ESPN anchor reflects on illustrious career

Stan Verrett is one of ESPN’s most famous anchors. He and Neil Everett helped pioneer SportsCenter ‘s move to the West Coast in 2009. Verrett has been with The Worldwide Leader in Sports for over two decades and has been a major part of our sports-watching experience.

We recently caught up with the New Orleans native and Howard University graduate to talk about his long career and how he navigated his way to being a broadcaster.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: How has your SportsCenter role changed since you started?

Stan Verrett: “Obviously, the internet wasn’t what it is today. Social media wasn’t what it is today where now you can see plays that happen in games almost in real time. You can also get a reaction in real-time, So, it’s a very different thing where you’re not just presenting the information, you’re hopefully presenting the information with context, with historical significance, with more depth than you had to back when circumstances were different, back when people were relying on you to get the first look at the highlights.

“We have to create a relationship with the viewers where they not just want to see the highlights or hear the news, but they want to hear them from you. They want to hear your perspective on it. They want to hear your presentation of it in the way that SportsCenter presents it.”

What did you want to be growing up?

“My original plan was to play football in college and then make it to the NFL, win a few Super Bowls, make a few Pro Bowls as a wide receiver. My high school in New Orleans, St. Augustine High School, we were coming off back-to-back state championships. I had no idea how good those guys were until I got there. I made the team as a third-string wide receiver, but my football dreams never got fulfilled. My mother is an educator and she said, ‘Hey, your verbal skills have always been through the roof. So, maybe there’s a way for you to be involved in sports as a sports journalist.”

Who were your media role models?

“Bryant Gumbel. I was always amazed by his poise, his brilliance, and the fact that his family was from New Orleans, like mine, made him a role model for me. When I watched ESPN, I was always a fan, like so many people, of the Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann SportsCenters because they worked so well together as a team. They were a big influence on me.”

How did you start in broadcasting?

“There was a radio station in New Orleans, WRBH, which is Radio for the Blind and Handicapped. They provide a tremendous service. They read periodicals and newspapers to listeners. I heard about it. I said, ‘OK, here’s a way for me to volunteer and get some broadcasting experience.’ I would go there once a week. I would read magazines on the air. It was my first real training. This was in high school. They had a schedule of when different magazines would come on. I would come in, and they would say, ‘Hey, we’re going to have you read Jet magazine, Ebony magazine, Life magazine, Time, or whatever.”

How challenging was it working at a radio station while in college?

“I’m 19 years old. I’m on the radio in Washington, D.C., a top-10 market. It was a priceless opportunity. It taught me how to be a professional. During the Christmas holidays of my sophomore year, I’m preparing to go home to New Orleans. I go in to pick up my paycheck. I talk to the program director and tell him, Hey, I’ll be back on Jan. 3 or 4 or whenever the semester begins. He said, ‘Go take a look at the schedule, then come back and talk to me.

“So, I (look at the schedule and) I’m on the air every night during the whole holiday season, starting that night. I have a flight later that evening to go home to New Orleans. He said, ‘Look, I’m not going to tell you not to go, but you’re part-time. At the beginning of the year, I evaluate the entire staff, and the No.1 evaluation category for part-timers is their availability. Now, how do you think you’re going to do in that department?’ So, I became a professional that day. I got a clear understanding of what it would take for me to make it in broadcasting because it was hard. It was snowing. It was tough. I wasn’t going to see my family. I believe (I worked) 15 days in a row.”

After you transitioned to TV, how did you land a job with ESPN?

“I was working in New Orleans, my hometown. I was covering the Saints, LSU, and Tulane—the teams I grew up watching. But my station, they weren’t spending the money to compete. We didn’t have a commitment to sports. So, I started sending out tapes again. My agent sent a tape to ESPN, and I had been meeting with Al Jaffe, who had hired every anchor that came to ESPN. I had been meeting with him every year at the NABJ Convention . He had been tracking my career. He saw my work in New Orleans. I got the interview at ESPN and got the job in 2000.”

What do you remember about your debut?

“It was on ESPNews. It was a Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. I had never done more than 15 minutes of television with two commercial breaks when I was back at the ABC affiliate in Norfolk. Now, I’m on for three hours and it was solo. You can’t show NFL highlights in that window. It was in September, so some baseball highlights and a lot of score updates from the NFL and maybe some golf, maybe some stuff from the night before. I talked for three hours. I remember how exhausted I was after that show because it was my first show. I wanted to do a good job. I wanted to make an impression.”

Is there a particular ESPN moment you’re proud of?

“I did a town hall with President Obama in 2016 on race, sports, and culture. I was told he was given a list of anchors to potentially host the show. He chose me. I was blown away by that. The show came off the way we envisioned it. President Obama was gracious and brilliant. I don’t know that I’ll ever do anything in my career that will top that because it was just so well done and it was such an honor to sit across from him. I got to know him a little bit from that experience and I’ve since run into him a couple of times playing golf. We both reflect fondly on that show. It was a real highlight of my career.”

Do you have a funny ESPN story?

“I got LASIK done. I get to work and I am just amazed at what I can see now. I’m the most annoying person in the world. I’m going to everybody, ‘Man, I can read that way over there.’ So, the director asked me to come up to the studio to do a lead-in early. I start reading the teleprompter and the director has somebody slowly blurring the teleprompter. So, as I’m reading, it’s getting more and more blurry and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what is going on here?’ Everybody in the control room is in on it. They’re all just getting a big kick out of this.

“I said, ‘Jim, let’s try it again.’ I start reading the lead in again, and again, they’re slowly blurring the prompter. I’m like, ‘It’s happening again.’ I’m thinking I’ve got to sue this doctor. How do I explain this? The only thing I can’t see clearly is the thing I need to see every day to do my job. I’m panicking. He says, ‘Let’s try one more time.’ As he says that, I can hear somebody snickering in the background. I’m like, ‘Oh, you guys are real funny. I tell you what, nobody better leave their lunch in the refrigerator for the next week.'”

What’s the strangest place you’ve ever been recognized?

“Oh, it’s always weird when it happens at urinals. It’s happened several times over the years. You’re standing there and then a guy looks at you and says, ‘Hey, you’re Stan Verrett!’ I’m like, ‘Uh, yeah, I am. I would shake your hand right now, but obviously, this is not the time and place.'”

The post Stan Verrett on ‘SportsCenter’s’ evolution and his biggest career highlight appeared first on Awful Announcing .