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. Welcome to the latest edition of This Was Sports Center, the podcast about the old days, the good times.
Of the Sports Center days, where I'm fortunate enough to sit with old colleagues of mine from back in the day, still in the present day. for many on ESPN and this episode of This Was Sports Center. Future is my friend from back in the day as well, Mike Greenberg. Good to see you, Mike. How are you?
I'm thrilled to be a part of this. Thank you for asking me. I think it is a magnificent idea, as I told you when you first mentioned it, and I'm honored to be a part of it. Thanks, pal. And we're on the set of get up.
doing this from New York City. This is your Playground, so I appreciate you giving uh you giving up a little bit of the space here for this show to you. I think about where. It was when you started and then I came shortly thereafter.
So just to give you a sense of exactly where I came along, you'll remember the time. It was when we were working out of trailers in the parking lot. Yes, because they were redoing a whole bunch of stuff. They were redoing the buildings. And so when I started, which was in August of 96, I have a little tiny desk in a trailer and I look across and Keith Olberman is sitting there writing a show and Dan Patrick is sitting there writing a show and Stuart Scott and you.
And I remember thinking to myself, this is unbelievable that we were in these trailers in Bristol, Connecticut, doing this show that is a cultural phenomenon beyond belief. And so I guess that's my way of saying we are a long way away from those trailers in Bristol, right?
Well, we weren't far apart. I arrived in March, late February, actually, of 96. And the setup there, they were just about to move out to the trailers. And I walked into the newsroom and it was set up like a an old NASA sort of movie type setup where Um It was row upon row upon row, where one row was higher than the next. And we were all looking at screens, watching games together.
And um I just walked in because I came from, you came from Chicago. I came from Reading, California. I came from small market. number like on the whatever the metered market it it was if it had a one in front of it, it it was good. I it mi mi it might have been like market two hundred or whatever.
But I walked in and I saw sitting in these chairs uh everybody that I watched on television. And I just it just hit me. I'm like, holy shit. Like, I am now a colleague of theirs. How am I going to fit in?
How am I going to do this thing? Did you have a similar? Oh my God, yes. Absolutely. And I started, it was months after you, but it was also light years after you, or at least I started very differently.
Yes. Because I didn't start out doing Sports Center. This podcast is about Sports Center. But I started out as part of what I've always thought of as like a pledge class of people who came in to do ESPN news.
So myself, Michael Kim, Chuck Garfine, Dave Feldman, Ian Page. There were like nine or ten of us that got hired to launch this fledgling network called ESPN News. Greetings and salutations. Welcome to the newsroom and the only place on television with the latest sports anytime you want. I'm Mike Greenberg.
This is my handsome friend Chuck Garfine. And so I remember in the early days, we'd get on Sports Center like once or twice a month, and that was a very big deal when you would get a chance to do a weekend Sports Center for somebody.
Well, thanks for dropping in on Sports Center alongside Mike Greenberg. I'm Dave Revs. Our travel plan. Are set for the next 60 minutes.
So it was a very different time. But the answer to your question is absolutely. I walked in, and one day there's Chris Berman standing there. And I mean, I was born in 1967. Yes.
And I grew up in Manhattan. You were both from New York. Yes. So I had cable when cable was just in its infancy. When no one in America had cable, we had cable.
So I had been watching Chris Berman on TV literally since I was 11. Seemed for a while that the San Diego Chargers were having about as much success finding a defensive coordinator that could really make things happen as Ponce DeLeon did trying to find the fountain of youth. And then now I walk in the door and there's Chris Berman standing there.
So yes, I was overwhelmed. You remember your first exchange with him? Because I remember mine. It was memorable.
Well, it was yours.
Okay.
Well, you're the guest. I don't mean you tell your story.
Well, mine is a little longer, but it is a very good story.
So I had been. At ESPN News at this point, maybe six, eight months. And I had left in Chicago my girlfriend, who I am has now subsequently become my wife of 28 years. But it was hard because she wasn't moving to Bristol, Connecticut with me. We weren't engaged or anything like that at the time.
And so I was traveling back and forth in Chicago every single week. My days off from ESPN News were Monday and Tuesday.
So I would get off the air on Sunday. I would fly to Chicago. And in those days, it was cheaper to fly out of Providence than it was out of Hartford.
So I'd get off the air. Exactly right. I would drive to Providence. I would fly to Chicago. I'd have two days there.
I'd race back. I'd fly back. I would get in the car in Providence and I would drive to Bristol and anchor this show on ESPN News that literally nine people are watching.
So I get back and I'm in the bathroom in one of the old buildings shaving.
So I'm standing there shirtless. And you know, I'm not, I'm not Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so like, you know, shirtless is a is sort of a vulnerable feeling. Yes. And I'm shaving.
And who walks in to take a peek? But Chris Berman. I think we had passed each other in a hallway or something. But, like, this is the first time that I'm sort of forced to interact with him in any meaningful way. And he said to me, How are you doing?
And I said, Well, actually, I'm a little tired. I just flew back from Providence. I was in Chicago. Whatever I said. And he said, Well, welcome home.
And I remember at that moment, that really was when it flipped for me because I was, I, up until that point, had been someone who was, had been living and working in Chicago for 11 years. That's where I had left my life behind. I had left this woman that I knew I wanted to marry behind. And so that was home. And this was just a place that I came to work five days a week.
And there was something about Chris Berman, I don't mean to overstate this, but there was something about Chris Berman saying, welcome home, that began that. Evolution in my mind of, yeah, this is home now. This is where I'm going to be. And it all worked out, obviously. Stace eventually moved there and we got married and all of that.
But that was my first real interaction with Chris Brown. I love that. I have a similar story. Um there are some similar beats to it. Um, except I was wearing a shirt when you're already one huge step ahead of me.
I'm already I'm already that much ahead. But um, and on this pod, um, I'm gonna be telling a lot of the same stories uh over and over again.
So, for those who are taking in this show right now have heard this, uh, it still bears repeating.
So, um, you remember at ESPN. after we come out of the trailers, everything is kind of set up. It was set up this way when I first got there as well. That the ESPN banners that ESPN hangs on the sides of stadiums for ESPN broadcasts would be hung over the sides of these prefabricated walls that would create the cubicles that a lot of us worked in. And there'd be a note from somebody who would hang those banners and saying to Hon Air Talon, please sign this.
for charity, for some sort of asylum option or whatever. And so I was sitting there wondering. When Can I sign these banners? Because I was afraid. Here I am.
I've done four sports centers: five, six, seven. I didn't know what the number was. For me to feel comfortable, and I was deathly afraid of me signing it and then, like, Bob Lee or Robin Roberts or. Keith or Dan would come out of their offices, like, what is this snot-nosed kid thinking? Like, putting his signature next to mine.
I was deathly afraid of it.
So I'm doing a sports center at Sunday after a baseball tonight at like seven o'clock or something. And I walk into the makeup room and who's there getting made up but Berman. because it was one of the times when Chris was. Um Hosting baseball tonight. And I had seen him before.
Like, um, In your way, where you went straight to ESPN News, I might have been the last anchor, along with maybe Chris McKendry hired, that was went straight on a sports center. But we had to sit and observe. for weeks in meetings before they Felt comfortable throwing someone from Redding, California on the air. And one of the weeks that I observed, it was one of the one weeks of the year where Chris Berman came back. and hosted And I just was so blown away by seeing the guy that I saw on television was the guy that walked into the meeting room.
And it impressed upon me like, okay, No bullshit here. You don't put on any airs. You just yourself. Be yourself on the air because that's... Who's more successful than him?
So I'd never spoken to him though, but I'd seen him in action. And I saw him now sitting in the makeup chair. And we're just I'm like, what do I say to this guy right now? And it just popped in my head. I said to him, listen.
Um You know, I don't mean to trouble you. And he goes, What do you? I'm just sitting here. What do you need? And I'm like, I'm wondering, who better to ask than you?
And I told him. My conundrum. Uh and I said, When can I sign these? And he looks at me, he goes, How many sports centers have you done? At least one?
And I'm like, yeah. And he goes, then fuck it. Sign them all. And I just unsheathed the pen and went down the row confidently, never looked back. And the through line of your story and mine is: he made both of us comfortable.
Yes. And you didn't have to do that. He didn't have to do that. Just two words to you. Welcome home.
Yeah. was basically him basically saying welcome to ESPN. It kind of blows me away that that's your story and that's my story. And that's pretty friggin' cool, man. I think it's a lot of people's story.
He was very welcoming. Like, there was always something about, there was something about Boomer and Bob that was just different from everybody else. By Bob, I mean Bob Lee. Yes, the gentleman. And because Tom Meese, so I feel like the three sort of originals, the old guard that had made it, at least up until the point that I arrived, were those three.
And the tragic death of Tom Meese was. Were you there by the time? No, literally a few weeks before I arrived. Dude, that happened weeks after I arrived or a couple months. And, you know, out of respect, I went to the funeral.
Yeah. And I talk about out of place. Like, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to pay respects, but I definitely. saw first up and first up close about that.
That was terrible. Yes. I think those were the three. Like, I think those three guys were. It's not a Mount Rushmore because there's only three of them, but they had sort of the ones who built the place.
And then, in some order, you guys all sort of came through next. At some point, it became Dan and Keith and Charlie Steiner and Robin Roberts and Ewan Stewart and Craig Kilbourne and Carl Ravich. I don't remember the exact order in which these things happened, but that was sort of the next guard. But I always felt like they were the ones who sort of put it in place, put the bricks in place for everyone who came subsequently. And I think that Boomer and Bob, to their everlasting credit, felt that way.
Like they felt like this was something that they had built and took very seriously. And I always felt that their approval was very important to me. The fact that they seemed to approve of what I was doing made me feel very good. No doubt.
Sometimes I would do this crazy shit on the shows. You know, and I thought to myself, Oh my God. It's re-airing again and again and again. And Bob's probably sitting there, you know, breaking some sort of massive journalistic news. And there I am doing some Marv Albert imitation over Nick's highlight.
What an idiot. But he was pretty cool too, man. But you're right. Like, so when I got there, they always had on the wall. on a bulletin board.
that uh the ratings from the six o'clock sports center from the previous night, the 11 o'clock Sports Center, and also the um The Nick Charles and Hick and the CNN show, yeah, Nick and Hick, yeah. Right, that was the. Competition at the time. And I remember that on the wall. And then I just remember how that was.
another introduction. The first day though, I walked into work. This is true. The first day I walked into work. It was the um the day they shot the Don't Walk Sports Center commercial.
You win for the year. Young ones. Go walk. Extra steps will give you bunions. Go walk.
It started with Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Don't walk. I can't get walk on air. But on the floor, it's just not fair. What would Nae Smith say today?
Where all of them are together, you know, with their singing Don't Walk about. about not traveling. Um in basketball. And I just remember sitting there going also These sports center commercials. I can't wait to do one of these.
My mind was all over the place, just out of my skull, being so happy to be there, but also frightened down to my socks. about how am I going to Um How am I going to stick with the program here? You know what I mean? You make a fascinating point. The commercials, the cultural impact of the commercials.
Follow me. Follow me to freedom! I'm hoping that there are people listening to this conversation or watching it who are not old enough to remember what Sports Center was, the place that it occupied in the American culture in that moment. Yes. Because obviously you and I knew it.
We grew up watching it, wanting to be a part of it, getting the chance to be a part of it. You in a huge way, me, I sort of went in a slightly different direction, but stayed connected to Sports Center on purpose. I mean, the reason that I stayed connected, my story very quickly is: I was anchoring ESPN News. I had moved up and started doing a little bit of Sports Center.
So it used to be the 6:30 p.m. Sports Center. Yes. And they moved it to 6 o'clock and they made it an hour and sometimes it was 90 minutes. And in those days, it was Bob Lee, Robin Roberts, and Charlie Steiner who would alternate on that show.
They decided they needed a third person to come in and do like a little bit. Folks, tonight, a very special edition of SportsCenter. We call it Who Wants to Be the MVP? Because it was too much for two anchors on a given night. You would literally come in and anchor like two segments.
That you? By myself. And I started doing that semi-regularly. We'll have the final answer with Robin Roberts, Bob Lee, and me, Mike Greenberg, on SportsCenter next. And I thought it was the greatest job of all time.
Tell you what, we just better watch out. Mike Greenberg. Hello again, everyone. Welcome to Sports Center. And, you know, I'm like, back to you, Bob.
Ridiculous. His percentage of throwing out runners was the highest since they started keeping that stat 10 years ago. Bob?
Well, Budge now has the hard work. Pedro Martinez has his Cy Young Award. And I thought that was the greatest thing ever. And then they came to me. Mike Golick, who was doing the morning radio show at ESPN with a legendary local Philadelphia host named Tony Bruno.
Of course. And they did it for one year. And then Tony left. The details of that remain murky to me 25 years later, but they needed a co-host, and one thing led to another, and they wound up offering it to me. And honest to God, my reaction was.
I'm not taking myself off of doing two segments at night of Sports Center to go do this, this radio show, which is on in like four markets. That has no future whatsoever. I want it to be on Sports Center. Hello, again, everybody. Thank you for spending part of your weekend with us.
I'm Mike Greenberg. We have a big fish on the move and the road to Sydney as well, but we begin with baseball.
So I worked out a deal where I got to do 100 Sports Centers a year. Yeah. Like they thought.
Some might say I had to do 100 sports centers a year. I said I get to do 100 sports centers a year. Otherwise, I wasn't going to go and do the radio show. But anyway, that's how Mike and Mike was born. That's how Mike and Mike was born.
Yeah, we went on January of 2000, and I would do 100 sports centers a year. With Randy Johnson, everything is larger than life. And after losing seven straight playoff games, he didn't have a monkey on his back, as he himself said. It was more like King Kong. All that's ancient history after yesterday's three hits shut out in game one of the NLCS.
And that lasted for. 13 or 14 years.
So you would do what time would you wait? Mike and Mike from six to ten. Yeah. And then I would go to the gym. When they built that gym on the ESPN campus, it was great.
Well, because great way to kill some time. When we first got there, there was maybe one. Treadmill. Yeah. Await.
And a racquetball court. And there was nowhere to eat. Remember the cafeteria that was open like one hour a day? It was a machine. Yeah.
And a plate of like somebody brought in like some cookies. Cold cuts. It was no one would eat that. Everyone ate it McDonald's. Cheeses, you know.
That's exactly right. This woman making wrap sandwiches. Oh, my God. But anyway, so things got better. But that was when I first arrived.
But by now, we're 2001, 2002. Yes. They've built the cafeteria and they've built the gym.
So I would go to the gym in the middle of the day, and then I would come back and I would do the evening Sports Center twice a week. At first, it was at different times, it would be that filling in role with Bob and Charlie. But then Robin left to go do Good Morning America, and Charlie ultimately left. And Bob was really doing more outside the lines things.
So that show became a lot of Chris McHenry. Hello again, everybody. Back in better than ever. Mike Greenberg, Chris McHenry. A lot of Trey Wingo.
Thank you for starting your weekend with Sports Center. I'm Mike Greenberg. He's Trey Wingo. And then ultimately, Scott Van Pelt and Brian Kennedy. And I was sort of the fill-in.
I would fill in whenever anyone had a day off.
So that was what I did. That was really my sports center time for 12 or 13 years. But before that, just racking back a little bit, how many late nights did you do? I'm sure we did one. I did.
I don't think so. I did very few. Can I tell you the story of the first sports center I ever did? I would love to hear that.
So when you first told me you wanted to have this conversation, I thought, what stories can I tell?
Okay.
This is my best story. Yes. So I get hired in August of 96. And as you said, you had to sit in meetings and watch and listen and all that.
So the first time they put me on there was October.
So I've been there six, eight weeks. And I'm going to do a 30-minute sports center at six in the evening on a Saturday with Larry Beal. Welcome to Sports Center. I'm Larry Beale. Alongside Mike Greenberg, who is making his Sports Center debut tonight.
Welcome. Thank you very much, Larry. Great to be here. I'll tell you all about myself another time, but we've got 60 minutes of highlights and just 30 minutes to do them.
So let's get it going. Larry was my first. Larry Beal, my first. I literally just said those words. Hi, hello, and welcome to Sports Center along with Larry Beale.
Who am I and what am I doing here? I'm Rich Eisen. I'm making my national TV debut. I had a lot of fun at parties. But that is how we used to say things.
Yes. Right, that was a big deal, who you did your first sports center with.
Well, that's going to do it for this sports center.
Next one comes your way at 11 Eastern. Brett Haber and Steve Levy be along then. For right now, I'm Mike Greenberg. And I'm Larry Beale. Larry Beal, aloha.
Means goodbye. Means goodbye. And so I'm sitting, we do the show. My then-girlfriend, Stacey, flies in. You know, she's there.
It's a big deal. And we go out for dinner to celebrate afterwards.
So we go to this restaurant in Farmington, Connecticut. Yes. And we're having dinner, and we sit down, and the waiter. Says, oh, I'm a Big fan of ESPN. I'm thrilled to have you here.
And I was like, oh my God. I've done one show for 30 minutes. I can't imagine how famous I'm going to be being on ESPN. And they're bringing food out, and they treat me like I am the VIP to end all VIPs. And at the end of the night, the guy brings the check and he says, I just want to say, Mr.
Levy, it's been an honor having you here. I swear in my life that is a true story. Oh, my God. You 100% thought I was Steve Levy. Two.
True story. And we did look alike. If you look back at old pictures of Levy and me, there was a stunning resemblance. By the way, that's not a bad guy. No, no, I was delighted.
I was looking for Steve Levy. Not a bad thing. And I asked Steve Levy once. He came on Mike and Mike, and I said. Yo, who do you get?
And he said, People sometimes ask if I'm Mike DeRico.
So I thought that was a great line. Levy, Levy, sneaky funny. Very sneaky, funny guy. Fantastic. Yeah.
So that was my first sports center. Oh, man. Yeah. I did my first sports center. Um on a March madness Round of 32 weekend with Larry.
And I remember it was like a half an hour. I don't know why we were doing it. like maybe five people were watching it during march madness like what are we doing it wasn't on espn Um but I'm obviously excited. And I remember because the highlights were coming out of the The um They were coming out of the edit base right. right as the games were over.
So I remember going down to the studio for my first sports center. And if say I had 12 highlights, maybe I've seen one. They were all going to be coming at me off the cuff without seeing it. I'd have to do the paperwork the whole bit. And I just remember thinking to myself, I have two choices.
I can either Shit in my pants, or just suck it up and do it. And I think I did both. Lots more to come on Sports Center. We're going to Vegas, at least in a figurative sense. One last preview of the Mike Tyson Frank Bruno fight is on the way.
As is Digger Phelps, he's going to add a little perspective to all this madness. You know, I think I did both because it was just wild. And then there were some other highlights, like I did do this all the time because I did it when I was in Reading. um at my local T V and It was a big hit in Reading. Where, whenever it was a Knicks highlight, I would do Marv Albert, who's my idol.
I mean, must be yours as well, right? Exactly. I mean, I rip him off every day. I'm sure you do inadvertently or purposefully with stylists and stylistically and cadence-wise. But at any rate, I would do his.
imitation and I would do the entire highlight like that in Reading. I did that on my first sports center. Really? Yes. That's called, that's, that's, that's, that is, it's gutsy.
A gutsy call on your part. Uh once I did the highlight and the entire panel.
Okay.
Marv's voice. Yeah. It was Larry Beale on camera next. Oh. And so he was just like, okay.
You know, like he didn't know what to do with that. He didn't know what to do with that. Yeah. You know, and I did, so I was beginning to learn. Like, if I did this sort of stuff, There's something as overkill as well as putting My partner.
In a position, right? Like, I was learning on the fly. He didn't go, he's so sweet. He didn't say a word to me. Just go on.
Nothing. He said nothing. He just went, okay, like on camera.
Okay.
I never did.
So I do. I will sometimes lapse into Kosel, sometimes inadvertently. That's not on the air. But I didn't do. I do know what I remember you saying on the air was got it.
Like that was your like everyone had catchphrases. Yeah, that was it. And I remember thinking, I don't have any catchphrases. I don't know. I came from radio.
I was a radio guy. They put me on TV. I didn't do any of that.
So I was trying to figure out catchphrases.
So that was what I remember was yours: got it. That was your biggest.
Someone hit a home run. Right. Three balls, two strikes, and he got it. And that was based off of. Uh We share an alma mater.
You went to Northwestern Undergraduate Medill School of Journalism. I did the Medill School of Journalism Graduate School. And um I I went there because um I was Um I I just needed a a a push. to figure out how do I put a tape together, how do I do this, how do I go for it? My hit my dream of being a sportscaster.
And I knew a bunch of guys from Michigan who went through the Medill School of Journalism. And um so at any rate, the Final quarter was in Washington, D.C. Were you, did they have that for the undergrads there? No.
So the. I as you say, I only went to undergrad. No, I know what you're talking about.
So right. It's all completely evolved now, but I know what you're talking about.
So back in that day, the final quarter was taking us, the students, the graduate students, sending us to Washington, D.C. and uh a bunch of local television affiliates who couldn't afford to have Washington correspondence. They used us as their watching correspondents. And so I used that as an opportunity to work for all the affiliates as a sports anchor. That's exactly what I'm doing.
So there's a Wyoming station that loved horses, so I covered the preakness, yada, yada, yada.
So, long story short, I stayed with a bunch of my friends from college and fraternity brothers from college who lived in the DC area, and I crashed there. for the for the quarter. And one of the guys who worked at ESPN for years named Dave Satlin, What's Up, Money? And he was dead asleep on the couch. when Wayne Gretzky was going for the all-time, I think, goal scored record.
He's dead asleep on the couch. Gretzky shoots, he scores, and in front of the entire group of friends, just wakes up and he looks at the screen and goes. You got it. and goes back to sleep. And the record used it over and over and over.
You got the garbage, I got it. You got the fuck tonight, I got it. And I made a pledge to everybody that I'm here to try and get to Sports Center. If I ever get to Sports Center. I'm going to use that as my home run call.
Oh, I love that story. And so that's the genesis of that. And That's it just came naturally just because I I was following through on a pledge. to my buddies who let me crash. to help get me to where I wanted to go.
That's a great story. Rich Eisen here for Gusto. Right now everyone's trying to run leaner. Tighter budgets, smaller teams, higher expectations. The last thing you have time to waste on is manual payroll or chasing down an HR form.
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One more time, gusto.com slash TWSC. Yeah, it's important also to note. I want the other thing I thought that I wanted to say is that for anyone, I hope that there are people. Outside of your kids and my kids who are listening to this conversation, who aren't old enough to remember what Sports Center was. The the my other story that I wanted to tell is this.
The drunkest I've ever been in my life. Great way to start a story, number one. Took place in a place with which you are very familiar. Yes. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Okay.
My best friend from growing up went to Michigan, undergrad, and I was there visiting him, and we went out, and I was. I was downstairs. I was I had been sick. I was just all of the terrible things that happen when you're drunk much, much, much too much. And I I he they lived in a house that had a basement and I was downstairs in the basement trying not to die.
And I come upstairs and I hear da na na na na. And I said, Hm, I wonder if the Knicks won. And then I almost started, like I literally looked at these guys, almost started to cry because that was the moment in which I realized I'm not gonna die. I'm going to live because I care if the Knicks won. And the point of telling that story is that in those days, that's how you found out if the Knicks won.
And the Knicks are winners. The Knicks win just barely. And he hit just two field goals in the final six and a half minutes. Imagine how crazy it would be right now if I said to you, Who won the last night? The Monday Night Football game.
If on Tuesday morning you woke up and said, I wonder who won the Eagles or the Chargers. I think I'll put on the television and wait until ESPN tells me and shows me a highlight of that game. If you're just joining us, welcome to Sports Center. Oh, it could be an historic Friday evening. We're just a few minutes away from Tony Gwynn's first at-bat tonight.
We will bring that to you live. That's the world we lived in in the late 80s and the early 90s. Sports Center was where you found these things out. When history happens, it happens live on ESPN. Tony Gwynn is the 22nd player to reach 3,000 hits in his career and the first National League to do it since Lou Brock 20 years ago does it as you saw live with a first-inning base hit off of Dan Smith, a rookie right-hander, whom he had never seen before.
That's such an intrinsic part of why it was so important, because it was endlessly entertaining, but the information was something that you weren't getting. Practically anywhere else. I think that's part of excellent that you bring that up because it is also part and parcel of. um of why I eventually got a cardboard box handed to me. Um in 2003.
Because Sports Center evolved into a show that I really wasn't terribly happy hosting anymore. And that's also part and parcel of what this podcast is going to be about: is you know, my experiences there and why I left it, and obviously my relationships with people along the way, and seeing if there's any commonality in that. Experience, but it changed. It changed from a show about what happened. And a show in which an anchor would deliver the news with a wink and a nod and a pop culture reference, infotainment in sort of a way, but eventually, at the end of the day, it was about informing.
But management viewed it as now a show that's no longer about informing. Or entertaining, it's about explaining to somebody why something happened, which led to a lot of arguing on the air. Certainly when Crossfire was a big show. Um in the early aughts. And I think management wanted to turn ESPN into that.
So I wound up doing fewer and fewer highlights. And I wound up sitting in between, you know, for instance, I guess Sean Salisbury and John Clayton, and being the referee of an argument. What was that called? Four downs with those. They had a bit, their stick.
It had a name. Whatever it was with the two of them. Um it it it was something that I just didn't like doing. Or I didn't want to keep doing. Certainly, when I mean, seriously, we're sitting here again on the set of the show you host and have hosted, well, not in this actual studio, but since 2018.
Yeah. Okay.
And so that's just a perfect example. And this studio, right next door to the First Take studio, down the hall from the Good Morning America studio and the view and yada yada yada. I was beginning to see, all right, Disney's owning ESPN. I want to do more stuff. I want to use the Sports Center platform to have me broadcast other things and expand my, you know, my portfolio and.
Whatever other analogy you want to use, spread my wings. And I just didn't want to do it anymore. And management was basically saying, you know, at the time, We want you to do only that. And I Just wasn't into it. I'm like, I stood my ground, didn't think it would eventually lead for me to have a cardboard box, but management figured, listen.
If you're seeing results, it wasn't yet in the palm of your hand, but it was going in that direction.
Now, in this day and age, you know, you could talk about any massive three-point buzzer beater on this show, in this studio. You could talk about a one-handed grab. But at Sports Center, it was maybe the first time back when we did it. The first time you saw it.
Now, in the palm of your hand, you're getting an alert that just happened. Right. You know, my 14-year-old is showing it to me first on a Vert on the ESPN app. Right. Like, that's where it's evolved to, and it was just beginning to do that.
And Sports Center had changed. It just absolutely changed while we were doing it. And it was inevitable.
So, that's the one thing. Like, people will. Look, people, this is probably a universal truth that as we age, we become nostalgic for the way things used to be. And so I share the feeling of people will say sometimes I see it on social media, I see people write it, I see it or hear people say it. Why can't Sports Center be like, why can't ESPN be like it was when Rich Hisen and Stewart Scott were doing it, when Keith and Dan were doing it?
And I understand that feeling because I have a nostalgic attachment to that as well, as I was peripherally attached to it when it was happening. But You couldn't do it now for the reasons you just described. We have gone through like seven industrial revolutions. The industrial revolution took a century, right? We've gone through that like seven times in our industry.
So as much as people think, oh, I wish that ESPN would be exactly what it was when I would watch Keith and Dan, the truth is you wouldn't watch that because you would not turn that on to see. I was living in Chicago and I was a fan of New York sports teams. That's how I would find out at night if the New York sports teams had won or lost their games. That's not how you would find it out anymore.
So it had to evolve and become something other than what it is. I. I think it was more comfortable in the format that you're talking about because I came from sports talk. I came from radio. And when I was in Chicago, I worked at the all-sports radio station.
I covered teams, but I ultimately was hosting talk shows. And so I was always, that was always a very comfortable milieu for me, is to have people, whether it's debating or analyzing or whatever the case may be, it was always more than just delivering what was happening. We have the big deal today, second day in a row. We have a major trade, Phoenix in Boston. Tell me why this deal makes sense from both teams' perspective.
That's why, and I pay you the ultimate compliment, guys like you, Stuart, Dan, Keith, the very best of the best. Sports Center in those days was like being in a box. Like you're not going outside that box. You have a very limited to stand out, to do something in that. I would never have made it.
I was a solid as could be. I will get you from point A to point B, Sports Center anchor. No problem. Barry Bonds says he'll make a commitment if he sees a commitment. Last month, there were rumblings that Bonds wanted to be traded.
Now he says he'll leave his heart in San Francisco provided he sees the franchise taking steps toward a World Series. But I wasn't going to do anything that you remembered. I need a thousand words to make a point where in your case, nine might suffice. And that's the beauty of it, and that's what Sports Center was.
Well, as they say, irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. John Elway and Dan Reeves don't like each other because Dan tried to trade John and John got Dan fired. Mike Shanahan, meanwhile, was hired and fired by one and has coached the other to two Super Bowls. Coming up, we'll tell you why in this Super Bowl, three really is a crowd. You had to be able to do it all within this little tiny box that was Sports Center.
And so to do that and to be memorable, to be able to say, booyah, or they're not going to get him, or he could go all the way or got it, or whatever. it was that that was that with that That's just not a skill that I had. And that's what made Sports Center so great. I too miss the way that it was. And that's why when you came back and did it in September.
Everyone, including me, when we heard the music and we saw it all, and obviously the Stewart piece of it is a whole other emotional part. But just to reach out, and that's why this podcast is such a great idea. But the truth is for people who say I wish it was like that again. Right. I understand why you feel that way, but it just can't be.
Like the world that we live in just does it. Your kids wouldn't watch that, and my kids wouldn't watch that because it's just not the world they live in. Yeah, I mean, it's all about immediacy now, of course. Yeah. I mean, you're not going to record something.
At two in the morning, where it is fresh, and play it back eight straight times throughout the next morning, you're gonna have a show called Get Up. You'll have a show called First Hake. You'll have various other sports centers to be done to bring you something live because news is always breaking. That's why ESPN News was created back in the day. I mean, you can see the evolution of where it started and where it was going and where it is today.
I totally understand that. I do, I don't know, I will always go to my professional grave. Thinking that there is always going to be room for an old school highlight show. Hi again, thanks for hanging out with Sports Center back in the his house with Rich Eisen. I am Stuart Scott.
The big cat figured: if you can't beat him, join him. Speaking of getting beat, Martina is mortal. But first, Stuart, why are we leading with the Mavericks and Warriors? Longevity, my good man. Pure Longevity.
There always will be somebody who wants to sit down and see a three-minute breakdown, a version of, not a breakdown, but a three-minute highlight of the Thursday night game. The next morning. I will always say that. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.
But people will still always want to do that if it's done in a if it's cut and produced and delivered and executed in a certain way.
Well, we actually do do that.
So, like, for example, on Tuesday morning, and you and I are recording this conversation on a Wednesday, but on Tuesday morning, we did a three-minute and 47-second highlight to start our show of the Eagles and Chargers because it was great. It's funny. I mean, like, that's great. And we storytell over the highlights. And actually, if I can slip in as an aside, go forward.
About Our friend Stuart, who is of course your Everlasting your forever partner and and and um You know, and our friend, and everything else that he was. The one thing that gets, I think, sometimes overlooked about him because he had all the catchphrases and because his personality was so authentic and genuine, and because it really did change the trajectory of sports conversation in America in a lot of meaningful ways, was how solid he was in delivering highlights the way we were taught to do it.
So, we were always taught when we were starting out. Don't tell people things they can already see. Like, don't say, and he hits it to left field. You know, it's a home run to left field. They can see it's a home run to left field.
Tell me it's the third home run he's hit in the last four games. Tell me something I don't already know. And Stewart was great at that. Chuck Knobloch came in hitting 220. His last 15 games was straight off the hinges this game.
He would, whenever he got a shot sheet, During a commercial break, or while I was doing mine, knowing he's about to do this one next, he would be furiously scribbling notes. Sats stats. Exactly. Or, you know, a Shakespeare line or a hip-hop line. That's what makes it great.
So the hip-hop lines is great. Everyone remembers that. Sure. But what he was also doing, and what you would do, and what all of us who do highlights well do is tell you things beyond what you can see. The NBA record holder for most threes in the season, Dennis Scott, checks back into the game.
Scott from like Arkansas. Cannot get a witness from the congregation. His ninth three of the night, one off the team record. He had 33 points. If I show you a highlight of a play on a third nine, and the quarterback makes a play, and I say, and look what a great pass this is.
Well, you can already see what a great pass this is. I'm not really adding anything. But if I tell you it was his 14th straight completion, or they were nine of 10 on third down in this game, and that was the difference, that's what separates, that's what makes a highlight great. You're actually telling the story. A highlight is meant to be.
The telling of the story of the game. And the pictures are there to do their part, and then we as anchors are there to do ours, to actually tell the story and fill in all the rest of it. And you guys who did that at its apex were the best at it, and that's what made it great. A guy who I did Sports Center with for just a brief time, because he was in the part of his career where he was surfing back in from doing other things, which again was what I was telling management back in 2003. You let other people do things.
I want to do other things. Yeah. And still have a foot in Sports Center similar to what you were doing with your radio show. At any rate, the person who really opened my mind about how doing a highlight could also be an extra part of storytelling, but also saying what had happened earlier in a game or what happened earlier for a team in the season. And now here's a moment where they're overcoming something or it's the same thing that's happening again to sort of weave in a season-long storyline.
Or, you know, we didn't see the highlight from that first. Quarter, but in the third quarter, we're seeing that highlight, and you could verbally describe what had happened in the first quarter and use this moment and use the 10 seconds in between beginning of play and action of the ball, either going through the hoop or in the hands of somebody, was Terico. And I did about three shows with Terico, and I saw just how Natural, you know, he was in just talking. Thanks, and welcome to Canton. It's the 37th Hall of Fame weekend, and we stress weekend because it's not just the induction ceremony on Saturday and the game, which this year is on Monday night.
It's the whole weekend. You know, not announcing. Just talking, and I just put a light bulb over my head about, oh, so that's how you could take your highlight game. Up another level that I didn't even think existed. He is insanely talented.
Yes, that is true. And a great guy.
Now, the Ohio State, Michigan game. On his radio show in Columbus yesterday, John Cooper said: even if we do get this must-win to become bowl eligible, the Buckeyes may not accept a bowl invitation, Kirk. I have a great Terico story, which is only. It's more about me than it is about him.
So we were doing Mike and Mike and I. Those are all my stories, by the way.
So I totally agree. Exactly. Back to my favorite topic, me.
So we were doing Mike and Mike. The Cavaliers during the second LeBron time in Cleveland made the finals four straight years.
So Mike and I practically lived in Cleveland. You know, we would go there for the finals to do Mike and Mike. Golick is from Cleveland.
So we would go there all the time.
So we're supposed to be doing Mike and Mike from the baseball arena. We were presented by Progressive Insurance and their baseball, not arena, the baseball stadium was Progressive Field.
So we would always do the show from Progressive Field when we were there. And there was all kinds of weather in New York. And for whatever reason, Mike got there and I didn't. I just never made it that night.
So I'm rebooked onto the first flight the following morning and I'm going to land in Cleveland. I'm going to get raced to the stadium. I'm going to get there as early as I can. Tarico was doing the finals game that night.
So this is a Wednesday. I'm making this up. We're going to do the show in the morning. And then that Wednesday night, he's doing the game on radio. He he Volunteers, someone asked him, Can you come and sit with Golik at 6 a.m.
in the baseball stadium and just do the show until Greene gets there? Probably an hour and a half or so. Because Torico is a mensch and because he can do anything in his sleep, he does it. He does it.
So he does it. It is Mike and Mike, but it's not Mike and Mike, right? But it is Mike and Mike. Yes, yes. It's a Mike and Mike from long ago.
Mike Terrico in for Greenie will explain. Greenie may actually be at the show this morning depending on his travel.
So I land, he's doing the show with Mike. I land, they have a car waiting for me. I'm in the car. I'm listening to the show on the radio. Yes.
We're driving to get there. I'm listening. I'm listening, and I turned to the driver and I said Step on it. This guy's better than me. Can I ask one important question?
Yes. Where is Greeny? I mean, you guys are telling me this is a big budget show. You're bound for New York. You're going to take over all of Times Square.
Blah, blah, blah. Where is the man? He tweeted that he landed. Like about an hour ago. You get Wally Pipp.
We cannot leave Tirico. We cannot leave Mike Torico. His name is also Mike. They could make this Mike and Mike without me in the blink of an eye, and it would get better instantly. Mike Greenberg entering progressive field in time for his show.
Two hours, 21 minutes late, yet Mike set for the show in advance of game six. Of the finals. Mike dressed very well. He seems to be wearing some sort of a designer look that I've seen him wear about 30 times before. Yeah, yeah.
I've seen him look better. Yes. He looks a little weathered, a little tired, a little haggard. That's how good I did. I looked at the guy.
I was like, drive faster. This guy is way better at this than I am. It's interesting to watch. Here's Greenberg standing there. It's like the president watching a cabinet meeting going on without him.
All he can do is watch. He's like waiting to watch. He has no vote. He has no proxy power. He has nothing.
And he's that good. And he's still that good. I'm thrilled to be here. And thank you again to Mike Tarico for sitting in so ably this morning. He's so much better than I could ever hope to be.
I hope you remain in touch with him. He and I talk a lot. His daughter went to Northwestern.
Well, Susie was the sideline reporter of this crew for many years on ABC Sports. Yeah, I mean Torizo is uh Is a guy that I'll always be in touch with significantly. He's next-level talent.
So I grew up, you and I are pretty close. I think I'm a little older than I. I was born in 67. Yeah, I'm 69.
Okay, so I'm two.
So we're the same vintage.
So I grew up first and foremost. Idolizing Kosell. I mean, Kosell beyond and Marvin. We share the same. Nothing will ever, no one will ever have the magnitude of Howard Kosell ever.
But then, like, the generation of broadcasters that I so that the person that I really admired was Costas. And to this day, or maybe not now, but when I was, when my kids were little, whenever he would pop up on TV, they'd say, There, Dad, there's your idol. Because I would always say he was my idol. Torico is the guy who I think is most like him. Like, just his, his.
Extraordinary mastery of the information, because that's what you're talking about. In order to do that highlight, to be able to fall back on something that happened in October and fall back on something that had happened in the first quarter and seamlessly weave them into why this three that he hit to beat the buzzer at the end of the third quarter is particularly important. You just have to have a total mastery of the information. You have to know everything and be able to instantly recall it and then relay it. That concisely?
Yes. That's a skill. That's a God-given gift that I can't even fathom. Tarico, I think Costas to me was always the best I'd ever seen at that. And I think he's the next in that line, in that sort of line of descendancy.
He's the next guy who does that. For NBC. Yeah. He was the perfect person to follow. To bridge that, right?
With him. Rich Eisen here for gusto. Look, the economy is a lot right now, and if you're a small business owner, you probably feel it. You can't control interest rates or tariffs, but you can control how efficiently your business operates. Automating payroll and HR with gusto is one of the fastest ways to cut friction and focus on what actually moves the needle.
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There's a reason Gusto is ranked number one on G2's highest satisfaction products list for 2026 and trusted by over 400,000 small businesses. 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. So in the few minutes that I have left here, I mean I just I just love that story you told about Berman.
Him saying welcome home, you thought, okay, this can be my home. And it still is, like here it is, 2025. I mean You know, not to turn this into uh Uh a Roy Firestone moment here. Honestly, do you sit back and go like? Shit, this is now.
Wait a minute, because I know I've been gone 23 years and I've come back. You were there for all 23 of those years. You're 30 years and counting right now, which is when, you know, when you went, when you were there, like you thought of a 30-year guy, you thought that's Berman, that's Bob Lee. That's now it's you. I mean it feels different.
So here it's 29 years actually. On August 25th, I went back and looked up the day.
Okay.
And I posted something about this on Instagram. On August 25th, was my 29-year anniversary at ESPN, and I'm 58.
So on that day, I had literally been at ESPN half of my life. I've spent half my life working for ESPN. And Here's what I can say about it. Um I've had two 10 great days for every bad one that I've had. And joining us now with a look ahead to the game is Dick Vitale and Dick E.
V. I tell you what, Duke better not be looking ahead to this weekend because this is not an easy night for them. I've been given. opportunities Well beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Tiki, if you were watching you tonight, thanks very much.
Thanks a lot, Mike. It'll be our radio, baby. I'll be here Monday morning with you and Galick. And Boomer is a perfect example because, you know, what was Chris Berman so legendary for? He started with Sports Center, but then he went on to doing all the other things.
But the things that you remember him most for was coverage of the NFL, for the draft and all that stuff. And I host the draft now, as you do. But I sit in that chair, and I sit in the chair that he sat in on Sunday mornings now doing Sunday NFL countdown. But I'll never be Chris Berman. No one is ever going to be Chris Berman.
I'm.
So You can't build the place once it's already been built. Yes. So the people that we have spent this. conversation talking about. First and foremost, Bob and Chris Berman, and so many people who worked behind the scenes and in executive offices and all that kind of stuff, who deserve so much credit, the 79ers, we would call them, the people who were here when it started, and others.
Like they built something that people like me have the chance to walk into and then find my own place within it to my. Endless. To my endless delight, but to my benefit is the word I was looking for, it was already there. Those guys built it. I didn't build anything.
I was just, I came along at the right time in the right place. You did also, I've just, you, you, I mean, you're in the Hall of Fame, Radio Hall of Fame. You and Mike guess. Mike and Mike and I, yeah. I mean, what do you mean you guess?
I'm doing reads for progressive insurance on ESP radio every day. And I'm sure you were the, you were just talking about how you were presented by it. I'm sure you were the first to bring them in the building, I'm sure. That's probably right.
So Mike and Mike is probably. The closest thing that I would have done. Hi, everybody. I'm Mike Greenberg. This is Mike Golick.
And together we are Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN Radio and on ESPN 2. But even Mike and Mike. Would not have existed had it not been for the letters ESPN. You know what I mean? Like the letters, and I'm so glad you're doing.
One of the reasons that I'm glad you're doing this podcast, and one of the things I'm. Very glad to have the opportunity to say is That to some of us, I can't speak for anyone but me, the letters ESPN mean something. Like that, just that's special. It was aspirational at one time in my life. It's meaningful.
It's something I still feel like I am a caretaker of. Like I feel it is my responsibility. I texted Van Pelt. When Van Pelt first got the Monday NFL job, and I wasn't doing Sundays yet, but I texted him and I said, you know, congratulate, I sent him a congratulatory note. And he said something back to me, sort of similar to what you're talking about.
Hard to believe, but like we're the old guys now, like we're the old guard now, the way I viewed. And I don't think you ever see yourself that way. You know, I think. When I look in the mirror, I recognize that I'm not the 29-year-old guy that I was when I started. Peyton Manning remains the Heisman favorite.
He'll be joined in New York by Ryan Leaf, Charles Woodson, and Randy Moss, who played on national TV for the first time Friday night. Shirtlessly shaving with Chris Burrows. Shaving shirtlessly. But there is something inside of you that still feels that way. Sure.
So I don't know if what I'm saying makes any sense, except to say that. ESPN is something way, way bigger than me, and I recognize that. It means a lot more. to people than I could ever mean. I'm thrilled and proud to ha to be now, I guess, in twenty-nine years, a part of it.
Like they say, you can't tell the story of the NFL without this player or that, but I guess you can't tell the story of ESPN without my place in it. But there are certainly plenty of other people whose places are more significant than mine. I'm I mean, half my life I'm at this place, and someday I'm going to die. And the first four letters in any obituary anybody writes are going to be the letters ESPN. And I'm very cognizant of that, and it means something to me.
So, you know, for me to see someone like you come back and to be a part of it, like, that's special because, like, you know what it means. You know what it meant back in those days. It's not anyone's fault that they don't know now. They didn't grow up with it the way we did. But.
We we were around at a time when we were literally working out of trailers Looking at our watches to say okay Yeah, the woman making the wraps gets there at 1130 and I can get over there right now and get a turkey wrap because there's not going to be any food again after 1215 like that's what ESPN was right and let me finish this Hideki Arabu lead-in before I get that wrap That's exactly right and those were actual tapes I mean they would actually physically hand you a tape a VHS tape and you'd pop it into a thing and you'd watch it and you would write notes down dude that was my again I could tell stories all day and I've kept you here long enough but That was That was the Dan Patrick moment for me, man. Is I would be sitting there. They would bring the tapes up from the control in a box or a plastic bin. Yeah, that's what I meant. Right, the plastic bin, you know, where you could grab the handles here and they'd place it down.
And you probably have the same memory as I do, and you know where it was in that newsroom when they created the ESPN news set in the front. Which is why we were all in those trailers for that time, because they redid the newsroom with an ESPN news set. where you could see the newsroom behind you. And so I'm sitting there where they set up the TV and then you pop the machine, the tapes in the machine, and they would bring up the 11 o'clock Sports Center tapes right away and I just consumed them. Because I wanted to be ready.
And I just remember sitting there at one point and there's this presence to my left, this shadowy figure. And I'd look up and it's Dan Patrick and he looks down at me and goes, So You're nervous. I don't even know how to respond to that. You know, I just sat there. I'm like, okay, he's hazing me, but I'll take that as a compliment that he's hazing me right now.
So I still get it that way with him. He asked me to come on his show not long ago. I was a guest on his show. Yeah. And I still get nervous.
I still feel like I'm talking, like I've shown up at someone's house to show up at a man's house to ask if I can take his daughter to the prom. Like that's the feeling. I walk in there kind of bashfully and I'm like, hi, Dan, how are you? I still can't believe you know my name. Like that.
I still have that feeling. And he doesn't act that way at all. I don't mean to say he behaves that way. Yeah. I still feel that way.
I still feel that way about Boomer. He'll send me a text. He texts now. He's evolved as well. That's new.
And he'll send me a text every now and again. You know, he watches the Sunday show or whatever it is and he likes it. And I still, I'm like, I want to frame this and put it on my wall because the approval of people like that still. matters to me more than Probably anything. Hell yeah.
First time I sat at the draft set on NFL Network in Radio City Music Hall, and I looked to my left, and there he was with Mel Kuyper and the rest of the crew. I thought to myself, Holy shit, like, what am I doing here? And I also thought of the old, I'll date myself here since this show is all about dating, about the old Bugs Bunny cartoon with Ralph the dog and Wiley Coyote. They would go to work, they'd punch in, and they'd wave at each other, and then they'd become enemies, right? And so, because we were competing back in the day for eyeballs for the draft, and I'm like, I cannot believe I'm looking over there and There's Boomer and he's waving, he's waving back at me.
And um I revere the man, you know, revere him. One time he he inducted Ralph Wilson into the Hall of Fame back when they would have presenters speaking. It was the last year actually.
So they that was the one time I hosted the Hall of Fame. Um, ceremonies because they couldn't have Chris present and MC it.
So I emceed the Hall of Fame for one year. And the night before, I saw Berman, and he pulls me over. He goes, So you're doing it tomorrow, huh? And I'm like, yeah. And he goes, Don't be too good.
Oh, really? That's not what I thought you were going to say. No, that's what he says. We all know what the other things that he says. Which is don't fuck it up.
Don't fuck it up. That's right. Excuse me. No, that's all right. That's an old Bornstein thing.
That's a Steve Bornstein thing. He would say that to me all the time. Bornstein would say that? I think that's probably where he got it from.
Okay, because to me, I attribute that as a boomerism.
Well, I mean, the two of them are one and the same, pretty much. But yeah, Steve would always say that to me before a big NFL network thing. Hey, you know, don't fuck it up. Yeah. You know, he would say that all the time.
So Berman would say that also. Absolutely. I mean, when it was announced that I was the host of the draft, he sends me immediately. He sends me, you love this story.
Okay.
He sends me a text. Or, no, someone tells me, you know, Boomer wants to talk to you, so I call him. And he could not have been more gracious and wonderful and all of that stuff. On brand. And he says to me, two things, Greene, two things.
One,. No matter what anyone else says, you need two weeks to prepare. I don't care what they say, you need two weeks. I didn't want to say boomer. I've been studying players since January.
I start the day after the college season ends. You need at least two weeks, no matter what anybody tells you. You need two weeks.
So that was funny. And then he goes, And then the other thing, most important of anything, no matter what else, don't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up. And I said, okay, that's it. I have my marching orders.
That's the best, right? For five years, I've tried very hard not to fuck it up. Welcome home. I love it. Thanks for doing this, brother.
Oh, I am so thrilled that you are doing this. Thanks, bud. Thank you on behalf of all of us who remember it fondly for giving us a reason to think about it. You got it. So let's throw it all out there then.
Get up every day. What else are we doing now? 8 a.m. Eastern. Is that it?
Is this what we're doing? I do every day. I do Sunday NFL countdown. Right, yeah, yeah. During the football season, my Sunday mornings and afternoons.
I host the first draft podcast with Mel Kuyper and Phil Yates, which is just cheating. That's just homework. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like I feel did a mock draft this week, so I know the 10 players who are going to go.
You know, from doing a radio show every day, people are like, How do you prepare for the draft? How do you? I'm like, I talk about toast the combine too. Right. You know, I mean, like, for you, it's the combine.
Yeah. So you have literally, you know, all those players. Brother, when I see, when I'm, I'm, when I do the combine, I am legitimately. Calling the draft out of order. That's right.
We just don't know the order yet. Exactly right. Like 98% of the draft is at the combine.
So I just. I just don't know the order. That's basically it. Because I do the first two nights.
So I do the first three rounds, which with the compensatories, you can come right around. I'm going to bring this up here.
Well, so Rhys does the Sun. He does the Rhys's. You tap out. You only have one person. I don't have to all sell Reese.
Reese was their me. We have two separate broadcasts. We have the ESPN one and the ABC one. And then they combine it on the Saturday. And Rhys absolutely should do it.
He spends all year with the college guys. Yes. So, what I'm trying to say is for me, I'm going to do about 100 players. And I usually do, I will study about 150 every year. First and foremost, know how to pronounce their name.
Oh, God. And then I will have, I will try and have at least one interesting little fact about each one. My favorite one from this past year, I forget which player it was, but I said my favorite fact on him is that he was born on February 29th, so he has only celebrated five birthdays. I thought that was a great little note, and then I handed over to Mel. But as I always say, as I always say, if at any point you hear the announcement, and with the 97th pick in the draft, the New England Patriots select Fred Thompson, and all you hear is me say, Mel?
That means I didn't do it. Dude, that means it's a player I did. But the bottom line is, yeah, I always go back to pop culture with everything. My favorite movie is The Sting.
Okay, the best. When Robert Redford died, I went back and re-watched that movie. The best. That is one of the five best movies ever. It's perfect.
It's perfect. But I always looked at Mike Mayock when I did it with him, and now Daniel Jeremiah, the way that you probably view Mel Kuyper, is the moment in the Sting where Paul Newman is getting set up, getting ready for the first day of the Sting itself. And he sees the mafioso who he's hired to protect Robert Redford's character walk in the room and you see in his face, like, oh, something's got to be wrong. Like, is he not coming? And you see the look on his face of dread, and then Robert Redford walks in and he's relieved.
That's the way I view Mayok and Jeremiah when they walk onto a draft set, like, oh, tell me they're coming, because without them, That's no good. We could host as much as we want. We could prepare for, by the way, two weeks. That is so funny. No matter what anyone tells you.
You need at least two weeks. But that sounds like a guy who walks in and as he's hosting a show, he sits in the chair literally anywhere from 60 to two seconds before the air. Right. Which is what his brand is as well. And again, I hope it is clear that we are saying this with the ultimate admiration, love, and respect because he could do it.
He can do it. He can pull it off. And he'll just sit there and be great because he is just great, because Chris Berman is endlessly entertaining. I need information. No, I'm not going to wait.
If I don't have something to tell you, I'm really serving no purpose. At any rate, thanks again. Thanks for doing this. You got it. Mike Greenberg, our guest this week, thanks for taking in this edition of This Was Sports Center.
