J-Speaks: ESPN's Face Of It's NFL Coverage Steps Back

Before ESPN was “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” it was the like any other new channel when it began in 1979, just trying to catch on with the public. It has been a fixture in our lives ever since and so has one of its original anchors, who has been at the head of its coverage of the National Football League (NFL) for nearly as well as doing commentary on Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Hockey League (NHL). His bread and butter for ESPN has been leading its NFL coverage, a role that will change when the 2016 campaign concludes next month.

On Thursday, ESPN announced in a statement that Chris Berman will step down from his hosting duties as it’s face of the network’s NFL studio programming after 31 seasons, which was first reported by sportsbuinessdaily.com.

While the 61-year-old born in Greenwich, CT and raised Irvington, NY is not leaving the network, he will be leaving his role as host of “Sunday NFL Countdown,” and “Monday Night Countdown,” after Super Bowl LI, which he has co-piloted with first-year analysts Charles Woodson, Matt Hasselbeck, Trent Dilfer, and Randy Moss; co-hosts Wendi Nix (2014-present) and on-site host Suzy Kolber (2014-present); field correspondents Sal Paolantonio (1995-present), Ed Werner (1998-present), Josina Anderson (2015-present), Britt McHenry (2014-present) and Jeff Darlington (2016-present).

“Boom. You’ve been ESPN’s quarterback from the very beginning. Your impact on the industry. Just your passion for the game is so appreciated, “Kolber said about Berman during a special Saturday edition of Postseason NFL Countdown.

Berman in response channeled his inner Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame former head coach of the Buffalo Bills who led them to four straight Super Bowls by saying, “Where would you rather be than right here. Right now, for 38 years I’ve had the best seat in the house for all that time since ESPN started in 1979. I had a lot more hair and a little less girth, but it was all good.”

“I will continue to have a good seat, which is awesome, but to be here talking football with all of our viewers. For all this time, right up through now. That’s truly been a dream that’s come true. It’s an honor and I know that I speak for all of us to be welcomed into so many living rooms for so long. In our business, that’s as rewarding as anything else that I’ve ever experienced at ESPN.”

Berman will also conclude his duties as host of the NFL Draft which he has done since 1985. His hosting duties of “NFL Primetime,” that he has done from 1987-2005 with former colleague Tom Jackson will conclude after the NFL Conference Championship games and previously mentioned Super Bowl LI.

Berman will also discontinue his duties as the lead commentator of Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby.   

“It’s Boomer,” Robin Roberts said of her former ESPN colleague on Friday’s edition of ABC News’ “Good Morning America.” “For a lot of people, he is the man. He’s the guy that they [the fans] have watched for over 30 years doing the NFL. That’s all they know.”

No replacement has been named for either one of the posts has been considered yet, Senior Vice President Stephanie Druley said to the Sports Business Daily on Thursday.

“Chris is one of a kind,” ESPN President John Skipper said in a statement on Thursday. “His innovation, passion, preparation and on-air acumen have helped define ESPN. He wrote the book on delivering highlights which still serves as the standard to this day. ESPN mission is to serve fans. No one has done that with greater resonance than Chris and his dramatic connection to fans played a significant role in establishing a successful ESPN. We look forward to Chris’ continuing contributions while understanding that his place on our Mount Rushmore is assured.

The six-time National Sportscaster of the Year recipient will remain as ESPN’s host of “NFL Primetime,” highlights after the NFL’s title week games and Super Bowl LI and will be offering his opinions, presenting his perspective on historical events in the NFL and conducting taped interviews. He will also do play-by-play commentary for the MLB Division Playoff series for ESPN Radio and continue to take part in the network’s annual award show the ESPY’s.  

“The whole experience here has been a dream come true,” Berman, who joined ESPN a month after it launched in 1979 said in a statement on Thursday.

“When we started in 1979, I was just 24. Nobody knew if ESPN would make it, or, for that matter, if cable TV would make it. I certainly wasn’t sure I would make it, but I really didn’t care. We were too busy having a blast, talking sports with viewers who were just like us, even if it was during the wee hours of the morning. We got to band together here in Bristol, CT, and put out a product of which we were all very proud.”

“What I didn’t know I was signing up for was a lifetime of friendships and, I like to think, respect. Respect from those I have worked with and from those in sports I have covered, and respect from those viewers who welcomed me into their homes. That’s what hits me the most as I look back at these past 38 years-knowing that all of this happened while we were just having fun and trying to get it right.”

“I’ve been lucky enough to spend almost two-thirds of my life at Today’s announcement allows me to fulfill perhaps my final professional goal-knowing that I will finish with the team I came in with.”

In his 38 years with ESPN, Berman, graduate from Brown University in 1977 with a history degree, did one of his signature segments for the network’s flagship show “Sportscenter” called of the Two Minute Drill. Berman for 31 of those years were as the host of the network’s pregame show “Sunday NFL Countdown.” From 1987-2005, he and Tom Jackson were the pilots of “NFL Primetime.”

Jackson, who also an analyst on “Sunday NFL Countdown,” from 1987-2015 said that their great chemistry on-air began when he did an audition for ESPN in 1987 and Berman, whose also went by the nickname “Boomer” was who he was doing the audition with.

“We sat down and something clicked and I think that he would likely tell you the same thing,” the former Denver Broncos great linebacker said. “There was something that clicked between us. I had been offered another job, but I took the job because of what happened between he and I that day and that history now stretches almost three decades.”

That same chemistry extended off the air as well. Berman was there for Jackson during two very tough moments in his life when his father and sister passed away. It was Berman that was there for his co-pilot.

“I’ve spent so much time with him that I understand the big heart that he has,” Jackson said. “I love him like family. I love him like family.”

In those 38 years, Berman has covered 34 Super Bowls and handled NFL draft coverage as its lead commentator for ESPN’s coverage of the NFL draft since 1987.

He has also in those 38 years came up with several catchphrases that became iconic in the sports world.

Some of Berman’s famed catchphrases included his mid-play commentary of when a player was going for a touchdown run, “He could…go…all…the…way!” When an offensive player on the football field put a quick move, or caused that player to miss on a tackle attempt, Berman would utter during that highlight, “Whoop!” His “Tick, tick, tick, tick tick tick tick…,” catchphrase during a post-game recap on “Sportscenter” or “NFL Primetime,” referred to a play or a moment in an NFL game where the clock as the half was winding down or during moments of a game played a major factor. When a large player like an offensive or defensive lineman or a running back would make a run with the football in their hands, Berman would describe the action of the ball carrier “Rumblin,’ bumblin,’ stumbling.’” His home run commentary, which he mainly used during the MLB Home Run Derby during the All-Star festivities where a player hit one out into the bleachers, “Back, back, back, back…Gone!”

Along with that, Berman also had the amazing ability of coming up with nicknames for certain players like when he dubbed 22-year MLB pitcher Bert Blyleven, who played for the Minnesota Twins twice, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, then the California Angels, “Bert Be Home Blyleven.”

He dubbed in highlights former Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, and Houston Texans quarterback Jake “Daylight Come and You Gotta” Delhomme.

For three-time World Series champion and former Oakland Athletics’ and New York Yankees’ third baseman Scott Brosius, Berman dubbed him Scott “Supercalifragilisticexpiali” Brosius.

There was a time where ESPN was a network that was just one studio with two cameras to create their flagship show “Sportscenter.” Today, ESPN is a network that the equivalent of a huge college campus. A campus so huge that buses are used to deliver people who work there where they need to be and at the center of that expansion was Chris Berman.

An expansion that has given us the great commentary on “Sunday NFL Countdown” and “Monday Night Countdown,” from the likes of the late Stuart Scott (co-host, 1999-00); Mike Tirico (co-host 1998), who now works for NBC; Steve Young (analyst, 2000-05; contributor, 2006-09); Joe Theismann (analyst, 1988-97); Emmitt Smith (analyst, 2007); Sterling Sharpe (analyst 1995-03); Phil Simms (analyst, 1994); Hall of Famer Bill Parcells; Kenny Mayne, hosted a segment called “The Mayne Event,” (contributor, 2005-12); Rush Limbaugh (analyst, 2003); two-time Super Bowl (XXXV, XLVII) winner with Baltimore Ravens Ray Lewis (analyst, 2013-15); HBO’s Real Sports reporter Andrea Kramer (contributor, 1989-05); Hall of Fame quarterback for the Buffalo Bills Jim Kelly (analyst, 1998-00); Keyshawn Johnson (analyst 2007-15); analyst now for NFL Network and Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl champion (XXXVII, XXVIII and XXX) with the Dallas Cowboys Michael Irvin; Merril Hoge (analyst, 2012-14); current anchor for CBS News and CBS Sports Network John Elliott (correspondent, 2006-10); Hall of Famer and Super Bowl as a player (VI) for the Dallas Cowboys and as a coach (XII, XX) Mike Ditka (analyst 2006-15); Hall of Fame wide receiver Chris Carter (analyst 2008-15); Pete Axthelm (analyst, 1987-90).

It has also earned him the respect of some of the greats that have played and coached in the NFL.

Future Hall of Famer and two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback with the Indianapolis Colts Peyton Manning said, “I gotta feel like I’m speaking for a ton of athletes who want to thank Chris Berman for being a part of their football and baseball lives and sports lives.”

New York Jets legend and Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Namath said of Berman, “He made me enjoy it every time. To this day when I watch him I feel good.”

Johnson said of the captain of “Sunday NFL Countdown,” “Everybody else after him, pretty much a copycat. He’s the original.”

Kelly said after every game he would go back to his home; his family would sit down and the room would go quiet because Berman and Jackson were on “Primetime.”

Four-time Super Bowl winning head coach of the New England Patriots Bill Belichick said of Berman, who has interviewed him many times over the years, that he is a “pioneer” in the business of sports broadcasting and the style and passion that he brought to is was unparalleled. “They’ll never be another one like you.”

“No one here has been more a part of it or responsible for it than Chris Berman,” Jackson said.

“When he leaves, whenever that is, people will realize the impact that he’s had on the TV industry. Not just cable, but on the industry because right now ESPN is ‘Worldwide Leader.’ It is that and he is the face of the ‘Worldwide Leader.’”

Information and quotations are courtesy of 1/5/17 www.money.cnn.com article, “Chris Berman Stepping Away From Being Face of ESPN’s NFL Coverage,” by Frank Pallotta; 1/6/17 Newsday article, “ESPN’s Berman Will Cut Back, Back, Back,” by Neil Best; 1/6/17 www.espn.com story, “Chris Berman Leaving ESPN NFL Studio, Stays With Network In New Role;” 1/6/17 7 a.m. edition of ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” with Robin Roberts George Stephanopoulos, Amy Robach and Ginger Zee; 1/7/17 3 p.m. Special Edition of Postseason NFL Countdown on WABC with Chris Berman, Suzy Kolber, Charles Woodson, Trent Dilfer, Randy Moss, Matt Hasselbeck and Lisa Salters;  www.espnmediazone.com/us/bios/josina-anderson; www.espnmediazone.com/us/bios/kolber_suzy; www.espnmediazone.com/us/bios/britt-mchenry; www.espnmediazone.com/us/search/?q=Jeff+darlington; http://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Sunday_NFL_Countdown; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Delhomme; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Brosius.