ESPN Has Apparently Grown A Brain And Is In Talks To Bring Chris Berman Back For More NFL Coverage This Season
NY Post- ESPN is in talks with Chris Berman about an expanded role for this NFL season, sources have told The Post. There is no deal yet, but there is interest on both sides. While the move would not be for a full-time position, sources said the possibility of Berman contributing more to or even hosting some Sunday night “SportsCenter”s has been broached.
There is a hope that Berman could work a quarter of the NFL season, according to sources. ESPN would want Berman for more, but in semi-retirement, Berman already has made plans for some weekends, and so that is likely unfeasible — at least for this year. In addition to appearing on “SportsCenter” this season, Berman could do more features and interviews to aid “Sunday NFL Countdown,” whose ratings dropped by double digits in his first year away from the program.
Just when I thought ESPN couldn’t possibly be any dumber, they go and do something like this… and totally redeem themselves! Yeah bringing back Keith Olbermann to announce this week’s Mets/Yankees game was an outright DISASTER. But Chris Berman is no Keith Olbermann. Boomer narrating NFL highlights while mixing in references from 20 years before even my washed up ass was born just feels right. Nostalgia has been the hot shit in Hollywood for years, so it makes sense for it to carry into TV. Plus I imagine the suits at The Mothership can’t be happy with a double digit ratings drop after Berman left. I mean think about that. DOUBLE DIGITS. I know the NFL ratings dropped last year and all. But a show all about the NFL dropping double digits without telling their viewers “Go fuck yourself” is actually impressive. Shit, even if Goodell himself told me that he hated my entire family, I would still tune in on Thursday, Sunday, Sunday night, Monday night, and let everything about my NFL team and my fantasy team consume me. What kind of an IDIOT would allow his company to remove the star from one of the network’s most important shows when said star helped build the company from the ground up and loved that company more than life itself?
Berman, arguably the most significant on-air personality in ESPN’s history, accepted a lesser role with the company at the conclusion of the 2016-17 football season. The reduction of Berman’s role was spearheaded by ex-ESPN president John Skipper.
ESPN not being able to find a Berman replacement that doesn’t cough up ratings after 8 billion years of him being on the air and then bringing him back one year later is the least surprising thing ever. I’m pretty sure whenever Boomer goes to the big studio in the sky, ESPN is just going to use the video game version of him from NFL2K5 to read the highlights.
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My lowkey favorite part of this story is Berman only being able to work only some weekends because he has plans. Boomer wasn’t kidding when he said he was semi-retired. Now it’s nothing but Hawaiian shirts and Island Time for Big Chris. Truly Mahalo shit.
I was actually in the podcast room at HQ this morning before this story broke, saw this poster and all I could think about was how sad I was that Boomer was out our lives.
I didn’t cry because it was over. I smiled because it happened. Then I thought about how Pardon My Take has carried on Boomer’s legacy with the fastest 2 minutes in podcasting better than I could have ever imagined and laughed because I truly cannot hear the name Jameis Winston without adding in Tampa, Floria in the soothing melody of “Take It Easy” by The Eagles. But now we may have Berman doing highlights over the classic soundtrack on Sundays followed by Berman Guys doing highlights their way on Monday mornings, which is proof that the Football Gods do indeed love us.
Now sit back, hit play on all of these old school NFL Priiiiiimetiiiiiiime songs, and feel the rush of football flow back into your veins before tonight’s preseason games tickle our balls for the real stuff once again.
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