Chris Berman
| Rate this ESPN Personalitiy |
   |
Christopher James Berman (born May 10, 1955, in Greenwich, Connecticut) is a host and anchor of SportsCenter, NFL Primetime, Sunday NFL Countdown, Baseball Tonight, US Open golf, and other programming on ESPN. He joined ESPN a month after its founding and has been with the network since. Berman also goes by his alter ego, The Swami when making prognostications on Sunday NFL Countdown. He is currently the highest-paid analyst at ESPN.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Berman joined ESPN in October 1979, a month after the cable channel debuted. There, Berman was a regular anchor on SportsCenter for the first 11 years at the network. Since 1980, Berman has hosted the network's coverage of the NFL Draft. Beginning in 1987, Berman hosted pregame and postgame highlight shows during the NFL season. He joined ABC Sports as the halftime host on Monday Night Football in 1996. Berman is also the chief play-by-play announcer for ESPN's Wednesday baseball telecasts. On September 6, 1995, Berman called Cal Ripken, Jr.'s record breaking 2131st consecutive game. In recent years, he has also announced hockey and golf.
Berman graduated from Hackley School and began his broadcasting career while attending Brown University. At Brown, he served as the sports director for the campus radio station, WBRU Radio and commentator for the school's basketball, football, ice hockey and baseball games.
After graduation in 1977, he hosted a news talk show and covered football and basketball games for WERI radio in Westerly, Rhode Island. In Naugatuck, Connecticut, he hosted an early evening sports talk show, Calling All Sports for WNVR radio. In 1979, Berman's took his first television job, as a weekend sports anchor for WVIT-TV, an NBC affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut.
Although Berman no longer regularly anchors SportsCenter, he still appears on special episodes, including the program's 20,000th and 25,000th shows and two "old school" editions on August 11 and 12, 2004 with Greg Gumbel and George Grande, respectively.
Berman and his family live in Cheshire, Connecticut.
[edit] Bermanisms (Nicknames)
Berman is well-known for his colorful nicknaming of players who show up on the highlights. He often targets baseball players, recalling a time when it seemed that every ballplayer had a colorful nickname.Template:Fact
The nicknames are often puns on the players' names or pop-culture references, such as Bert "Be Home" Blyleven (as in "be home by eleven") and Barry "U.S." Bonds (based on rhythm and blues musician Gary "U.S." Bonds). Among the more outlandish are Jose "Won't You Let Me Take You on a Sea" Cruz, Jake "Daylight Come, and You Gotta" Delhomme, C.C. "Splish Splash, I Was Taking" Sabathia, and Scott "Supercalifragilisticexpiali-" Brosius.
Most of the nicknames or "Bermanisms" are used exclusively by him, although fellow ESPN sportscaster, the late Tom Mees, used to cite them from time to time. One creation, "Crime Dog" for Fred McGriff (a play on McGruff), entered mainstream usage, especially after McGriff expressed that he rather liked it.
When the show changed executive producers in 1985, Berman was instructed to no longer use his now famous nicknames. After receiving many letters protesting the decision, including support from baseball player George Brett, not to mention Berman following the decision to the letter and referring to then St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog by his given name (Dorrel Norman Herzog) on-air, the brass at ESPN relented, and Berman was soon back to using the nicknames.Template:Fact
Despite their popularity, some have recently argued that this routine has outlived its novelty. Other critics have criticized him for what they perceive to as frequently injecting himself into stories and lists. Many athletes, in fact, like the nicknames that he gives them, as they use the nickname as a sort-of "title" to let them know that they have "made it" as a professional athlete and star.Template:Fact
[edit] Catchphrases
[edit] General catchphrases
- "That's why they play the games."
- "Back back back back back back ... GONE!" - on home runs and long fly balls, in reference to Red Barber's call on long fly balls, made famous on a Joe DiMaggio at bat during the 1947 World Series. Berman does this every time a ball is hit out of the park in the home run derby.
- "He could ... go ... all ... the ... way!" - on long touchdown runs and home runs, originally a Howard Cosell phrase
- "Rumblin', Bumblin', Stumblin'" - mimicking Keith Jackson, used on football plays involving larger players, often ungracefully, running with the ball
- "It's a fumble!"
- "Tick tick... tick tick..." - during the final seconds of a half or game when a team is trying to score before the clock runs out.
- "WHOOOOP!" - used in a higher-pitched tone to punctuate acrobatic moves or misdirections, including fakes, hurdles and jukes, or fumbles
- "Boom Boom Boom!" - makes "boom" noises when power runners such as Mike Alstott and Jerome Bettis break through tackles or run over defenders.
- "Doink!" - used when a field goal hits the goalpost
[edit] Team/location-specific phrases
- "Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills!"
- "The New York Football Giants" - term used to differentiate the NFL Giants before the baseball New York Giants moved to San Francisco, and also the legal corporate name of the team
- "Da Raid-ahs!" - reference to Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis' Boston accent
- "The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" - mimicking the voice of NFL Films announcer John Facenda
- "The NFC Norris Division." - The NFC North division (formerly NFC Central), after the NHL's old Norris Division which included teams in the same cities as the NFL teams, and was, like the old NFC Central, known for its mediocrity
- "Geee-Men!" - referring to the New York Giants
- "Seabags!"- referring to the Seattle Seahawks
- "San Diego Super Chargers!" - singing the San Diego Chargers' fight song.
[edit] Player-specific phrases
- "Mar-shall, Mar-shall, Mar-shall!" - used in highlights of Marshall Faulk, a play on Jan Brady's line about her sister, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia", in the television show, The Brady Bunch.
- "The Brady Bunch!"- referring to the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots
- "All he does is catch touchdowns"- on touchdown plays by Cris Carter, ironically quoting former coach Buddy Ryan's criticism of Carter
- "Look at that little Meggett run!" - used to describe the diminutive Dave Meggett, a play on the controversial Howard Cosell line, "Look at that little monkey run"; used again in the 2005 movie The Longest Yard
- "Primetime, Primetime, Primetime" - referring to Deion Sanders by his nickname.
- "Say it ain't Sosa!" - used when Sammy Sosa Hits a home run
[edit] Selected ballplayer nicknames and explanations
[edit] "You're with me, leather"
On April 11 2006, website Deadspin reprinted a story regarding "You're with me, leather", a phrase that Chris Berman reportedly used to pick up a girl in a bar [1]. In the following weeks, Berman's reported use of the phrase became a running gag among Deadspin readers, and has been referenced on-air by Tony Kornheiser on his radio show, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, Neil Everett on SportsCenter and Damien Fahey on MTV's Total Request Live.
[edit] Honors
- 12 CableACE Awards
- 7 Emmy Awards
- National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association National Sportscaster of the Year (1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2001)
- American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year (1995 through 1997)
- The Cable Guide Best Cable Sportscaster 1987, 1988, 1990
- 1997 "TV's Most Fascinating Stars" from People
- 2001 Maxwell Football Club's Reds Bagnell Award
[edit] In Other Media
- Berman lent his voice to the videogame ESPN NFL 2K5 and hosts the pregame show. As a hidden feature, Berman appears as a free agent quarterback in season mode, and also has his own team in the game, the Bristol Swamis, named after Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN headquarters are located and his nickname, "the Swami".
- Berman appeared in the remake of The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler in 2005. He played himself as the play-by-play announcer of prison football game. Berman also appeared as himself in Little Big League in 1994 and in Kingpin in 1996.
