Speaker 1: And I remember talking to Jimmy V the last time
Speaker 1: I saw him, and it was basketball season was ending.
Speaker 1: God damn, Why am I crying?
Speaker 2: Calm Down with Erin and Chrissa is a production of
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio Calm Down. We are both very excited about this
Speaker 2: guest that we have this week. We were just talking Chris.
Speaker 2: Our dads are going to love this episode. It is
Speaker 2: just if you're a sports fan, if you're a dad,
Speaker 2: if you're interested in being in the industry, this episode
Speaker 2: is for you. We respect and love a lot of
Speaker 2: people in our profession, but at the top of the
Speaker 2: list is Dan Patrick. Forty years in the industry. He
Speaker 2: is a Hall of Fame sports broadcaster, just wrote a book.
Speaker 2: We're not exactly sure what this book is about, so
Speaker 2: we'll let him explain what it is. He's also going
Speaker 2: to talk to us about his first shop in sports,
Speaker 2: maybe some old Sports Center stories, of course, there's plenty
Speaker 2: of those, and the challenges of leaving ESPN and going
Speaker 2: out on his own. I cannot wait for you guys
Speaker 2: to listen to this.
Speaker 1: With that saga who put on the left turn signal there, Well,
Speaker 1: it's great to see you guys.
Speaker 2: It's great to see you. That voice is just so soothing.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, read me a bedtime story, Actually, read
Speaker 2: maca bedtime story. Ladies and gentlemen, Hey, before we get started,
Speaker 2: and before I fuck up the title of your book, Anal,
Speaker 2: I need you just say? Yeah, I go straight to Anal.
Speaker 3: No, it's Annals Animals.
Speaker 2: Okay? If I did a left turn, what was that
Speaker 2: a U turn? It was a triple asshole. Dan also
Speaker 2: covered the Olympics. Which one was your favorite?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: No Annals?
Speaker 1: Okay, just think and and and yeah. Okay, I didn't
Speaker 1: pick the title. I discouraged the title, but they said, no,
Speaker 1: it's funny. I go, okay, Annals is somehow funny.
Speaker 2: Okay, well what is it about? Can you tell us?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: The book covers the history of the NFL, say have
Speaker 1: every team players some less great players, And it does
Speaker 1: all of this without the burden of, you know, being
Speaker 1: hampered by the truth. Some of it is true and
Speaker 1: some of it's not. But it's the occasionally accurate Annals
Speaker 1: of football. The NFL's greatest players play scandal, scripts and
Speaker 1: stuff we totally made up.
Speaker 2: And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we make our guests
Speaker 2: introduce their own book. Welcome Patrick, the Hall of Fame
Speaker 2: sports broadcaster whose career has spanned one hundred years. It's
Speaker 2: incredible to have you on, and Aaron and I will
Speaker 2: get into our affinity for you throughout this the next
Speaker 2: forty five minute.
Speaker 1: Do you realize that I was doing sports when you
Speaker 1: guys were born? That's how long I've been doing sports?
Speaker 2: How long? When did you first start? Because I'll tell
Speaker 2: you when I was born.
Speaker 1: Okay, I've been doing this for over forty years.
Speaker 2: Okay, what's the date you started? We're getting warmer.
Speaker 1: Okay it would have well, am I close to where
Speaker 1: you are in age?
Speaker 2: Yeah? But keep it going well in our mind nine
Speaker 2: twenty seventy what seventy nine? I was born in seventy eight.
Speaker 2: I don't brag about it too. So your first job, Dan,
Speaker 2: take us back, first day of work.
Speaker 3: You remember it well? You mean in this business?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I did morning drive radio. I was the
Speaker 1: news pass and I did morning drive radio at a
Speaker 1: rock and roll station. And I remember the first day
Speaker 1: I started the IATOLAHOLMONI was in power in Iran and
Speaker 1: he was doing bad things and I had to actually
Speaker 1: read some serious news. I didn't know how to pronounce
Speaker 1: his name and totally butchered it all morning long. And
Speaker 1: then finally my program director said, you should watch the news.
Speaker 1: Listen to the news if you're going to do the news.
Speaker 1: If not, you need to move on. And he was
Speaker 1: right because I wasn't prepared to do it to do
Speaker 1: it correctly, and it taught me a great lesson there,
Speaker 1: and then I ended up. I was working weekends at
Speaker 1: Channel two in Dayton, Ohio, and I was part time,
Speaker 1: and I thought I was up for the weekend job
Speaker 1: and it was me and Ken Ketterery. Ken Kettering, blue eyed,
Speaker 1: blonde hair, had like four kids, and you know, he
Speaker 1: looked good on TV. But I didn't think that's what
Speaker 1: happened in the business, Like you, just the better guy
Speaker 1: got the job. I knew more sports, he even said, look,
Speaker 1: you know more sports. He basically said everything. But he's
Speaker 1: better looking than me. And I remember I didn't get
Speaker 1: the job, and I was crushed, and I thought I'll
Speaker 1: never get a job in this business. I went to
Speaker 1: Atlanta and I went to see an old girlfriend and
Speaker 1: she said, hey, CNN's hiring, and I said I couldn't
Speaker 1: get a job in Dayton, Ohio. I'm not getting a
Speaker 1: job at CNN. She goes, will you go in there
Speaker 1: the last day year here? Just go in take your tape.
Speaker 1: And I took my tape in. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: who to talk to. I'm just like, who do I
Speaker 1: talk to in sports? And the woman at the desk goes, well,
Speaker 1: what do you do? And I go, I don't know
Speaker 1: what I do. I just lost a job in Dayton, Ohio.
Speaker 1: And my ex girlfriend said to come in here and
Speaker 1: they said, well, hold on, yes, we have a gentleman
Speaker 1: out here as a tape. And oh, they said, leave
Speaker 1: the tape. I'm going back to Ohio. Can I can
Speaker 1: somebody just look at this tape? He's going back to Ohio.
Speaker 1: It just so happened that the president of CNN Sports,
Speaker 1: Bill McPhail, was from Ohio, and that's it. And then
Speaker 1: stopped me back, yeah, and he watched three and a
Speaker 1: half minutes of my tape. It was five minutes, and
Speaker 1: he said when can you start? And I said today.
Speaker 1: I mean I'd have to go pack up my stuff.
Speaker 1: But I started a week later doing headline sports, so
Speaker 1: I wasn't even on camera. And then eventually I got
Speaker 1: to do some reporting. I've replaced Keith Oberman in New
Speaker 1: York six months later as the CNN reporter. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of luck, there's a little bit of fate,
Speaker 1: and you have to have a little bit of talent.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine now if a boss CHRISA I love that.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was your producer, your boss
Speaker 2: said if you want to work on the news or
Speaker 2: report the news, you have to watch it. I feel
Speaker 2: like now you'd be reported to HR if you said
Speaker 2: that you can't give criticism. Now it's crazy. Well yeah,
Speaker 2: but you know, in this world that we live in,
Speaker 2: people still ask Aaron and I being females in sports,
Speaker 2: if we even like sports. It's like, twenty years into
Speaker 2: this thing, you still have to, you know, defend yourself.
Speaker 2: But Dan, you have been one of our great supporters
Speaker 2: in various different capacities. Of course, you know, our paths
Speaker 2: in this industry all cross at some point. But having
Speaker 2: Aaron and I spoke earlier today, we're just talking about
Speaker 2: how much we appreciated you in so many different ways
Speaker 2: and what you've been for us, whether it was before
Speaker 2: we even knew you and watching you and listening to you.
Speaker 2: But also in having the great pleasure of now knowing
Speaker 2: you as a a not a colleague, be cause we
Speaker 2: didn't work together at the same time, but as a
Speaker 2: friend and Aaron. I would love for you to regale
Speaker 2: the story of you in the hallways at ESPN, because
Speaker 2: I never crossed paths with you there. You were long
Speaker 2: gone at that point. I think I just started. Well,
Speaker 2: first of all, I mean Sports Center. We said it
Speaker 2: it's never been the same. It just hasn't. It's just
Speaker 2: those were the glory days. And Chris and I'm not
Speaker 2: going to say it birthed our love of sports, but man,
Speaker 2: did it help nurture it. It just it was we
Speaker 2: watched it every night. It's what we wanted to do.
Speaker 2: We dreamt of being around you, being friends with you.
Speaker 2: I told Chris the today, the second you got Dan
Speaker 2: Patrick's cell phone number and you're actually texting nothing bad
Speaker 2: but just advice or funny things, or you had said, hey,
Speaker 2: great job with this. You were like made it freaking
Speaker 2: made it like this is massive, massive. Yeah, So I
Speaker 2: think I had just started Dan right when you were Yeah. No,
Speaker 2: I was around, but it was like you'd see you
Speaker 2: and it was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: No, I met you the first time. There was a
Speaker 1: group of us. I think we met up by the airport.
Speaker 1: There was a whole group of people and it was
Speaker 1: a seminar. It was all campus. Yeah, you came over
Speaker 1: to me and you said, oh god, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you said, you know what I love about you? And
Speaker 1: and you know everybody is watching everybody there, so it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: and they can't hear it. But she came over and
Speaker 1: she said, you know what I love about you? And
Speaker 1: I go what she goes, you have great things to
Speaker 1: say about your daughters on the radio.
Speaker 3: I remember that and it hit me.
Speaker 1: It was like because I get emotional now thinking about it,
Speaker 1: because you know, that's sort of why I was. I
Speaker 1: was kind of I kind of captured myself at ESPN
Speaker 1: where I wasn't at home with three daughters and my
Speaker 1: son and my wife. And so when somebody said something
Speaker 1: about my daughters, it was you selfish, prick, you should
Speaker 1: be at home more, you know, with them, and said,
Speaker 1: you know, because you have to be selfish in this
Speaker 1: business to be successful, you do, And I was. I
Speaker 1: was selfish. I was doing second shift, I had four kids,
Speaker 1: you know, seven years you know, there was four years
Speaker 1: for us, seven years with four kids, and my wife's
Speaker 1: doing all the work and I'm I'm here at sports
Speaker 1: Center and I just remember it hit me. And even
Speaker 1: when I was thinking about you know, I saw your face.
Speaker 1: I remember that moment where you came over and that's
Speaker 1: what you said.
Speaker 3: So so sorry. Yes, but you know that.
Speaker 1: Uh but do you guys agree you have to be
Speaker 1: selfish at some point in your life and others will
Speaker 1: pay the price.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean I think you know, Dan, You and I
Speaker 2: have brought levity to difficult things in my life. It's
Speaker 2: one of the many reasons I love you because we
Speaker 2: can joke about, you know, terrible things that have happened
Speaker 2: to me, or terrible things that I've done to myself,
Speaker 2: which is choosing the wrong partners in life. Ha ha
Speaker 2: ha divorces with an ass But there is there. You
Speaker 2: have to bring some hearing one. Yeah, exactly too.
Speaker 3: I do try to give you advice.
Speaker 1: I did I, but I then I didn't know if
Speaker 1: I was supposed to give you advice on that.
Speaker 2: No, You're always supposed to give me advice. And that's
Speaker 2: the that I have appreciated about you. And we'll get
Speaker 2: into your incredible career, but you know, maybe.
Speaker 3: You had to experience it though, Chrissa. That was the thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was like viewing you like your daughter,
Speaker 1: where I'm like, I got to give you some advice here,
Speaker 1: and then I'm like, I don't know if I how
Speaker 1: much advice I give you.
Speaker 2: No, your advice was always and will always be welcome.
Speaker 2: And but what I'm bringing it back to the selfishness
Speaker 2: part is that you know, I chose the wrong partners
Speaker 2: or whatever, probably because I couldn't invest enough time to
Speaker 2: actually figure out who these people were, because I was
Speaker 2: more focused on my career. And I don't want to
Speaker 2: speak for Aaron, but Aaron having sweet mac Roger stole
Speaker 2: later in life, you know, and becoming a dam Dan.
Speaker 3: I heard it. I saw finally.
Speaker 2: Had a baby. I mean I didn't, but you know, so, yeah,
Speaker 2: so now I feel like I'm being selfish. I left
Speaker 2: chrisa message today, I said, I don't even know my
Speaker 2: baby because I'm running around going to Baltimore and back.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you make these choices, and whether it's you know,
Speaker 2: your marriages fail or whether you have success in a
Speaker 2: marriage and having it is sort of that combination of
Speaker 2: being able to do it all while still prioritizing the
Speaker 2: thing that we've all wanted to do our whole life.
Speaker 2: So when you look back, dan On, you know your
Speaker 2: illustrious Hall of fame career along the way, do you
Speaker 2: now forgive yourself for being selfish?
Speaker 3: Oh? Boy, that's loaded.
Speaker 4: Lay on the couch behind you. Yeah, it's a leather
Speaker 4: chair right now, have a couch over here in my
Speaker 4: man cave. No, I don't think you can never make
Speaker 4: up for it. And I remember I was at ESPN
Speaker 4: for seventeen years and this isn't a you know, old
Speaker 4: poor Dan I chose this. But yeah, I came home
Speaker 4: and I started doing my radio show out of my attic,
Speaker 4: and so not many people leave ESPN. And if you
Speaker 4: do leave ESPN, you're probably not going to go.
Speaker 1: Man. Am I kicking ass? I'm in my attic doing radio.
Speaker 1: But I was around my family every day. And I
Speaker 1: remember going to a school play and I started crying
Speaker 1: and it was my daughter and my wife goes, what
Speaker 1: are you crying about? And I go because I didn't
Speaker 1: experience it, I missed all of this, and she goes,
Speaker 1: You're lucky. I've had to go to all of these
Speaker 1: going places. I said, you're right, Hon, You're right. But
Speaker 1: it was the little things, just the smallest things where
Speaker 1: you're just around. And I tell students at you know,
Speaker 1: my broadcasting school, you don't just take a job if
Speaker 1: your your family could be attached to this, getting married,
Speaker 1: getting divorced. I mean, the stretch, the better you are,
Speaker 1: the worse your hours are. You know, just be ready
Speaker 1: to go. And everybody wants to do it. They think
Speaker 1: they can do it. I think it's the most competitive
Speaker 1: job field in America because everybody sits there and says
Speaker 1: I could do that, Like that's not hard. Our job
Speaker 1: is to make it look easy, to make it look fun.
Speaker 1: And I just I remember, you know, you're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out exactly you know, who you are. And I
Speaker 1: got to get my ass kick when I left ESPN,
Speaker 1: because it's so easy to get comfortable there. It's powerful
Speaker 1: and you know, it's an elixir there, and I just thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, I wouldn't get any better and I
Speaker 1: needed to find out if I could get better. And
Speaker 1: you know, I left, but I've never been happier than
Speaker 1: those three years doing a show in my attic with
Speaker 1: my DNS.
Speaker 2: I called you. I called you for advice. You. I mean,
Speaker 2: I feel like you played the father figure role for
Speaker 2: both of us. Are broadcasting dad, our Wizard of Oz. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I called you and asked you what I should do
Speaker 2: if I should go to Fox or stay at ESPN. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you Chip Kelly and my coach k.
Speaker 1: And I thought you should go. I just you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes those four letters can dwarf you. And you know,
Speaker 1: there there's I call it like beer muscles, there's ESPN muscles.
Speaker 3: When you work there, you're like, man, I am good.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden you realize when you
Speaker 1: get out, not everybody thinks you're that good. And because
Speaker 1: I started with twelve radio stations, I was going door
Speaker 1: to door. I was like, hey, Dan Patrick, remember me. Hey,
Speaker 1: I was on sports and in Fuego. Hey, you know,
Speaker 1: like trying to remind people and then they're going, oh no,
Speaker 1: you know, and then I just remember going door. It
Speaker 1: was humbling, but it was great because I fought for
Speaker 1: my ass and I was like, I will be successful.
Speaker 1: I told people, I guarantee that I'll be successful. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I have no idea I have. I went from having
Speaker 1: so much confidence to none, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you build that back up. But I told you I
Speaker 1: knew what you could do well, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: if you would be showcased at ESPN the way you
Speaker 1: should have been.
Speaker 2: Oh, I appreciate you. Yeah. Anyone that has read the
Speaker 2: ESPN book, we know there's a lot of stories in there,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot of stories that were omitted. So
Speaker 2: we're going to focus on some of the positives. Dan,
Speaker 2: I need for anyone that is not familiar with the
Speaker 2: long history, good, bad, and ugly. I want a good
Speaker 2: ESPN story, whether it involved a co host, whether it
Speaker 2: involved you know, a very memorable sports Center or a
Speaker 2: moment sort of maybe what sticks out to you when
Speaker 2: you look back at your tenure there.
Speaker 1: My stories all deal with the people behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: because those are the people that interest me. I didn't
Speaker 1: care about sitting around listening to talent talk about talent.
Speaker 3: He was boring.
Speaker 1: But when you had your prompter operator who eventually becomes
Speaker 1: your producer and nearly got fired his first day by
Speaker 1: Bob Lee Mark Summer. He was running prompter and Bob
Speaker 1: came on and said, hello, welcome to Sports Center with
Speaker 1: Bob Lee. I'm Dan Patrick. Well, he had messed up
Speaker 1: the read on prompter, and poor Mark Summer's over there
Speaker 1: thinking he's going to get fired. Fast forward. He eventually
Speaker 1: became the coordinating producer doing Sports Center while I was there,
Speaker 1: and to see the progress, the growth with those people,
Speaker 1: and I think the one moment I still go back
Speaker 1: to was the Jimmy V. Knight at the the SP's
Speaker 1: and it brought us together. He you know, because sometimes
Speaker 1: it's very competitive at ESPN, it's competitive all over, but
Speaker 1: back then we had everybody doing Sports Center. You had Stuart,
Speaker 1: you have Rich, you had Chris Meyers, Chris Baller, you
Speaker 1: had Chris Berman, myself, Oberman's amazing, crazy Mike Cherico just
Speaker 1: got hired. I mean it was it was competitive, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if it fostered you know, friendship. You
Speaker 1: were kind of friends in your little class, your little
Speaker 1: group there. But you know, the the eleven o'clock, I
Speaker 1: guess there was a rivalry with the six o'clock with
Speaker 1: Charlie Steiner, Robin Roberts, Bob Lee, and that night brought
Speaker 1: us together because we kind of saw the bigger picture here,
Speaker 1: this man's dying and embrace life, like what are you
Speaker 1: doing you should laugh, you should cry. Every you know,
Speaker 1: he was saying those things, and I remember it hit
Speaker 1: me and I'm thinking, God, I mean, he's so right,
Speaker 1: and it's right in front of us. And I remember
Speaker 1: talking to Jimmy V the last time I saw him,
Speaker 1: and it was basketball season was ending.
Speaker 3: God damn, why am I crying?
Speaker 2: Because you're humane.
Speaker 1: I talked to him and I purposely stayed away from
Speaker 1: him the last month or so of the basketball season.
Speaker 1: And I told him that, I said, hey, there's a
Speaker 1: reason I've avoided you. He would take people out for drinks.
Speaker 1: He was wonderful, and I stayed away because my dad
Speaker 1: died of cancer. Fuck, this is supposed to be fun.
Speaker 1: And I told him that. He goes, how long did
Speaker 1: they tell you that? Did they tell your dad he
Speaker 1: had to live? And I said six months? And he goes,
Speaker 1: how long did he live? I said six months? And
Speaker 1: oh it, Oh God crushed him. And he said, will
Speaker 1: you do me a favor when I die? The picture
Speaker 1: over your shoulder when you're doing Sports Center, will you
Speaker 1: give me a fucking good looking picture?
Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm going to cry.
Speaker 3: And I told the story.
Speaker 1: I told the story that jim wanted a great picture
Speaker 1: over my shoulder when he died and I got to
Speaker 1: do you know, the obituary. But you know, those moments
Speaker 1: bring you together because they present reality. We don't we
Speaker 1: live in fantasy land when we do sports. Jim had
Speaker 1: reality right in front of us, and I remember it
Speaker 1: was important because we needed to be powerful as a team,
Speaker 1: and I thought it brought us closer together.
Speaker 2: Well, I think what's really special about this, And yes,
Speaker 2: I know, you know, we're not all you know, usually
Speaker 2: emotional people, but I think there's a bigger message here
Speaker 2: is that work has become family, right and you know,
Speaker 2: no matter what happens in our own personal lives like this,
Speaker 2: this these three people writing myself include on the screen,
Speaker 2: I'll become friends because of the work that we have
Speaker 2: done together or just in the business. So it's really special.
Speaker 2: And like you know, I don't have kids or the
Speaker 2: jokes about my marriage. It's like I lean on you
Speaker 2: guys as family in that way. So it's really special
Speaker 2: that those relationships have left those kinds of indelible marks
Speaker 2: in your life. Dan. So let's turn our attention out
Speaker 2: to some funny things. Okay, what is uh, what's the
Speaker 2: biggest thing that you've gained from your time on your
Speaker 2: own show with your own mic flag right there, and
Speaker 2: the fun group that you work with every single day.
Speaker 2: That desk is a mess. There's a lot on that desk.
Speaker 1: Yes, I collect. I collect. Now you're called a hoarder.
Speaker 1: I was just a collector. And it sounds worse when
Speaker 1: you're a hoarder.
Speaker 4: Damn like annals I mean Analsyn, Yes, the Annals of football.
Speaker 3: I love the grind.
Speaker 1: I love when you know people say, you know, why
Speaker 1: do you I'll do it and I go, I'd love it.
Speaker 1: I love it every day and you get to come
Speaker 1: in and you can go, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 1: What do we want to talk about today? Whereas at ESPN,
Speaker 1: I thought I would had to check the box, like, hey,
Speaker 1: Sunday night baseball coming up, it's the Red Sox and
Speaker 1: the Yankees, and joining us now is John Miller, John
Speaker 1: And then it would be hey, they're a hockey game,
Speaker 1: and you know, like Barry Melrose joints like it felt
Speaker 1: like I was just an extension of ESPN, not myself.
Speaker 1: And I promised my wife that when I did it,
Speaker 1: I was just going to do it sort of through
Speaker 1: the lens that I saw life and I give advice
Speaker 1: all the time, Like guys dropping their daughters off at school,
Speaker 1: can you cry? And you know, I tell them no,
Speaker 1: because you've got confidence in your daughter. You want her
Speaker 1: to know that you believe in her. If you cry,
Speaker 1: then you know, maybe she may feel like you don't
Speaker 1: think she can do it. Then because I did this
Speaker 1: three times and I was like, I ain't crying. I
Speaker 1: ain't crying. My daughter's going to know. I believe in you,
Speaker 1: I've codence in you, and I love to be able
Speaker 1: to impart wisdom like that. So when you have that
Speaker 1: forum where whatever you want to do, do it, whoever
Speaker 1: you want to have on, have on and that freedom.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is me on my show, whereas before
Speaker 1: I probably wasn't myself.
Speaker 2: So Aaron and I have gotten to a place in
Speaker 2: our professional careers, if you can call it that, where
Speaker 2: we stop giving a professional we stop giving a ship.
Speaker 2: And I think not and not in our day give
Speaker 2: us ship, Not in our day job, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: like on airon doing our job. But I'm saying we
Speaker 2: stopped caring about I'll speak for myself, I stop caring
Speaker 2: about the opinions that other people had to me the
Speaker 2: general public. Yes, I care my family, my friends, and
Speaker 2: my employers think of me. But there is sort of
Speaker 2: this like, I'm comfortable enough in myself. I'm comfortable enough
Speaker 2: with the mistakes that all the shit that's happened to
Speaker 2: just own it, right, So isn't there real freedom? Dan?
Speaker 2: I feel like you're you know and have been for
Speaker 2: a long time where you just can it can be
Speaker 2: yourself and that's so liberating.
Speaker 1: But I don't know how. I don't think I could
Speaker 1: have done it the way you you have done it.
Speaker 1: You two have done it. From the standpoint of there's
Speaker 1: so much criticism out there, there's so many people coming
Speaker 1: after you. There's I mean, I didn't have that and
Speaker 1: the kind of the sweet spot of my career. There
Speaker 1: was no social media on Sports Center, right, we were
Speaker 1: just able to do imagine.
Speaker 2: Oh, well, you guys wouldn't have cared. You wouldn't have cared.
Speaker 2: I don't think you would have. I don't think it
Speaker 2: would have altered how you would have done it. But
Speaker 2: I mean, here's a story forty five Christy, you're what
Speaker 2: forty one? Yeah? Whatever, great, Well maybabe, But here's something Dan,
Speaker 2: we're having fun right, and at Fox we have fun
Speaker 2: and we had openly said, which got some attention Taylor Swift,
Speaker 2: you should date Travis kelt We both love Travis Kelce.
Speaker 2: We've been open with that. I can be very open
Speaker 2: that he's good looking, he smells great because my husband
Speaker 2: thinks he's good looking and he smells great. Carissa got
Speaker 2: a phone call from somebody in the industry that said
Speaker 2: to her, you really shouldn't say that about athletes because
Speaker 2: you know, you just don't What what are we saying?
Speaker 2: And by the way, we're both basically married. I mean
Speaker 2: Chris is basically married. I have a kid, like you're fine,
Speaker 2: we can have fun with Shita the athletes.
Speaker 3: Wait wait, hold Onsa Bury the lead.
Speaker 2: Yes what, I'm not married again. I told you I
Speaker 2: would never be married again. I love him and I
Speaker 2: basically call him her husband because I'm thinking it into existence,
Speaker 2: and you will love him. Great sense of humor, super
Speaker 2: fun good hang can like go to the work parties
Speaker 2: and just be off with my husband. You'd love him.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Then the story there is that Matthew Stafford and Kelly
Speaker 2: were sick of me dating losers and they're like, we
Speaker 2: have a great guy for you. So they were the matchmakers.
Speaker 2: So it was vetted, and I know the social Security
Speaker 2: number and the bank account. Now, so all is right?
Speaker 2: You know, these are questions I should have asked. Speaking
Speaker 2: of questions, he puts this seed down. Wait, can I
Speaker 2: ask a really stupid industry question which I was dying
Speaker 2: when you were talking about your friend who was working
Speaker 2: the prompter? How much did you rely on the prompter?
Speaker 2: Because I'm not thinking you're Ron Burgundy over here, but
Speaker 2: come on, I feel like you would just be off script.
Speaker 2: How much did you rely on it?
Speaker 1: Very I would say seventy percent of that show was
Speaker 1: ad libbed. Yeah, like you would have a framework for something.
Speaker 1: I mean the highlights. The highlights would be cut and
Speaker 1: come in. We didn't even get to see most of them.
Speaker 1: I would say at least a half, if not three quarters,
Speaker 1: of the highlights on any given night. These interns are
Speaker 1: pas are bringing them in, handing you the shotsheet. You
Speaker 1: got to read their penmanship, and you're just trying to
Speaker 1: so you're ad libbing, and it was wonderful. That's so fun.
Speaker 1: I feeling is just well. I mean, I would get
Speaker 1: through with work and I'd be fired up. It'd be
Speaker 1: like I felt like I played, but you had to
Speaker 1: be on your game. And I remember I got a
Speaker 1: shot sheet one time. It was at the end of
Speaker 1: the show and you know, this intern or pa brought
Speaker 1: it in and she just kind of handed it to
Speaker 1: me and I'm looking at it and we're in commercial
Speaker 1: break and they're counting me down in my ear like
Speaker 1: all right, coming back in ten, and I go, wait, Ben,
Speaker 1: Ben Blowdoll, Wait this guy. This picture for the Tigers
Speaker 1: is Ben Blowdoll five four overman goos.
Speaker 3: It's Ben bloom dogg bloom Doll, not blow.
Speaker 1: Dof And I go Tigers in Anaheim, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: Ben bloomdall on the mountain.
Speaker 3: I'm going, holy shit. But you did it.
Speaker 1: And you would have blown it, I would literally but
Speaker 1: I but you were able to and even if you
Speaker 1: made a mistake, you made a mistake, you just set
Speaker 1: out my bad and then that was it.
Speaker 3: You just moved on with it.
Speaker 1: But I just I love that feeling of if live
Speaker 1: ad lib And they trusted us to a certain degree,
Speaker 1: and we figured this out that management would stay till
Speaker 1: around six thirty maybe seven o'clock, and then they'd go home.
Speaker 1: You know and have lives, and we wondered if they
Speaker 1: were watching because they'd always say, hey, great show last night. Hey,
Speaker 1: and you know they didn't. They weren't watching. Hey, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: good highlights last good energy, and I'm going, you know
Speaker 1: what we should test and see. So we had a boss,
Speaker 1: Bob Eaton, and Bob would always come out as he's
Speaker 1: getting ready to go home, and he was running sports
Speaker 1: at the time, and he'd always walk out and we'd
Speaker 1: be all typing away and you go, who do and
Speaker 1: then we.
Speaker 3: Go, oh, hey, Bob, how are you?
Speaker 1: And that would be it, you know, he'd talk a
Speaker 1: little bit and they go home. So that night, I
Speaker 1: think it was the Cleveland Indians and their ball went
Speaker 1: through Jerry Dibzinski's legs shortstyved for the Indians, and Oberman
Speaker 1: goes and I'm thinking, oh boy, we're going to find
Speaker 1: out something tomorrow. Well we went in the next day,
Speaker 1: Bob came out of his office and when and we
Speaker 1: went nobody's watching us at night. We could do whatever
Speaker 1: we wanted to do. I mean, we took liberties, we
Speaker 1: took liberties, We had fun. We got scolded one time,
Speaker 1: really bad. Why And they thought we were making it
Speaker 1: a bit banking it about ourselves, and we might have been,
Speaker 1: but I remember whenever you get called into a meeting,
Speaker 1: and the more wood paneling, the more trouble you're in,
Speaker 1: it just feels.
Speaker 5: Like the bigger office. Yes, yes, yes there was wood
Speaker 5: paneling on this feeling. Yes there was wood paneling. And
Speaker 5: I said, we're in trouble. And all of a sudden
Speaker 5: they start banging on the desk, our bosses, and they said,
Speaker 5: you will not make this about you going And at
Speaker 5: the time I had three children.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking I can't get fired.
Speaker 1: And so they said, from now on you must go
Speaker 1: to commercial break and say this is Sports Center.
Speaker 3: And I go, all right.
Speaker 1: So we walked out of the meeting and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's like five o'clock. We have to
Speaker 1: do a show. And then Oberman goes, fuck them. I
Speaker 1: go what, He goes, fuck them, No, and he goes,
Speaker 1: We'll say this is Sports Center. So that night, you know,
Speaker 1: they didn't want us to call it the Big Show.
Speaker 1: We only called it the Big Show. We mocked our
Speaker 1: six show. We didn't even know if anybody was watching,
Speaker 1: so we were mocking ourselves. And then they said, oh,
Speaker 1: you're making it about yourself. We're like, okay, we go
Speaker 1: to commercial break and it was like, you know, coming
Speaker 1: up it'll be d D da da da, and Keith yells,
Speaker 1: this is Sports Center and I go all right. They
Speaker 1: started it and they started the this is Sports Center
Speaker 1: ad campaign after that, and because you know, the tagline
Speaker 1: was this is Sports Center and it started there and
Speaker 1: then they go, you know, we're going to do commercials.
Speaker 1: They couldn't get an athletes to come to Bristol nobody
Speaker 1: because they wanted to be paid. And I'm calling Grant
Speaker 1: Hill and Jason Kidd, I said, would you please do
Speaker 1: this promo? I think they gave him two thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for a charity and you have to come to Bristol,
Speaker 1: Connecticut where yes, and Grant Hill came, thank god he did.
Speaker 1: He played the piano in the lobby.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I came out. I had a bad show.
Speaker 1: And he goes, what's wrong, Dan, And I go, huh,
Speaker 1: you know, bad show, blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: Blah, and he goes, well, this might help done. Done done.
Speaker 1: So Grant was playing the piano in the lobby and
Speaker 1: then Jason Kidd flew in a helicopter and he brought
Speaker 1: in his own highlights and then told us what highlights
Speaker 1: to put on Sports Center. Those were the first two
Speaker 1: and to that everybody goes, hey, I want my Sports
Speaker 1: Center commercial. So it started with us getting yelled at
Speaker 1: this is Sports Center to you know an ad campaign.
Speaker 1: That's one of the greatest ad campaigns ever ever.
Speaker 3: Wally Wally.
Speaker 2: That's why David Archiez.
Speaker 1: There were they were great, but everybody wanted it. Then
Speaker 1: after that you had it'd be a normal day and
Speaker 1: you'd walk around the be Weather's the Syracuse Orange over there,
Speaker 1: and Michigan State's mascot and George Mirasan is walking around here.
Speaker 1: It would be like just a typical day at ESPN.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's so much a part of the
Speaker 2: fabric of your career and your life, and still you
Speaker 2: know you have a love for it. I see the
Speaker 2: four letters right next to the police, so I don't know,
Speaker 2: call nine to one one because this isn't emergency.
Speaker 1: I think Chris Berman or Bob Lee gave me this
Speaker 1: and it's an ESPN badge that they used to wear.
Speaker 1: And when we were joined, Yeah, we were doing like
Speaker 1: the twenty fifth n of her of Sports Center and
Speaker 1: I remember they gave this to me. And look without
Speaker 1: those two guys and tom Mee's I mean, they're the
Speaker 1: founding fathers. They Without them, you know, there is not
Speaker 1: ESPN the way we know it.
Speaker 3: It just isn't.
Speaker 2: It's why I might. I remember I would go to
Speaker 2: church every Sunday with my mom, and as I started
Speaker 2: to get older, like six or seven, I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to go to church anymore. I want
Speaker 2: to stay home with dad and I want to watch football.
Speaker 2: And so my dad would let me stay at home
Speaker 2: and we'd watched Chris Berman, but I was not allowed
Speaker 2: to talk. He's like, I'm going to teach you the game,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to tell you what off sides fall
Speaker 2: start all these things are. But like that's how that's
Speaker 2: why I wanted to become a broadcaster, was because watching
Speaker 2: Chris and being with my dad and just like those
Speaker 2: those memories. Love that and you'll love what is coming
Speaker 2: up on Thursday for the Big Show, Big Show. Who
Speaker 2: knew they called Sports Center? I guess I remember that
Speaker 2: it's the Big Show. Why shit, I thought we got
Speaker 2: the trademark for that one still can Yeah, let's try.
Speaker 2: They didn't call it sports out of the Big Show,
Speaker 2: did they Who's Keith Oberman and Dan Patrick? Well, we'll
Speaker 2: tell you who. Check out Thursday's episode as well. Calm
Speaker 2: Down with Erin and Carissa is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.