There’s quite a nifty little back story to this fun This Is @SportsCenter spot and it, like the spot, involves my friend for now almost 25 years @dpshow
Back in the day, other than which SportsCenter show you were assigned and with whom, the biggest sense of in-house competition involved which #ThisIsSportsCenter spot you were assigned, if you were lucky to be assigned one at all.
Whenever it was time to shoot new spots, a pulse of excitment — and angst — would shoot through the building. At least it did for me, being 26 years old and wanting to succeed and be viewed as successful. Please note, I came from a small TV market in Redding, CA and, at age 26...
...my colleagues were folks like @KeithOlbermann @dpshow Chris Berman @RobinRoberts @BobLeyESPN Craig Kilborn @miketirico and so on. I was tossed into a deep-ended pool and felt a bit of pressure to say the least. And when it was time to shoot spots, I remember the @ESPN staff...
...who worked with the ad agency Weiden Kennedy would walk around with a thick looseleaf book filled with all the scripts on the shoot schedule and if you walked by, they’d hold it against their chests to make sure you didn’t peek at the scripts. Trust me, anchors were taking...
...notes on who was in what spot. At any rate, I got my first spot in my first year, carrying Kerry Strug in a newsroom and others followed, including a great spot called “Cornerman” with the brilliant and profane Lou Duva. To be totally honest...
...my best buddy Stuart Scott wasn’t thrilled about having no speaking role in that spot, just sitting as verisimilitude window-dressing. But, I’m telling you — everyone knew how immensely fun and popular these @SportsCenter ads were and wanted to be in all of them. Now then...
...as for the spot in question: Sent Down To The Minors. I had been on the air for a couple of years there, eager to be making as big a mark as possible and got the script and my first thought was...WTF. Why in the world were they choosing ME to be sent down to the minors? So...
...I went from my cubicle to Dan Patrick’s office — again, there was a hierarchy in Bristol and it permeated everything, or at least it did to me — and I asked Dan if, in his many years at ESPN had he ever asked out of doing a #ThisIsSportsCenter ad. He arched an eyebrow sitting
in his chair, with his Dick Trickle racing jacket on the back, and he asked me one question in his uniquely understated patter: Why? I told him how this spot was a bad look when I was trying so hard to be a top player at ESPN. This spot was sending me down to the MINORS. WTF?!
And I will never forget Dan’s response: what the F is the matter with YOU? He told me to not to take stuff so personally and the spot was about the comedy, which the powers that be clearly thought I could handle. And literally kicked me out of his office. When it came time...
...to shoot the spot, I tried to mimic the shocked look I probably had leaving DP’s office. Needless to say, I decided to throw myself completely into the spot which has remarkly and, with amazed relief, thankfully become a classic. Of course, you can guess who never fails...
to remind me of who wanted to tap out of that spot and who sagely tough-loved me from tapping out and actually going through with it. Yes, @dpshow, I know you were the one who kick-saved that one into me showing some James K. Polk spirit. /end
