No matter where you stand on Chris Berman, there’s no doubting his impact on the history of ESPN. Hired to join the network just one month after its inception in 1979, Berman has been on hand from when ESPN was the Little Engine That Could to now as the Worldwide Leader in Sports. And that’s why reports surfacing of his retirement had the sports media world abuzz on Thursday. It began with a report from The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre that Berman would be retiring at the end of the 2017 season which also coincides with the end of his contract. McIntyre said that as Berman’s last day approaches, ESPN would make plans to send him off the network that would be similar to the Kobe Bryant farewell.
However, the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir contacted Berman’s agent Lou Oppenheim who quickly shot down the Big Lead reitrement story:
Chris Berman's agent denies retirement report:"Chris is NOT retiring. Loves what he's doing too much and is too young to hang 'em up."
— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) May 27, 2016
Berman's agent adds, on retirement report: "Perhaps people with an agenda put it out there."
— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) May 27, 2016
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reported that Berman would not be retiring, but cutting back on his schedule once his contract expires and fill more of an announcer emeritus role, allowing others to host the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft.
Berman has fronted ESPN’s NFL coverage hosting Sunday NFL Countdown (originally called NFL GameDay) since 1987. Along with Tom Jackson, he hosted NFL Primetime, the predecessor to NBC’s Football Night in America as the quintessential football highlight show from 1987-2006 and since 2006, has hosted Monday Night Countdown preceeding Monday Night Football.
In addition to the Sunday and Monday NFL studio shows, Berman has been the host of the NFL Draft, called the second game of the Monday Night Football opening night doubleheader and been on ABC when it had the Monday Night Football package as well as been the host for Super Bowls XXXIV, XXXVII, and XL.
His non-NFL work has included being one of the original anchors on SportsCenter, calling MLB games, first late night Tuesday Night Baseball games, then Monday and Wednesday Night Baseball before ceding the duties of those packages to others, but still remaining to call MLB Playoff games on ESPN TV and Radio, calling the Home Run Derby, U.S. Open golf until 2014 and hosting some of ESPN/ABC’s NHL Stanley Cup Playoff coverage.
And while Berman has gone from being one of the more refreshing anchors when he was on SportsCenter in the 1980’s to the point where NBC once pursued him to host its NFL coverage, to now perhaps overstaying his welcome with fans, his shadow over ESPN looms rather large.
Perhaps the turning point for Berman’s popularity was the leak of the videos from when he was hosting Monday Night Football at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore which showed a side that the public rarely sees from his temper tantrum to his deux, deux, deux rant. But as he continued to anchor, the anti-Berman rancor got louder especially with the advent of social media which turned out en masse whenever Berman called a big event.
But as speculation grows as to whether Berman will retire or just cut back on his ESPN duties, there’s no dending that he would have to be considered one of ESPN’s biggest personalities and one of its most influential on-air talent in its four decades of existence.
