMOC. Big Manning on campus.
You know, there's a science to it. Mine was always 15 to 18 seconds on camera. After that, People, you know. aren't interest you know, they're not as interested or they may, you know, Be bored that, okay, get to the point. I want to see the highlight.
So it's formulaic in a lot of what we were trying to do there. But it was all embryonic stages because it was new. Nobody was doing this stuff. And I think that was the fun part. They allowed you to make mistakes.
You had the freedom to have some fun. I'm like, there was a Hans device. on at all times it felt like. What do you mean? You can't get too crazy here.
Like Once again, Chris was able to do what he wanted to. Right. Uh they didn't want us They want us to be strapped in. Um I think. And that's what made it even more important of It's almost like Eddie Haskell in Leave It to Beaver, where he presented himself as, Hello, Mr.
and Mrs. Cleaver, is Wallace at home? That was the way we were at. 5:30 at night, meeting management, and then we get on the 11 o'clock.
Meanwhile, then we would be. The real Eddie Haskell. Right. You get asked. You guys would do subversive things, and you would, it had that feel of like you were, you'll show the teacher a thing or two from the back of the class.
And it was obvious watching it. And it was great now, suddenly being a colleague and seeing that right up front. And, you know, where Keith would, interesting that you say you were telling Keith about how. The number of jokes that you make in a four-minute broadcast needs to make care. He would give me that advice about the way I was doing the show, pull back on it.
You know, less is more, what have you. You were giving me a little bit of that advice as well. But the one thing that you gave to me that I'm that you don't know, so I'm going to repeat it here anyway, is when I got there again, I was 26. I came from a small market. I had no idea with what I was doing was resonating or appreciated or anything at all.
And you hazed the shit out of me. Greetings. Welcome to Sports Center Walls I'm my son, Rich. I'm Dan. Thanks, Dad.
When you did that, though, I took that as. A compliment. Because I figured if I took it any other way, I would be rolled up in a fetal position wondering how I'm gonna get through work. But you would haze the absolute shit out of me. You just actually, before we even shot this, gave me the same line that you did.
Because I was looking at all these tapes. It would be this plastic bin of tapes. That the 11 o'clock sports center. was using and many of those were repurposed for the overnight that I was doing. And it would come up in this plastic bin.
And I was just a voracious watcher of this to make sure that I was going to nail this thing. I wasn't going to be caught unaware, and there would be some tapes that I would not know about, I would not see until it was live.
So I'm watching it and all of a sudden I feel this. Presence to my left, this shadowy presence to my left. I look up and it's you looking down at me. And you could say the line that you said if you wish. I know what you know what you said.
Damn. He said so. You nervous? Yeah. And I was.
But I knew that because he. You're nervous. I. Like I rough up people that I like. Like, I want you to laugh.
I want you to, I want engagement. Because sometimes you get caught up. And I tried to be perfect when I went to Sports Center. And I like everything, everything, even the timing of, if I said, you know, Maddox with the 3-1. I wanted to wait right before, and then bonds would have contact on the highlight, and I'd say, gone.
So I wanted the timing to be that. Perfect. And I was I wasn't having fun. It's like trying to throw a perfect game every game. Instead of settling for a three-hitter.
But I was like, I gotta make this great. And I was in my own head because I thought, you know, I got to live up to Berman and Bob Lee, Tom Meese, Oberman, and, you know, Charlie and Rob. You know, you start to go. Yeah, there's kind of imposter syndrome a little bit where I hadn't done anything, and here I am doing something. And I just remember I would finish 11 o'clock Sports Center, come up, it'd be 12:04.
I'd take the big tape, put it in the machine, and I would watch the entire show. You're watching your show back right away. I had no idea you were doing that. I did that for a couple of years. You were able to fit in hazing me for a couple of minutes before you got down to that.
I'd like to take a break. When Keith is on camera, then I could go make fun of you. I'm glad you did. But Keith walks by one night. Yeah.
And he goes. You got the fucking job. And then he kept walking. Because He realized that I'm still auditioning for this job, even though I'd been there for years. I I wasn't confident enough to go.
I'm pretty good at this. And Yeah. I never look back from there. Because it kind of unlocked the, he's right. I mean, I have the job, even though management at times made you feel like you could lose the job.
Um Or you were in trouble. I mean, teeth just blew through the stop sign. But I didn't have that. weaponry. I wasn't able to do that until he said that to me.
You got the fucking job. Stop doing this. And I always, you know, I never lose sight of that, even now when I do a show. Don't be perfect. Yeah.
Just do your job. Yeah. Yeah. And then you hope with that comes.
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And now and now everybody's auditioning. to be sitting next to you, which was a massive Massive to do within the sports center ranks. In 19, what was it? 97, was that 97, 98? When KO left right around then.
That was a bad time. To my tag team partner, nothing will ever be the same again. Thank you for everything. Thank you for teaching me how to do this. And shut up.
It was a bad time because Keith was gone, or you were.
Well, I never, I wasn't going to get another partner like that. Ever. And I knew it. I would not. Very fortunate to work with the most talented person.
in this business. He's now a news fan now. And I have one final word for him. Gone. And it doesn't mean I wasn't open to it.
It's just I. You get lucky. Right. And it was just, we were fortunate, it worked. I was disappointed he was going to our competitor.
And he paired with Kevin Fraser.
Okay. And Then all of a sudden it's like I'm coming after you, man. Like now I've got to compete. Against you. not with you when we're teammates.
Now, so it was just a weird. Time. Then I'm like I don't want to be the guy in charge of replacing Keith. I didn't want to be like, well, I'm going to pick you. Or Linda Cohn.
Or Kenny May. Like, I just didn't want. I didn't want that pressure. Because I'm putting somebody in a chair. who's gonna try to replace, I think, the best person who's ever done Sports Center.
And I I Just didn't want that pressure, putting somebody in there, and then them realizing how much pressure goes with that. Not that people weren't capable of doing it, it was just. whoever I put in there and I went on a camping trip with my son. He was in Boy Scouts, I think at the time, Cub Scouts. And I Didn't have phone service.
And I said to management, you guys make the decision. Who do you want to see when you're watching? Who do you think would pair well with me? Because You know, I'm thinking of you or Linda Cohn. What that's sitting there next to me.
And Then I realize I forget who in management said they were picking Kenny Main. Welcome to Sports Center alongside Kenny Maine on Dan Patrick. Which I wouldn't have picked. only because I thought Kenny was really funny. But the 11 o'clock, you might have to deal with a eulogy.
You know, you might have to write something on somebody dying. You know, there's serious stories there. We will have word about whether Bobby Knight needs a sideline sweater this week. Mad Cow Disease verdict was last week, mad player today. No longer mad.
Reason to smile for Lattrell Spreewell. And Kenny was so funny. And I thought he was probably misplaced on SportsCenter that there should have been a separate outlet for him. Like, I would have just made him a Charles Corralt roving the United States finding interesting stories. A Bill Geist or something like that.
But I've, you know, so they gave me Kenny. And I realize, Kenny. They would never give him a serious story. He'd get highlights, and then you'd go, Yeah, you got to do the eulogy on. I'd go, okay.
So then there was part of me that was like. is that this team is not going to work this way. Because it felt like I was doing more serious stories than Kenny was doing the highlights and having fun. But I liked him. I just, I didn't think, you know, not every pairing works.
When we would do sports centers together, Like Stuart and I didn't get along, and we weren't a good team. There was real competition there with Stuart and I.
Well, let me tell you this: because I wanted the chair. There's no question about it. I did. And um I didn't make any Um secret of it. And Stewart was pissed at me.
Yeah, I remember. He was not happy with me. To want the chair next to you. And it wasn't anything against Stewart. I loved the guy.
We did get along famously, and it turned out to be an incredible partnership with him. And I love and I miss him. And it was one of the most incredible things I've ever done. But I also didn't want to stay up till four in the morning. I didn't want to fix shows till the sun rose.
I didn't like. waking up at 11 o'clock every morning. And being tired, you know, in my late 20s. I just didn't, I didn't like the lifestyle very much. And I also wanted to work with you, and I relished the idea of taking Keith's chair.
in trying to Do the impossible. All of it. And Stuart was really angry with me. He's just like, why do you want that? Why, what's where a team?
Where the future? What are you doing? Um And they chose Kenny. And I was crestfallen and Stewart would always, whenever he saw I was in a bad mood or something was going on, he'd always. His default was to buck you up, you know, and just to say, Come on, let's go, let's go get him.
He never even did that with me, saying, Hey. You know, sorry you didn't get what you wanted. Like, he was, he didn't want to talk about it.
Well, but. Once again, he was extremely competitive to me. With you. Yeah. Yeah.
How did that manifest itself? I don't know. I think he thought that I was the top dog and he wanted to take down the top dog. But I like what he was doing, how he was doing it, when he was doing it. I had great respect for that.
Of course. It was more Like we played basketball together. Oh, well, now there you go.
Now I'm sure he wanted to. He was.
Okay. So all the sports center anchors. Yeah. They're going to go play at the Canton Y, I think. And they're like, will you come out and play?
And I go. No, because there's going to be some jerk who's going to D me up full court, slap the floor and. And I go, no, no, no, with Bucha Grass and Jason Jackson. Yeah, no, we're just going to have fun, we just run up and down. And so I get there.
Stewart's got Nike gear, Nike gear, Air Jordan here, goggles here, headband, sweatband, he's ready to go. Yeah, this sounds like mixed me up this tracks. He picks up full court. Yeah. And he is playing like it's game seven.
Oh, yeah. He thinks he's Jordan. Yeah. And I'm like, and I say to Jason Jackson, who is one of my dear friends, and he does the Miami Heat games. Jay Jackson.
I said, I said, God damn it, you told me that we were just going to be casual. He goes, I didn't know Booyah was going to pick you up full court. I go.
So it got to the point where I'm so angry. And I'm dribbling right side, left-handed, and he's down in his stance. And I said, where do you want me to fucking score on you? And to his credit, he didn't say anything because I was busting his ass. I mean, he wanted to guard me.
And I was like.
So I Like it's those kind of things that, you know. You bring that to the chair at some point, I guess. It was competition. Yeah. But, you know, I tell people, like, it was Chris Myers, Mike Chirico, Chris Fowler, Berman, me.
Keith You know, when Stewart was in there, you're in there, Tom Meese is in there. Timburando. Like there were a lot of Big egos in there later in his life. I did connect with him and had good conversations uh with him. Tried to talk to him right after the Espes when he gave his speech.
And he said he was too weak to do it. And uh He did say. And don't forget, I undercut you when we played basketball. Game on the line. I go in for a layup.
He actually thinks he's going to block my shot. clips my legs, land on my back. I'm I'm out. Like I am Dazed. I'm out on my feet or out on my butt.
I go sit down. And they're like, all right, we're going to call it. And I said, fuck no, give me the ball. And I went out there and Stewart's guarded me. And I took a shot, made the shot.
I got in my Jeep Cherokee. And I was so out of it, I drove. Over the The median there, you know, there's a circular driveway. I drove over. On the grass, drove myself to the hospital.
Damn. At a chip vertebrae, no way came in and did Sports Center. You did? Yes. I was like, there is no way I'm not coming in.
Damn. I'm no, yes. Stewart never said a word. I did not know any of this. I am learning competitive.
He was competitive. I wasn't trying to be competitive with him. He was one of the most competitive people. All of this tracks, although I just didn't know that the two of you were doing that. I stood up for him, and not that he would have cared or met because management.
Some in management made fun of him behind his back.
Well, there's no doubt about it. I mean, and that was p you saw that in the 30 for 30 that recently there were some notes that actually made it on the air.
Well, I, you know, that that day of his. Memorial at the mothership. Yeah. And John Skipper and I, John Skipper was winning ESPN, and he knew, like, we had had a falling out. And John said, you need to be at this memorial.
At least you got that call. I didn't. And honestly, that's part of the cauterization of. You know, of wounds that, you know, back with the SPN, that this show is actually helping. This is like therapy for me a little bit, you know, being going down these memories and, you know, 98, 99% of them are so positive.
It was such a life-changing experience for me. It was changed my life. You know, I won the lottery by getting a ticket to be a colleague of yours and everybody else that you mentioned, everybody else that you mentioned, and getting to learn and getting to grow and getting to be. And there's nothing like. What we were able to do at that time at this show.
Nothing like it. That I missed. When I went back for the anniversary. And Keith and I did a a small sports center. I was jealous, by the way, when you did that, not to interject here.
I was jealous that you got to do that because, again, I was outcast at that point in time because management had not yet changed. You mean with the anniversary show? Correct. I watched you do it from sitting at home in Los Angeles, and I was. You weren't invited to Nope.
Wasn't invited to do anything for all those years. Wow. You know, they didn't invite Keith until which is kind of crazy. I don't, that one I don't understand because the guy was leaving me out. I was screwed.
I don't care. Norby Williamson loves Keith, and you know, and I don't know, but I was being kept out, and it was terrible. And it was something that really always upset me. And one of the lowest points in that whole thing was watching you and Keith do your show. It was 22 years ago when we did our last show together.
And at the time, you said, you know what? How about we take a break and we'll see other anchors. What happened? Bottom line is, I just know a couple months later. You know, I knew I would never get a chance to do that with Stewart again because he was gone.
And I would have killed to have done another sports in award stewart to this day. you know, what that would be like. You know, so you got a chance. Because why? Because you're never going to be as good as what people think you were or told that you were.
But it doesn't matter, in all honesty, you know, because it does. No, it doesn't. Because you're. No, the older I get, the better I was. I mean, that's.
That's how I view it, Rich. I really, I. I think what we did when we did it, how we did it. was interesting and groundbreaking. and shaped the business in some ways.
But we did it. And then I didn't want to like... They reached out to Keith and I to do the Six O'Clock Sports Center years ago. Mm-hmm. To do it again, like for good, like for real?
Yeah. But that I understand not doing that for a daily gig, though. Yeah, that is what I do now, and I just didn't want to go backwards, and even now. You know, when somebody said, hey, Rich Eisen's going to ESPN, are you going to ESPN? No.
Mike I They didn't call with anything. There's no reason to go back there. But I'm on good terms with people. That was the problem was. There shouldn't have been acrimony when I left.
Because when I left, it was People, you know, they leaked it that I got fired. And I thought, why are you doing this? I gave you 18 years. I sacrificed family, birthdays, holiday, all of that, because I wanted to do Sports Center. They made it difficult.
And I don't know why they did. for years and I finally just said, can we stop this? Like, I'm nobody. I left. I'm nobody.
You're ESPN. And they empowered me because I still mattered. I was on the radar. Um And look, I've counseled. We're given guidance to four people at ESPN.
and told him not to leave. And this is over the course of, you know, I've been gone longer, 20 years, than I did 18 years working there. And people would say, hey, I want what you got. I said, you're not going to get it. Right.
Like, I'm in a small town, and we're very lucky, and there's 12 people that work on this show. Stay there. Those four letters are extremely powerful because you're going to get your ass handed to you. If you leave there and you think everybody's going to fall all over you. Think again.
That's a fact. You're you're you're 100% right about that. The plat there's no greater platform than the four letters, as you pointed out. There's nothing like it. When it's removed, it's jarring.
I was so on board when I um left similar experiences you Um I had three days left in my contract. sitting at home in New York. where I was getting ready to be married 10 days later. Three days left on my contract. Got a call from USA Today.
saying that ESPN had let them know my contract was not renewed. And that was it. And that's how I found out. My agent called right around the same time to say, We just got a fax to say we're done. I'm like, What do you mean we're done?
There's three days left to go. And I got married 10 days later. There was an empty table of ESPN executives there. Thankfully, you were there, and Stewart was there, Linda Cohn, Tarico, Fowler, Susie Colbert was there. And you know, Peter Gammons was there because Susie goes back.
The SPN, ESPN, the man on the $20 bill. And so. It was jarring. that I was no longer there. And You're right.
It just leaves you a little bit wondering about what's next and what's.
So I don't blame you for telling people stay put. Yeah, but I was going home to my attic to do a radio show. You were going to NFL Network, which is backed by the NFL. Right. I'm in my attic with three other guys.
And doing a national radio show with animals running around us and barking and cats on the, you know. Good. On desk there. My wife's getting kids out the door for breakfast. I mean, I wasn't doing, I mean, I didn't, I left because I needed to go home to be with my family.
I'd I'd been Second shift for 15 years. And I asked management, I said, can I do my radio show at home on Friday? One Friday a month. They said it was precedent setting. And that led me to I have to go home.
Because I've been selfish all these years. My wife said, they're going to be out of the house. If you sign that contract. when I went up to sign the contract, For five be a five-year deal. And I remember going up to Norby Williamson's office, and he said, You know, what are you going to do?
Take it or leave it? And I said, I'm going to leave it. He must have been stunned.
Well, he didn't hear me because he said Danielle is secretary. He said, I'll get Danielle to draw up. He goes, what? I said, I'm going to leave it. And that morning, my wife said, You know, you got to think about.
Your kids. You got to think about your daughters. And I kept thinking, I'm a sports center anchor. I'm a big deal. Like, I'm, you know, I don't deal with it.
You know, we're good. You're doing a great job, hon, raising the kids. Mm-hmm. And I was just such a myopic view and such a selfish view. that she's the one that had the perspective and i just remember It was in my head all the way up 55-minute drive.
Yeah. I just remember going I'm going to leave it. And then I remember going outside, and I started crying. Because I'm like I don't know what I just did. Yeah.
I came home. And I remember when I pulled in the driveway. And My wife sent my youngest daughter out. And Molly was probably... Four or five.
And Molly comes out and she goes, Hey. I should tell you the truth all the time. And now I think this is, my wife has set her up. This is, I'm quitting ESPN, I'm coming home. My youngest is out there.
She's gonna say something really sweet. She goes, I should always tell you the truth, right? I said, you should always tell me the truth, hon.
Okay. Even if it hurts, and I go. Even if it hurts. She goes, you got a booger in your nose, dad. And then she walked away.
Yeah. I don't know what Wait a minute, what happened here? Where's the Hallmark card here? I walk in, my kids are at the table. And they're silent.
My wife is silent. And I walk in, I sit down, and they go. Is this a good thing, Dad? I said, it's a great thing. And they started banging the table.
And then I was like, Okay. I'm home. Six weeks later, nobody's in the house. Remember, I'm coming home to be with my family. There's not a fucking soul in the house except for the dog.
I'm on the front porch with my dog Lou. And then I go. I just made the biggest mistake of my life. And my wife says, Give it time. Please give it time.
If you need to go back, I said, They're not taking me back, hon. She said, give it time. And I think it made and I'm You know, the guys I have on my show now were with me then. And because of that, it made It made the sh show stronger. It we had nothing.
We were in the attic. We combined two bedrooms to make a radio studio. And I was like, I'm in a fight for my life. But I'm doing it for the right reasons. Because leaving ESPN, nobody left ESPN.
It's like when you leave Alcatraz. They just tell everybody you got eaten by sharks. If you leave ESPN, yep, never heard from, never hear from him again. And I But I wanted the competition. Here's me taking on ESPN as if they gave a damn.
But in my mind, they did. And it's the best move I ever had, but it was for the right reasons.
Well, since you're sharing personally, I'm just going to go here. Since this is again, I know you don't like to hear this sort of stuff, but it's the truth. Um Snap cut to this very day. It's your 70th birthday.
Okay, we're sitting in this palace. this palace in Connecticut. That you Built. I mean, we're sitting on this football field next to a basketball court with a pickleball net on it.
Next to your studio that leads into another studio that you're building for your podcast, there's a dozen employees here. And Everybody On in our business right now is Broadcasting a podcast. Right, Netflix just got all these podcasts together and Spotify and all everybody's doing basically, you know, Stern was doing it when you started, you know, with he put his radio show on E, then you started it. I followed. You know, I literally was hired to do a show after yours, which you were so gracious about.
Telling DirecTV. Cool. Build off of mine. Um So you You stuck the landing. Your son, Jack, who I met when he was this high, is now 6'4, was here with your granddaughter.
Your dog comes to work with you. Mission accomplished. I mean, you did it. Like you did it. The decision you made where on the day where the booger out of your nose, you know.
He did it.
So Congrats on that. Thank you. You're welcome. See, you don't like talking about it like that, but it's the truth. Like we're here.
It's literally happened. And it's really fucking cool, Dan. But I hate thinking like I'm so competitive. What are you competitive about? And try to find things to be competitive about.
You know? Yeah. I don't know. I I can't. There's, I can't turn that off.
I've never been able to.
So, when my wife goes, How about you have a victory lap occasionally? Yeah. I go, Okay, but I got to make it quick because I got to have another.
Well, you just did. I just gave you your victory lap and you just changed the subject. I appreciate it. But I. I think having good people.
Is But I didn't realize. Having people you can trust. I've known Paulie for over 20 years, Fritzie over 20 years. You kind of set a Blueprint or a tablet or a PowerPoint of this is how you do the show. The people come in and then you give them opportunities.
And I think that's That's the That's the fun part is You know, I started at a broadcasting school. Yeah, but Gus Ramsey was your. I think he's just retiring now, if I'm not mistaken. He ran it for you. And, you know, and you're changing, it's the best thing I ever did in my life.
Career-wise, you're changing lives. You're truly changing somebody's life when you give them your degree is in sportscasting. We get you jobs. We've placed over 300 students. It's amazing.
So you've changed their lives. That's what's fun, is you can use your influence. I've called news directors. It can be in a market 192. I don't care.
If I can get a student in there and make a difference, that's what's great. Because all I needed was one break. You know, everybody needs that one break. Yeah. And when you get that break, that's the difference between will you do this the rest of your life.
Or will you be a one and done? And I try to be that one break. Because I was desperate for one break, desperate. And You know, it didn't happen locally. I nearly quit the business.
Because I couldn't get a job in Dayton, Ohio. I go visit an ex-girlfriend in Atlanta at CNN. She said, You should bring a tape down there. They're hiring at CNN. I go, I didn't get a job in Dayton, Ohio.
I'm not getting a job at CNN. I walk in. I'm I say, hey. Can I talk to the head of CNN Sports? I don't even know who the guy is.
Well, it turns out it's Bill McPhail. Hey, can I give this tape to him? Can he look at this tape? And the secretary is going to keep in. It's five minutes and thirteen seconds.
He watches three minutes, pops it out, he says, When can you start? Hmm. And here we are today. If I don't go to CNN, I don't go to New York, I don't meet my wife, I don't go to ESPN. I don't get to meet you and say, Are you nervous?
That's right. Right. That's right. That is correct. Let's end with just a little bit of fun here.
Your favorite Sports Center commercial you did. You did probably what 30, 40, 50? I don't know how many. Where you were either featured or you were the voice at the top where you were introducing it.
Well, let me tell you how it started because The ESPN would promote NFL, all these other shows, they got. Campaigns. And I said to John Walsh, my boss, I said, why don't we promote Sports Center? He goes, we don't need to. I said, well, do you need to promote countdown?
And he said, Yeah, you know, there's a lot of competition out there. I said, Well, can't we just do an ad campaign? Yeah. And he said, all right. I'll have you work on it.
And I go, okay.
So he gets the people at Wyden and Kennedy, brilliant people. No idea about this either. And then. But we couldn't get any athletes to come to Bristol, Connecticut. Because they wanted to know how much they're getting paid.
And we said, well, we're not paying you, we'll give you like a a donation to a charity. Can't get anybody to show up. Biden Kennedy has all these scripts. Yeah. Can't get anybody.
So I call Grant Hill. I say grant. Do me a favor. Can you come to Bristol, Connecticut?
Okay, how much does it pay? I said $2,500. He goes, Dan, I don't think I can do that. It's an ad campaign for SportsCenter. You'll have your own commercial.
If he doesn't come and do that, because that's the one where he's playing the piano in the lobby. Hey Dan. This one Okay, Grant. Uh... Ooh.
Bad show. Hair looked bad, teleprompt went down, made some mistakes on some highlights. Where I have a bad sports center, and he's out there, and I go, he's like, Dan, you know, what's wrong? I have a bad sports center, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, I got something to say to you.
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. I go, thanks, Grant. Thank you. And you drop some money in the jar. Thanks.
Thanks, Grant. I appreciate that. No problem, man. And then I call Jason Kidd and I said, hey, I get we have this idea. You fly in your highlights in a helicopter, and we go out.
Keith and I go out and get the highlights and bring it back to Sports Center. How much to pay? I said, well, $2,500. He goes, All right. Use the highlighter.
Try to wanna take out the third quarter. I Early practice involved. And those were the first two guys. And without them, I don't know how successful the ad campaign was going to be, or it was going to take a lot longer, but. Um I still think the one where Keith and I are just putting our makeup on and we're talking about tough guys in hockey.
I don't know why Linda Ross has kind of dropped the gloves. Neely and Stevens, they don't fight anymore. They're respected around the lake and besides I think penalty minutes doesn't equate to toughness in my book. I mean when I think tough Doug Gilmore's tough. Mark Messier's tough.
So the juxtaposition of two men putting on makeup. Talking about How These, you know. Like Niedermeyer, or we're throwing out all these tough hockey guys. You need some more Rouge. Here?
Thanks. While we're putting on rouge and blosche and So that one I thought was just sneaky, sneaky, great. That would be TOPS. You know, your foundation has looked great lately. Thanks.
Lance Armstrong was great. That was, was that Y2K? No, that was no, but he was the generator. The generator. And I'm up on my computer, and it'll be like the lights, and I'll be like, oh.
So you see me go down steps, go down steps, go down steps, and then I open up, and there's Lance towing off on his bike. And he goes, Hey. Lance, what's the story? Hey, hey Dan, sorry. Thought everybody left for the night.
I get you an energy bar? How about some water? No, and I'm okay. You good? Thanks.
Close the door. And then you hear him start to cycle again, and then the lights come back on. Fantastic. Once again, sneaky, sneaky, great, which is my kind of humor. And I love what they did at White and Kennedy.
My memory serves. That was in New York, though. We shot that in New York because I remember hearing, because you did that around the Espes, because they were in for the Espys, and they came up with some ideas to capitalize on being in New York and the Espys. And I remember saying, shit, they're shooting more Sports Center commercials. I didn't hear about it.
Because we all wanted to be in them. We all wanted to be in them. And we all viewed how many we are in.
Well, that's what we would be sitting there. Like, if I'm not in them, then they perhaps don't like me as much in management. Or how many was Stewart? And how many was Kilbourne? And obviously, how many was Linda Cohen?
And she's always wondering how many she was in. We were always talking about it. Then we find out Dan just did a few more. Like, shit, I know Dan's been around a while, but I'm pretty good in them too. Like, that's the conversations we would all have.
And I talk about Stuart being competitive, just to put a bow on everything here. The Lou Duva commercial that I was in, which is my favorite, called Corner Man. We're clear. Mm-hmm. Oh, the prompter's going too fast.
I can't keep up. Stop the f ⁇ ing. My throat. I can hardly talk. Give him some tea.
Give him some tea. That was when I had hair.
So we had only two takes because. The second take was after me blow-drying my hair so we could do a second take, which is the only time a commercial has ever been done with me for that. But Stewart was pissed because he had no speaking role in it. He was just. Window dressing just sitting next to me because it was just a sports center commercial where he was.
Well, Stewart did more commercials than anybody. He loved them. But the one that I hear the most when people say something to me is the one I almost didn't do, and you had to convince me to do it, which is me being sent down to the minors. To James Cage Polk High School. Should happen to the best of us.
This time, it happened to Rich. Keep in touch. He ended up getting sent down. And now, first four. Thank you, Courtney.
Because that was a few years into me doing. the show. And I'm like, why am I being the one chosen to be sent down to the miners? And I remember what you told me. You're like.
Get over it. It's fine. You want to be in something that people are going to watch, not read into it and go, boy, he's not any good. They sent him down. Yeah.
And that was the point I was trying to convey to you laugh with them. Yeah. Like you're you're caught up in what's this? What's this mean for my career? How are they going to view me?
Yes. Am I going to be taken seriously? I got sent down to the minors. I'm going to be the guy who got sent down to the minors. I said, Rich, just have fun with it.
It's okay. Yeah. Cause we did stupid things there. And you just kind of laugh. And then I see the commercial when we finally take your advice, right?
And I did ad lib a couple of things, you know, uh, that. Including the exchange I had with the kids of the line that I get the most. I literally got this in a convenience store just a few months ago.
Somebody comes up and says, Can you buy me some beer? Ms. Jyson, could you buy some beer? And I'm like, that's from the commercial. Like, yeah, that's from the commercial.
And, you know, I watched you when I was going to school. I love that commercial. And then I watch, but I watch it back. I'm finally like, is it as funny as Dan says it's going to be? And you fronted it.
You were the one who started it. I'm like, Shit, I didn't even know that.
So you were in it. Yeah. Like, I had no idea that you were the person that's just, well, yeah, set it up. You just couldn't keep up. I know.
But the ideas they would have, they would say, hey, Mark Maguire is on campus. He's going to give you his home run ball that breaks the all-time record, or Roger Maris's record. And So they set it up where Maguire's like, hey, I want you to have this. And I go, That's the That's the home run ball. He goes, I know.
And I go, I'll cherish this forever. The next scene is me pulling up in a Ferrari, and I've sold the baseball. And then I just, you get the unlocking it as I walk into Sports Center. I love that one. But they did a wonderful job in just tapping you on the shoulder of.
You know what was going to happen. Yeah, I had to watch the whole entire picture because there's always something, there's a mascot moving, or the subtlety was beautiful. And because of that. I mean, it changed sports. You know, that really changed Sports Center.
And then all these athletes wanted to get their own commercial. And that started because I went to John's office and I said, we should promote sport because everybody used to go to the specialty shows. Everybody would leave. They might come back and do Sports Center, and then Berman would leave to do football. Chris Fowler would do, you know, Scholastic Sports America, or then he would do college football.
Chariko was doing, like, everybody was leaving. I was the one staying. Um for a while and I thought I want them to promote the show that I'm doing, Sports Center. And, you know, I'm appreciative that John. John Walsh didn't mail it in.
He went out and got Wyden Kennedy. And they were brilliant. I mean, because it. Kind of took you behind the scenes. And it melded the two things about Sports Center, which was it was a massive pop culture.
spot for athletes to want to be part Like it was aspirational for athletes to want in on what Sports Center was cooking, but it was also in a small office. With cubicles and people typing at desks or walking into a lobby after having a bad show. You still had to do your job that day. That was always the thing, and be like, you're going to do a commercial or two, but you still have to go and do sports center. Right.
Because that was paramount, that you still had to do it. Wasn't there one with the perfect game that David Wells didn't show up? Right. David Wells was supposed to be in the commercial about pitching sports center perfect. The perfect sports center.
Right. Yeah. And David Wells was supposed to be in it or he didn't make it or something like that? I don't remember that. I just remember that I was having a perfect sports center.
Nobody wanted to say anything to me. And then I screw up at the very end with like a double something. And that, of course, is the sort of thing that can't never happen in a playoff race. Yeah. Oh.
What did he just say? That's a double negative you blew it and then everybody was like So funny. Thanks for doing this, Dan. I really appreciate it. Like I said, you know.
Do it again next year. Yeah. I'm hoping to have a season two. It'll be great. It's Chris Berman's going to be next.
Okay. And then Mike Greenberg. Um Linda Cohn. Chris Fowler and then Kragers. Craig Kilbourne.
Lord Kilby will finish up season one. Happy birthday, Dan. Thank you, Rich. And thank you for being here for the first. This was Sports Center, it's off and running every week.
For season one, for the next six weeks, right here on Disney Plus and the rest of the ESPN platforms. And I just want to say thank you to ESPN Management for all the great years. Oh yeah! Dan Patrick, everybody. Yeah.
