This was SportsCenter is presented by Gusto. As a small business owner, you know that time is money. Gusto can give you time back, two full days every month to be exact. Gusto is an all-in-one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy-to-use payroll and benefits platform. You can get unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price with no hidden fees or surprises.
The other guys, they'll charge you per payroll run. 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. Hi guys, my name is Susie Schuster and thank you so much for coming to this first ever live iteration of This Was Sports Center.
Please welcome with me my husband that I met in the newsroom in 1997. And we're still married, which is a miracle. Rich Eisen. Yeah. Thank you, Susie Schuster.
All right. We got a patch house. This is awesome. How's everybody doing tonight? That's right.
This is going to be a lot of fun. I met some of you up here on this stage in a meet and greet over the last hour, and the diehards are all here tonight. And I'm honored that you take some time out of your Super Bowl week to hang out here with us tonight and give yourselves a round of applause because all the proceeds tonight. Go to Jimmy V Foundation.
So well done to everybody here this evening. Clearly. The first season of this show would not be complete. Without tonight's interviewee and my guest, and I could not be more honored to welcome a man in his 47th year with ESPN. He joined just a month after the launch of this awesome network.
Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the Schwami himself, Chris Berman. Happy Silver Bowl. I heard it's in San Francisco. Is that true? It is.
Buffalo's winning. It is in San Francisco. All right, Chris Berman is here. And this is the first and probably only Live edition of This Was Sports Center.
So thank you for being that guest, Chris Burns. Good to see you again, pal. Yeah, right back at you. You know what? Those TVs behind you over there?
Yeah. I think we were on those. I was at least, you know.
Well, I mean, in the VHS. The key is the antenna, right? And the VHS tapes that we have here.
Well, we had two-inch tapes once upon a time. Back in that day. Oh, yeah. VHS. I still have a VHS machine.
So I mean what the hell? Why not? Am I going to throw it out for what? Right?
So Let's start this conversation with the first time you heard the letters ESPN was when, Chris Berman.
So let's see. It was the summer of or spring of 1979. We're not on the air yet, or not we, I wouldn't it. I was a second year job out of college, was in Waterbury, Connecticut on the radio. I did a sports talk show at night, which before they were around, and I did traffic reports in a car in Waterbury, Connecticut, where the traffic was always the same.
So it was.
So even if I even it was light to moderate or moderate to light.
So whatever. At the same time, I had just started a channel 30 on the weekend only, which is the The NBC station in Hartford, Connecticut. WVIT. WVIT. And it was making.
We only had the 11, Rich, then. That's it. This is Hartford. This isn't, you know, Presque Isle, Maine. This is Hartford.
$23 a show. $23 a show. It was the after minimum. But one on Saturday, one on Sunday, and I still have my radio job. And I heard about this sports network and it was going to start.
And where was it? And I had an interview and okay. And then they went on the air on September 7th, 1979, a day that to some will live in infamy. Yea, verily, a sampler of wonders. Hi.
I'm Lee Leonard, welcoming you to Bristol, Connecticut. Right after that, Scotty Connell was our number two guy.
Now, a lot of this is kind of boring, maybe, but it's a fact. And um he said um I went in for a second interview. By that point, he and Chet Simmons, who were running NBC Sports until a couple of years before, so this is real TV. They had me in. And you never know who you're going to meet.
when you're really far down in college. I was working as a runner for NBC in when they were in the New England area, during the Patriots and the Red Sox. For Brown, when you were in the New York City? For Brown, when you were in the United States.
Okay. Brown's in the house. I heard that. I heard that. Is that true?
Not Cleveland. No, no, no. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. We've had a tough time here in December, so think of those folks, please, two students. families forever.
I didn't mean to go there, but we had to. At any rate. He said at the end of the hour interview, he went, well, I see that you're on. I said, I'm not going to give you a tape. I'm on every night, Saturday and Sunday night doing sports.
So if I'm terrible, you'll see. It's a doctor tape. If I'm good, you'll see. And he goes, you know what? We had reports from the truck that you were back in the day as a college senior.
You're a good kid. And that's a big reason why I'm hiring you. You're I had only been on TV for like a month and he went. Yeah. We'd like to hire you as the overnight 2.30 a.m.
Sports Center show. And we can offer you sixteen thousand dollars and. Come on now. When you're doing two jobs and making nine, it's pretty good. And I said, well, you know, you don't have to move me.
I live here in Connecticut. This is my first job as an agent and last. How about 16-5? And I got it. I got the five.
I got the five. You don't have to move me.
So, I mean, no moving van. At any rate, you're going to start October 1st, 1979. The SPM went on the air September 7th. I was the overnight guy, which means 11:30 here in San Francisco or LA, and 9:30 in Hawaii if it's in the winter, and Alaska, and but in the east, 2:30 used as a night light. I couldn't wait to do it.
I said, wait a minute, what is our show going to be? Here we go to the sports center.
Well, we envision this being a 15, 20 minute wrap-up show at the end of the night. and you're going to be doing it and you're essentially tomorrow's newspaper. If anybody is up watching or on the West Coast, they are because the Dodgers or the Giants or whatever just ended and they're up. And I went. You mean we're just gonna do 30 minutes of sports?
Yeah. Hello, and welcome back once again to the ESPN Sports Center, which is still television's most comprehensive report of sports news. Walter Cronkite only does. 30 minutes and he does the entire world of news. It's like, we just have to do sports.
So how good is this? And they're going to pay me to do it? Yeah. And at 2:30 in the morning, I could really not be really good and get away with it for a while. And That's how it started for me.
I did that show primarily, Rich, three or four years. Speaking of Ireland, here's the old Irishman himself, Chris Berman. Huh? Get back away there. He he's eyeing those cold ones too much.
And did you do it solo or were you doing it?
Solo in the very, very beginning, but then pretty soon thereafter, I did a lot of shows with Tommy Mies more than anybody else, the late Great Tom Mees, who Thank you. It'll be 30 years this summer that he drowned, actually. 96. Yeah, I that's when I first showed up in the in the in the building. Tough time.
But were you the first, would you say? Pairing sports. Yeah, can't the overnight we were. And now, without further ado, I give you the master of the magic carpet, the maven of the MM set. And yes, the Supreme Seer of Super Sunday.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Swami. Haha, may the bird of paradise lay an egg on your eagles, Mr. Meese. Get you later. All right, you will get me later.
Who else was doing it? Then, well, we had seven of us doing sports. Seven. That was it. And we had a six o'clock, we had at 11:30, I want to say, right, we had a 2:30, and then on the weekends, we had a 10, a 6, 11:30, and a 2:30.
So we, there were seven of us, and I called us the seven Mercury astronauts. Um, you know, we went up and we weren't sure we were going to come down, right? Right?
I mean, we just hoped to land in the friggin ocean, so um. Um Yeah, it was let's see, well Lee Leonard and George Grand and there was a fellow from Chicago who had experience named Bob Waller and there was Greg Wyatt who had San Diego experience and there were three kids.
Well sure, excuse me. It was Lou Palmer.
So somebody came in a little later. Lou Palmer, God rest his soul. And then the three kids, Bob Lee. It was my age, 24. Right.
Chris Berman, 24. And Tom Meese was probably 26 or something at the time, 26 or 27. And we were three. We had no clue what we were doing. Hello, I'm Bob Lee, your poet now.
I'm trying. I'm Chris Berman. The Sports Center is next. None at all. What do you mean?
Some were talking sports, but right, it was pretty primitive.
Next up, though, we go to the West for the Boomers and the Soccers. The Boomers. The Boomers. Cobb Lee, that's the Boomer. I'll be back with George Grant at 11 for the next Sports Center.
Series. I mean, I could tell you some early stories. Um Ha ha ha. This is all true. I'd like to say that I'm making this up, but then again, this is your hour.
So So we used to have a the studio really wasn't completely done with the control room.
So the first month or so, we had big wires like you would see running out from the cameras out like big garage door matching that was ajar maybe, you know, six inches and then out to trucks in the back. Sure.
So this is September, October, November. Unbranched anybody, a skunk. Um got in. Not while a show is on, but at some point. Yes.
Okay. Yeah. Apparently didn't think much of The programming. And did what skunks do when they're not really thrilled.
So, how many of you have had a skunk in your garage?
Alright, so. You can get him or her out. They don't really want to be in there anyway. You open the door. And does the smell leave in the next day?
No. Does it take about two weeks? Yes.
Yes.
And so we did shows. Coughing. And smelling the skunk who was in there, not at that time. That's how we did some of the very early Sports Center shows.
So, if they really did stink, you were correct if you think that they did. I got one other early, real early story that I like to tell because, again, true. I mean, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. You found that out to be true. Right.
So. We in the very early days had college football was was not a lot unless it was at ABC I think had game of the week and they had five games We negotiated that we could have five college games a week, but none could hit the air until midnight Saturday night, right?
Okay, just as exclusivity as it was in 79 and 80.
So the A game, I'm making this up now, let's say would be. Ohio State and Michigan, okay? And that would run at Midnight on Saturday night, and we had Jim Simpson, who was a big name at the time from NBC. Jim Simpson, and I think pretty early Paul McGuire, maybe the first year, not Paul, but at any rate, so that would be Saturday night midnight, and we present it like it was just happening. I mean, it was over, you know.
eight hours before, but right. This is a big deal we have, Ohio State and Michigan. Then Sunday night There was no Sunday Night Football yet. would be the B game. And that's I'm making it up UCLA against USC.
Okay, okay. That would run Sunday night at 9 o'clock. And then, well, not Monday, so Tuesday, not because it was Monday night football, Tuesday we'd have the C game. North Carolina against Clemson.
Okay. Then Thursday night we'd have the D game, which would be... Bowling Green against Miami of Ohio, okay, and that was on Thursday night.
So Friday night, understand this is six nights after it actually happened, okay. We'd have the E game Which Could be Heidelberg and Muhlenberg, okay.
Now it's I don't know if those are the two teams playing, but they could have been. You know, it could be St. Olaf against you get the picture, right? Yeah. I'm the only guy on on Friday night because we're getting ready to do the.
It was, you know, the 2:30 a.m. show. The game starts at 10 or 10:30. Call comes up from the tape room at 11 o'clock. This is all true, Rich.
Chris? Yeah. Ray down the tape. I'll not say his last name because his names are protected, you know, we protect the innocent. Ray, what's going on?
Oh. What do you mean, oh? Oh my God, you wouldn't believe what's going on down here.
So, is everybody safe? Is there, you know, somebody hurt? No. Is there a fire? No.
Worse. Like, what do you mean worse? There's hardly anybody in the building at the time. We only had like 80 employees at this time. A lot of them were home sleeping because they were salesmen, right?
So they had nothing to do with us at 11 at night.
Well what happened? He goes Well You know, the game is six reels of tape. And we went from real one, of which then we would put on, well, we'd have PSAs, Gregory Peck telling you to turn off the lights, Amazoisoisia Lawn Care, how do you get a better lawn? Ginzu knives, true, Ginzu knives. And Yeah.
And he goes, Well, we put real six on. I said, well, what would you like me to do about this?
Well, we can't. The it's supposed to go. two and a half hours and the game's almost over and it's only 20 minutes in.
Okay, well can you get on and say something?
Okay. Yeah. And so in three minutes, I combed out a lot of hair then. I mean, I got my hair done, whatever, and put on a tie, like the danger field, North Taylor, you know. I said something about Rip Van Winkle.
Like, you know, you have not fallen asleep 20 years. I mean, this is honest. But even though you know. And I know. The score is Heidelberg 35 and Muhlenberg 32.
We now we've had a little error. We now take you back to action late in the first quarter with the score Heidelberg three, Muhlenberg nothing. Those ten touchdowns. Give us some time. I mean, it said this.
I didn't know what the, I mean.
Sometimes you just got to talk about the elephant in the room, you know? I mean, to be honest with you, when I... You've not heard that story. No, this was all. I've never heard that story.
My first big job was in television, was in Redding, California. And yes, just right, right, right up north from here. And we had a teleprompter that would work with a foot pedal that you would operate yourself. And you'd give it some gas to move the prompter. And you'd take your foot off to have the prompter slow down.
But the problem was that the prompter would sometimes just go asterisk, exclamation point, just nothing, just gibberish. And that happened to me one night. And then they rolled the wrong tape, and then they went to black, and then the graphics all went to shit. And I sat there and I said on TV, I'm broiling in my own sweat. I said that to the Camera because sometimes you just have to be state the obvious, Chris.
You know what I mean? You know what I mean? You can't tap the, but they're seeing it too, so why? Oh, I am working on it. No, I mean, it happens.
Right. Nothing like live TV, which is. You know, especially at quarter to three in the morning. Pardon, I know. Oh, I'd like to stay and watch it.
Wait a minute, I got to get out of here. My plane leaves for spring training. Can you finish this up yourself? Because I have to do it all by my loan.
So take care. Have a good trip. Don't forget your toothbrush. Good. Oh, gee, I'll have to forget that too.
But I got the suntan oil and I got my red and green. That's all that counts. RC, really happy. Take care.
So, when did you realize? Chris. that this was Hitting that this was A real phenomenon that you were taking off on a rocket ship? When did that first hit you?
Well, that's a good question, but I will say this: we did all believe right away, and maybe not when the skunk was in the studio, but we did believe, like, you know, there are people out there like us. There are people out that like you guys, right? Like they They're Changing diaper. I found this with letters, changing diapers. On a baby in Iowa And I watch you every night at 1:30 Central.
We're going to give you a number, in this case, for tonight's game, 41. You add up the total points at the end of the game. If the Patriots win a six-0, for example, obviously the total is six, and that is called an under. If the Patriots win 39 to 36, obviously you add that up. That's 75, and that is way over the 41 points.
And I'm thinking, I'm 24 years old. Why would you change snipers at 130? Why, why? I mean, you know, you quickly find out that that's the way it goes, right? But I actually count on you.
So, A, there are people that are interested. B, you're talking to... The tuning in, even though cable was not in a lot of places, and we have to even date, I mean, there are not many in here that understand.
So the long-round answer to that is...
Well, cable TV, when we started, we were in 3 million homes.
Now, that didn't mean we were on TV. Nobody had them turned on all the time. And the United States has a lot of homes. Would cable You used to get Five stations, if you lived in a city, right? Or three, or with a circular thing, a little UHF, right?
And this thing right here? Yeah, there it is. We all owned it. Why would anyone spend $20 To get 30, this is really, if you're young, you have to listen to this. 1979, 1980, 1981.
I'm going to spend... $20 a month? Mm-hmm. to get 36 channels of which I have to sleep. I have to eat.
I have to change baby's diapers. I have to go to work. There's no VHS machines yet. We're not taping my favorite show. I get five and they're free.
Why would I want thirty six of them? And think of what you pay now for TV, which is a joke, right?
So 20 bucks a month, no one's gonna. But people started doing it. You got that box with the buttons, right? And so. By 81, 82, now you're in whatever the figures told us, and I'm going to have it wrong, Rich, 8, 9, 10 million.
and I'd be places. And I'm still primarily doing the the overnight show. Just give him a basketball and let him play. That's all the Celtics were saying. They tossed one out this afternoon, and the Washington Bullets wished that such a momentous occasion had never occurred.
A waiter would come over or something, and you realize the restaurant, you know, not everybody worked nine to five now, especially, but even 40 years ago, it was a revelation that no, no, not everyone does this. The restaurant business, let's say on the West Coast, They're up watching late because they're not. Not really partying, they're coming home from work and they're turning on. There's not a lot on. And The waiter would tell you So what does a Swami want to drink?
Like, what? What do you mean?
Oh no, we watch you every Friday for your football picks. And tonight in the Miami, New England game, the over-under, at least that I have heard or has printed, is 41. That is the magic number. And if you ask me for tonight, that is about right there. I picked 24, 17, that adds to 41.
And so, little by little, you. Or you check into a hotel somewhere and they have ESPN on. ESPN was 1979. CNN was 1980. MTV, when it was MTV, was 1982.
All of a sudden, now we're really 83-ish, 84. You want them in your hotel because that's your hometown stations.
So. You're really realizing not on a daily basis, but on a kind of a quarterly basis, more people are seeing you. The guy who wore number seven for the Detroit Lions back in 1935 was a heck of a lot more talented than me, I can guarantee you that. He was Dutch Clark, and he led the Lions when the NFL title went over the New York Giants. As for these helmets, a lot of visibility, but.
It's a good thing he didn't have to take any hits from me, Joe Green. You're the late guy. Yeah, I am. Where do you live? Tampa.
What are you doing up late? I work the two shifts. I get off at midnight, you know. And You kind of had a feeling that It's sports and we're not trying to recreate Reinvent the wheel? Yeah.
If you're playing the Bucks and you're trying to earn yards against them, you're going to find it's a big, big problem. Fourth and 26 at the Buccaneers Camp, as usual, I'm Chris Berman, ESPN. And we're putting out a pretty good product. We were never slaps thick. We had early games on that you might remember.
Australian rules football, which was hilarious, right? And with the guy with the hat and the ref and the thing, yeah. Still don't know what it means, but it meant somebody scored. And We had stuff on that was It's not, okay, put a pie in someone's face. That wasn't what we put on.
We had little. I could say it midget racing, not tattoo, okay, or mini-me. It was like little cars, but somebody was into this. We had it on. The American Cup International Hang Gliding Championship is raging in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
And pending today's third day of the competition, the U.S. has almost a 3,000-point lead over Great Britain. But we also had Sports Center, which was giving you the only highlights of baseball games, Kansas City at Seattle.
Okay. Wow. If I'm a sports fan, I'm not getting this anywhere else. All good things must come to an end. I guess that's the tune the Detroit Tigers are singing tonight because the New York Yankees ended the Tigers' eight-game winning streak.
But for the Pinstripers, It was a reminder of how easy it is for them to win a game. Just grab the lead before the eighth or ninth and let goose gossage go to work. And we were pretty excited about what we were doing. And cable was rich. Cable was growing and we were growing.
We rode Cable's coattails and cable rode ours. And By 87, I know eight years can seem like a long time, but not for us. ESPN got the NFL. Like nobody thought NFL in eight years, Sunday Night Football and the show called. NFL Primetime?
Good evening once again, everybody. I'm Chris Berman. Welcome to ESPN's debut of NFL Primetime, and we hope this becomes a habit. But that's eight years, so you know, God, we must be doing okay. Yeah.
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No hidden fees, no surprises. 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. Did you always do your nicknames from the beginning on WVIT?
Were you doing no, not VIT, but so it started on Sports Center when you were in the summer of 80. The pitching thin bucks will be without Ross. Here we go. I never promised you a bomb garden. Terry Swimming Pool drove in all three runs for the Astros.
He has won the vote of reliever Rick Summer Camp. Jim, two silhouettes on Desha's. Don, welcome Mattingly with a drive to the right field corner off Joe. Actual retail price. The nicknames, Rich, were going back to Brown.
Um on the rare nights that we weren't in the library. Very rare nights, of course. Yes.
And we would be sipping on, obviously, a Perrier, which is what we Ivy Leaguers do. We wouldn't, you know. And 18 was legal drinking then, so I don't want to hear anything, okay?
So. You'd look at box scores, not, you know, for three hours a night, but I'd make a few nicknames and we'd just laugh. I was always kind of a nickname guy. Boom! With the bases loaded!
Bill Doran Doran, hungry like a wolf with the grand slam home run. You know, I did not invent Babe Ruth. I've been asked that. That wasn't me. But a kid did ask me that once.
Did you come up with Babe Ruth? Not really, but I'll take credit for it.
So. Now we're in like May of 1980. And then you're out there at 2.30 in the morning, and that's my shift. But I don't care who you are. If you're talking at 2.30 in the morning...
You're not quite Right, you know what I mean?
So a couple of them came out. True, not a plan, not a plan. And they go back to Brown. It was either the first one, it was either Frank Tanata was a really good pitcher. Frankton and a Daiquiri.
Or John Mayberry was a nice first baseman. And John Mayberry RFD, one of those two came out and I got. We wear an earpiece called an IFB, and they said. I got my ear in the middle and she said, what was that? And it just came out, and I thought I'd said like a four-letter word.
You know, like, oh my God, my career is over. What are you doing? And we got to the commercial, and the camera people were laughing. Nobody got hurt. I said, you know what?
Tomorrow night I'm going to try a couple more. And I mean, it's quarter to three. The boss sitting awake and um They were organic. If you ever try to do something to be noted, Like that? It never works.
It never works. You might think it does. You're noted for 15 minutes of fame. Sure.
So they started rich in the summer of 80. But a lot of here's why. A lot of the games were not on, even though they were all being so Seattle at. Kansas City and Seattle on a Tuesday night, not on TV. Right.
1980, 81.
So we put up this thing on TV called a Chiron or a font. I mean, it's changed them at the giz or whatever, all these things. Kansas City five, Seattle two. Whoa. Embellish it a little.
Well, George Brett had three hits and Jay Ferris Buener had a home run. He wasn't having a day off for Seattle, you know. You're just trying to. You're not making a joke of something. It's just.
Add a little flavor to it. It says five to two for sixty seconds.
So. Throw a few of these out. And so through the 80s, I'd get lists from fans, and maybe some of you sent them in. If I laughed at any of them, they were used the next night. It was Mike Pepperoni Piazza.
Luis Speedy Gonzalez scores, Juan going Gonzalez, Jeff Conine the Barbarian, Scott Supercala, Fragilistic Expiala Brochus. They had ghostwriters in 50 states and provinces in Canada. And it was great. People of work would come up with them. I mean, the best one was the best one of all time.
The best one was. And Calvin Haywood, a great director that passed away a few years ago, at any rate. He said, how about For Bert by 11, which is my favorite one, Bert be home. Blai 11, right? Why does that work?
It works because You don't have to know he was a pitcher. You don't have to know he had a great curveball. You don't have to know he played for the Minnesota Twins or the Pirates or whatever. All you have to know is, are you a kid? Yeah, you heard your parents say be humble 11.
And if you're a parent, you said, be humble 11.
So they work when it's not an inside joke. If it's for everybody. And it was organic, Mitch, I swear. And I mean, there are over a thousand of them. I mean, most of them go back to the 80s, 90s when I was doing Sports Center all the time.
And then, of course, Primetime happened, and now you have some football ones.
So Primetime got a nice round of applause here when you mentioned it. Um The draft, the NFL draft. When did that first hit your desk and Boom. Did you think that that was televisable when you first heard about it because it really is just a a list of names being read off. That's it.
And it could be done if. We both know.
Okay, yes. Right. How many of you have done? I've done whatever, 35 or 40 of them. Right, right.
Well, you were the original OG creator of the role that I have been so fortunate to do for NFL Network now for 23 years. And, well, no, thank you. But I'll never forget, though, when I first did it for the first time. in Radio City Music Hall, and we had our set over the right. And you were on the left side of the theater, and you just looked at me and you just gave me.
One of those. Which meant the world to me. I mean, honestly, get you, you were, you were. A prince for that sort of thing, to just give me one of those before I started, because I was just trying to. Continue on the way that obviously you and ESPN had created it.
But when you first heard it, did you think there's no way this is going to be anything at all?
Well, we did it the first. It would have been April, maybe it was late March, but first April of 80. There was the only one I wasn't involved in. I mean, it was rudimentary. Right.
And the meeting apparently was, you know, Pete Roselle, the commissioner, Chet Simmons, went to him. We'd like to televise the NFL draft. Hi, hello, and welcome to the New York Sheridan Hotel's Grand Ballroom, the site of the 1980 National Football League College Player Draft. I mean, obviously, I'm not in that meeting, right? 24-year-old guy doing the overnight show that, you know, I'm.
cleaning the the the floors later. Pete Roselle said exactly what you said, as Chet had told me. He's passed on, but he told me this. He goes.
Well, it's like reading the Manhattan phone book. You really want to put that on TV? And Chet goes. It's our only chance to have one day of the NFL. A lot of excitement at the club offices, 28 club offices all around the country, where you have your scouting people, your management people, and your coaches.
They'll relay the picks to the representatives here, and we'll announce them at the draft. It was on a Tuesday, by the way, at 8 a.m., and we had like. I mean, so you really had to be... Deep into it. Right.
And so. I started the second one, not the host. I mean, I had a very variety of roles. One year I was at in like a New A New York, like. Yeah.
Lunch pleasure. You can see the red and the white tablecloths. Maybe a little early for some to start going, but we're at Mike Manucci's restaurant where a lot of sports folk and the Big Apple will be coming out to give their opinions on the draft. It's at 7th Avenue and 52nd. And if you're the big apple, you want to give your opinion, by all means, stop by.
My dad came, he was working in New York, watching me do, and we had Kyle wrote, and we had some old New York giants plant that come in, but. And then one year I was out here at Redwood City and did the 49ers. By the way, it started at 5 a.m. These teams were drafting players at 5 a.m. I mean, and you know, they traded for Russ Francis that day, but.
Here's what I realized pretty quickly, even back then. For football, Then When the season ended and the Super Bowl ended like January 22nd or whatever the day was, the draft was like an oasis. in the middle of a desert. Except because there was no free agency, there was no nothing, there was no schedule release. This was your team, except for a few people you're going to draft.
And unless you live wherever you lived and you're reading about your one team. This was a football gathering place. On April 20th or whatever, when they finally then moved it to a weekend for more people. Hi, everybody. I'm Chris Berman, and welcome to the 53rd National Football League.
They'll call it the selection meeting. We call it the draft. The crowd is ready. We're ready here at ESPN. And then football went into hibernation again until the training camps opened.
So it's like for six months, this was the one day that. You know, we didn't have mock drafts. In November, okay, like, by the way, it's a little much, okay? We didn't have drafts in front of 300,000 people. By the way, it's a little much, okay?
But I mean, it's unbelievable. But well, the guy who does all the mock drafts now is Mel Kuyper. No, I'm not Kubernetes. I will never get. Chris, I will never forget being in college.
And watching him basically say the Jets have no idea what the draft is all about. Or that the Colts have no idea what the draft is all about. You get a problem with this move? I think it's the typical Colt move. I mean, here's a team that needed a franchise quarterback.
He would just go lay into it. And I'm sitting in college and I'm like, wow, this guy sitting next to Berman is losing his mind. To pass up a Trent Dilfer when all you have is Jim Harbaugh, give me a break. That's why the Colts are picking second every year in the draft, not battling for the Super Bowl like other clubs in the National Football League. And it was wild.
It was wild. To see moments like that and then have the general managers come on and then the coaches react. Who in the hell is Mel Kuyper, in a way? I mean, here's a guy that criticizes everybody, whoever they take. He's got the answers to who you should take and who you shouldn't take.
In my knowledge of him, he's never ever put on a jockstrap. He's never been a player. And all of a sudden, he's an expert. He's in our papers two days ago telling us who we have to take. We don't have to take anybody that Mel Kuiper says we have to take.
It was obvious that this was becoming not just something for the fans, but it was an industry must-see, also, which is what Sports Center became with you doing it, where players wanted to come on and coaches want to come on, and they were watching, and they were watching you, and they were watching, you know, Bob and Tom Mies, and the rest of the OGs that were starting John Saunders and whatever. And the draft was 100%. On top of what Sports Center was doing, connecting it together with the NFL coming to ESPN, and off it went. Like, there's no question about it. I mean, the draft.
But that another thing you We put it on or chat, you know, they they thought of it like Because this was one day big time for us. And there's no way they could have thought. It's become the extravaganza. I know it's been 40 plus years. Again, it was an oasis for football fans in the middle of the six-month dark period.
Right. And Sports Center, and then we had college basketball on, the early days, like, oh. There's a college basketball game on Tuesday night? Yeah, for a while. Who's playing?
Well, Louisville's playing, you know, there's Denny Crum and playing whoever they were playing. There was no college basketball on on Tuesday night, right?
So We were the first to televise the tournament. I know, you know, CBS is often running with it and they have for a long time. They've done great, but we invented it. And you also would go to the games when it was coming to an end, too. I remember that.
Like, hey, let's go to this game. Yep. There's 90 seconds left. We could do it. And it was one after another.
I remember that, too. This is, again, me growing up. Watching you and watching Sports Center, and then for me to. suddenly be part of it, where I was in Reading, California. I got a call at work.
From an agent I'd never heard of before. I'd send a tape to a headhunter, and they say to me, Uh I hear you one of the most uh hot up and coming sportscasters in America. And yeah, that was my reaction. I scared the newsroom. And I said, if.
Are the Beatles here? I know that, right? And like, if you say so, because I've got to take my three-quarter-inch camera equipment connected by coaxial cable, connected to this deck that's on my other shoulder, I got to go drive to Yuba City. You know, I got to, I was, I didn't feel anything but, you know. in the middle of my starting my career six seventy five an hour is what I was making as well.
And so I see your twenty three dollars a show and raise you that hourly rate. But the reason why I'm telling you this is it wound up Five minutes before Al Jaffe called me. at the same number at work to say I was I was on their radar screen and I wound up auditioning and I wound up getting the job. The last two years, the New York Knicks made much ado about having four separate first-round draft picks. Perhaps the scouting report has changed because in the last two weeks they've traded them all away.
When you first started on SportsCenter, back in nineteen ninety six, which is now close to twenty years into the existence of the company. And they would have you observe. They would have you sit in on meetings. And you'd have to sit around and watch the sports center anchors and the production staff go do their thing. And one of the first days I was there as a sports center Trainee.
In 1996, there was one anchor who was already leaving to do other things for the company from the Sports Center chair that he helped create. Sports Center Chris Berman. I am merely Dan Pan. Oh, stop. This is your house.
I'm just passing through. How are you? Seeing each other about as much as during the Super Bowl. To come back every now and then and just do a few shows a week. And that guy was Chris Berman.
I'll tell you what. I'm just visiting here. Have a good time. And I remember you walked in the room, Chris. And It was the same guy.
You were the same guy I watched on television. Seemed to be just a short while ago that the Houston Astros were stumbling, rumbling, bumbling. You were the same guy to everybody. You were the same, same person. same personality a reminder today that no one Circles the wagons.
Look at that. Like the Buffalo Bills. And I thought to myself. That's why You're so successful. Because you would like.
I'm like, I know that guy. I felt I know that guy. And I knew that guy. And I just wanted to share that story in front of all these people. It's the truth.
It really is the truth. You know, and so just watching you do your thing You know, I it helped. Kind of calm my nerves a little bit. about how to get ready to do this thing at age 26. and start my Sports Center career.
And I've told you this other story as well. I'll tell it here as well. The guys in the front row for my show know this story is coming. I think I told this to you as well.
So you remember those banners? Oh, yeah. Okay. I think you've told me. I'll tell the story.
Okay. So the story is this: there's ESPN banners that they put on the side of stadiums to let everybody know who's broadcasting the game, ESPN. And they would always take these banners, fellow coworkers, and hang them over the sides of Of the prefabricated cubicles that would form the hallways of ESPN. And it would say, please sign this for charity. And um And I I was so Uh nervous.
about signing these banners. Because I was new and I was afraid that somebody like you or Dan Patrick or Keith Olbermann or Robin Roberts or just name it, Charlie Steiner. These were all the people who were doing Sports Center when I was there, Linda Cohen. Craig Kilbourne, and I was afraid to sign him, that you'd come out of your office and say, who does this new dipshit think he is signing these banners? And one night I'm doing a 7 p.m.
Sports Center and you were doing the 7:30 baseball tonight, or was it the other way around? It was. You were in the makeup chair, and I'd never met you yet. And this is the first time I ever met Chris Berman. And I'm like I said, screw it.
I'm going to ask. And I asked you, since you've been there since 1979. How many sports centers do I have to do?
Now, you don't remember this story, right? Like, you remember, no, but you don't remember this happening, obviously. All right, so I say, How many? And you say to me, How many have you done at least one? And I'm like, yeah, and you said, fuck it, sign them all.
And I grabbed a Sharpie and I went down the line. I signed them all, and I never thought for a split second again. And you you made me welcome there, man. And and I um you had to have known you were an ambassador for this sort of thing for people like me, I'd imagine, back in the day.
So yeah, but those days, not that it's different. It's different not only because we're so much bigger, but even the 90s when you started and even the 2000s, you knew a bulk of people. They didn't all have to be on air, or they could be in our studio, or they could be. Doing any type of job, but we looked out for each other. And so I was you once.
You know, I mean, not that. There was anybody for me to ask in 1970. We didn't have banners. I don't think we could afford them. Yeah.
I will say this in our business and in most any business. If you Well certainly on TV, if you try to be Someone who you're not. You know, like, oh, the old radio voice, you know, hello, and I, you know, is that how you wake up? I hope not. Um If you try to be somebody else who you're not.
And you're on every night. The difference of ESPN to the network still We're on every day. And if we're not ourselves when something doesn't, a tape doesn't go right. or something breaking news happens. And Then you're an actor or an actress?
Okay, that's my opinion.
So that there would be no way that the Colts would have a chance at the defending Super Bowl champs who seem to be back on their game. That's Why they play the game. They can see through if you're on every night. But last night he seemed... Like he was doing he was trying to be somebody else.
Tonight he's this and that. It doesn't work. People are smart. People want to be, okay, who are you comfortable with? Look.
Not everybody likes chocolate ice cream. Right?
I mean, plenty don't. But if you're chocolate ice cream, just be it. And if there's some people that don't want to order you. They'll watch Um The test pattern that was on opposite meeting at 2:30 in the morning. Right, exactly.
But, you know. But no, I totally understand what you're saying. I mean, Stewart was exactly himself. Dan Patrick, Keith, like. Uh Linda Cohn.
Pretty everybody who's been doing it for Scott Van Pelt. In the current day. He says who he is. Like these are, honestly, when you meet them, they're the same people that you see on the air. And it hit me like.
Well, Kilbourne was fake, but I told him that fake understanding I told him that's faith. But no, but he was, that's who he is off the air, too, whenever you meet Craig. You know, literally, when I'll never forget, after doing one of my first sports centers, I ran into him in a hallway. He's coming up the stairwell. I'm going back up.
He's going down the stairwell to do a show. I'm going up after having done one. He goes, Oh, you're the new guy, huh? And I'm like, Yeah, I am. And he goes, I've been seeing what you're doing.
You're doing a lot of what I do, but that's good. Yeah. Well, he was. And I'm like, that's the guy I've seen on television, you know? But here's the thing, Rich.
Let's break it down to be real here. We're not smart enough to be anybody else.
So why wouldn't we be ourselves, right?
Well done.
Well, I mean, that's let's break it. I appreciate you saying that. In the few minutes we have left here, you said to me downstairs. We did a, you said to me, we've done a sports center before, right? This was sports center is presented by Gusto.
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We found one. We found it October 11th, 2001. was one of the Space Odyssey. We did that in the Roll it. Here's the How about overtime finishing in college football?
Ralph Region, Lefty Drizzell. Ralph Region, Lefty Drizelle, Maryland, excited. They play righty, lefty. Yes, they do. Chris Berman, Rich Heisen.
We're excited. Glad you can be with us. Coming up on the show, Michael Jordan. He's coming back. And Major Bliss.
Yes, he is. I don't know if you knew that. I didn't know that. Yeah, we'll let you know what happened with the Michael Jordan comeback and if the Jets can conjure up more magic for the Dolphins in the Meadowlands this year. But we have baseball to talk about.
Afternoon baseball. Lefty, righty. Yeah, that comes into play there, too, Richard. The high hello. I mean these these shows It's just television and sports.
It's not brain surgery. Just do it, right? Like, you were young. I had a I still have And listen, I got 300 ties, okay? I mean, some of them haven't worn since probably that shit.
That's right. For good reason. But so what? You know, I work with Greg Gumbel, who we lost this past year, and I'm glad you mentioned John Saunders. And I mean, I could go on and on and on, but.
No, no, we had pairings and people liked pairings. And you and Stuart were very special. And I did a lot with those people I mentioned, mostly with Tommy Mies and Dan and Keith. And it was a different. That was kind of the way it was presented, right?
Like even if you watch your local news and new people. Right. And. Hopefully, we were comfortable in your homes. Glad you could join us in your chez lounges.
Hi, everybody. I'm Chris Berman, along with John Saunders on this hour-long edition of the Sports Center. I mean, you. Because I think, and I speak for Rich, and I speak for all of us at ESPN, that we don't ever take for granted that you can invite a lot of people into your homes via the, what we used to call the boob tube, by the thing in the middle of your living room or your family room, which is now like 90-inch TV, which, you know, heaven forbid we might have a zip. But I mean, that would be pretty back then, 13-inch TV, okay, we look fine.
You allowed us into your homes, and we can't take that for granted. And we hope we included you. That's what Sports Center is about in. Our conversation. It's the first time the Steelers would be 4-0 since 1979.
Oh, by the way, that was their last Super Bowl year.
So we shall see if the echoes are woken up by the Steelers and the Packers at a tundra, which is not yet frozen, but yet it still is at Lambeau Field. Like, you're not speaking back to us. You might yell at us, like, whoa, you know, but. And we say that, it's not pap. It's really The way we've always felt about it, I know that.
No doubt. No doubt. It's about a connection, it's about. making sure what I mean in the same way that you said somebody Um Said they're changing diapers to you, right? I've met some people tonight, and it's quite frequent.
Stuart Scott and I either put somebody on a school bus Or I, Stuart Scott, and I would. Help them procrastinate. Yeah. in college, you know, and we would get, I still get that today. And it means a lot.
to me to hear that. Yeah. has been there. And it's it's about the marking of time. in their lives.
And and seeing, you know, as you said, wow, you looked young, like And then had hair. Yeah, it's a marking of time for me too. And I look at that, and Susie introduced this tonight, and I met Susie in the newsroom, and our children are ESPN children by proxy. I look at that, and I think that's a different human being. It's so long ago, it's a different part of a career.
But the fact that I get to meet folks like tonight who are like, you know what? I was, you know, you helped raise me. It blows my mind, man. It does. But that's what sports center means to a lot of people.
And, you know, obviously you might not have been thinking that in the middle of the night in 1979 or 1980. Probably not. Probably not, but that's what it has become. It does. No, very well put.
Listen, we. In this time, and I have felt this for a long time. And if I speak somewhere, and I've said this. And it hasn't changed. You know, we're even in a rougher time.
society wise than we'd like to be for many reasons, okay? But that's not a political statement. That's unfortunately reality. But sports is one of the few things still to this day. Like music.
That Fits all shapes and sizes. You can be. White or black, or pick another color. You could be rich or poor, or in the middle. You could be old or young.
You could be male or female. You could be. We all could have the same conversation. about Hey. Did you see?
The game last night with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Like, how could they have punted when they had to go for it on fourth out? And we have a conversation. us maybe leading it on the air, but sports kinda Yeah, you're a stranger, you're a stranger, but we can talk about it. And it's been the most heartwarming.
Revelation to me way early in the sports center years, and if I had not done sports center, I wouldn't have known this from the letters and the things and the people that you meet on the street and whatever. I used to do baseball games every week. Um in the 90s primarily. I would get in a cab and land in Cleveland, and I had the Indians maybe four times a year. They were good.
Then they were good. Albert Bell, and I mean, Alamar, Sandy. I mean, we can go on. Was it Albert Hubel? What was it?
That wasn't a great. Sandy, well, Roberto was remembered. The Alamar Sandy was, Sandy had another one. Albert was not ding-dong bell. That wasn't a good one.
But at any rate, I'd have a c you know, a cab driver would pick you up and he'd have the Indians game on the radio the night before you're doing the game. Right. And he's listening to it every night, right? I learned more in a 30-minute cab ride from a guy in a cab that maybe went to a game once a year. Yeah.
So tell me about the Indians. And I didn't have to do any studying when I got there. My point is. We all can talk, and if that's what sports does above everything else. Not, I hate this team.
That's a bad word to use in sports. I really root against this team. Different. You know? I I if Sports Center helps put that People that we never see, but you're out there.
Then we've done our job. I don't mean to get heavy, but I really feel that. When was the last Sports Center you did? I used to come back to keep DiMaggio's hitting streak alive. Yeah, that's again.
That's what you did in 01 with me. I think I might have done one or two with you that week, but when was the last time you've done one? It's been a while now. Do you want to do anymore? When you want to go back in the listen, I mean, I'm there for a few more years.
It's too late for them to get rid of me now.
So they had their shot and they missed. Come on. They underpaid me for 20 years. They overpaid me for 20, and now it's kind of a wash. I'm semi-retired.
I just do my football. I do my prime time and I Maybe in this year of us having the Super Bowl, not that that has to do with Sports Center, but maybe there'll be a time to go do one, although it's a different show. I'm not saying it's not good, but it's different. And um things in the palm of their hands. You know, as soon as somebody comes up with a play, That you would want to say, I can't wait to see it on Sports Center tonight.
It's different now because you've seen it five times in alerts, on social media, on Instagram, or whatever. I know that. You're not on Instagram. God knows. I know.
I'm a child of the 20th century. But I think, though, that there is, again, tonight, you see, this. This awesome Strand Theater in San Francisco filled with people that remember these times. And it's a powerful, powerful emotion, nostalgia. And I'm leaning into it.
So What do you say? Do you want to do another sports center, Chris? Are you going to do it with me?
Well, who knows what discussions? How about that? Yes, I will bring back 2001. I might have the same suit. It might not fit.
I won't wear the hair. I won't have it. But yes, there are beetle eyes out there. I would love to do that, as a matter of fact.
Well, I mean, we listen, we're having this show. We almost have to go back, back, back in time and... We almost have to do it. I mean, not that I... We'll figure it out.
Not that I, you know, I'm looking to fill my days with more work.
Well, that's right.
Well, those sports centers are not work.
Okay, let's, let's, we're not in a coal mine. Let's, let's, let's one night only. One night only. Plus, I need to rack up this moment. It's not my finest moment.
I need to rectify my attempt at a Chris Berman nickname from the 2001 sports center show that's rolled out. The flames in Nashville. The flames go down in Nashville. 1-0. The lone goal scored by Vladimir.
This is Orsag. This is your third set. I don't know. John Vladimir is a big fan of his. I'm trying to do something here.
I'm trying to make a play. 1-0 is the final score. Flames 0 for 4 on the power play. Uh Another wrong quoting Elton Sean. You are.
Hey, listen, imitation is the highest form of flattery. You know that. But it's a game everybody can play. I think Gus Ramsey gave me that one. You might have the famed Sports Center producer who came up with so many catchphrases for so many people.
Um But he might have given it. Certainly, since I received two Berman nicknames from you. Um, which meant I had made it as well.
Well, didn't I call you? There's two different versions.
Well, one is Rich Betty Davis Isaac. That's correct. And, well, I is like, what else? That was kind of the one I was reading. The other one was Rich Kaleidoscope.
Kaleidoscope, eyes. You went Beatles and you went Kim Carnes and Beatles.
Well, you had two different versions of it. Rock and roll music. That was our internet.
Okay, that was people in Seattle and people in Mississippi and people in Buffalo and people in... I knew they were here. And And people in St. Louis and people in Pensacola, Florida. We didn't know it.
We were listening to music. Similarly on our radio stations. When you meet somebody later, you bring up, oh, remember, you know, Gata DeVita? I mean, I'm dating myself there. Remember, you know, we can go a little later than that.
But yeah, I listened to that when I was in high school, while I was in college. And sports and music are kind of like that. But music was our internet. That's just a little social statement by me. It was.
I liked it better than the internet, Frank. That's a whole nother story.
Well, Boom, I can't thank you enough for sitting down here tonight. I wouldn't have wanted to do this Was Sports Center without having you part of it, certainly in the first season, certainly here at a Super Bowl in San Francisco, which I know is a special place for you. And so thank you very much for. Taking part in this was Sports Center Chris Berman.
Well, listen, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Round of applause for Chris Berman, please. Thanks for being here for the live version of This Was Sports Center.
ESPN News will love all this. I enjoyed it. Me too. Chris Berman, Rich Eisen. Ciao.
