SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt has tested positive for COVID-19
Scott Van Pelt is one of the best on ESPN. That’s why it is particularly startling when he revealed on social media Thursday he will be off his SportCenter duties for a while.
Reason: A positive test for COVID-19. Van Pelt says he lost the ability smell and can’t taste anything.
Won’t be doing shows for a bit after a positive Covid-19 test. Thankfully, no fever & I feel fine. Just can’t smell or taste anything which was my clue to go get a test.
So, I will hunker down and hopefully can be back at it before too long.
If you’re a bettor who had the Cleveland Browns at +3 or +3.5 on Monday night and watched as the team ended up with a jaw-dropping safety with no time on the clock in the loss to the Baltimore Ravens … oof, I’m so sorry.
That was one of the worst bad beats people have ever seen. The Ravens covered thanks to a 10 million lateral play that would normally end with a Browns player getting tackled or the ball going out of bounds or something.
But a safety? ARGH!!!
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt — who has done a bad beats segment for a long, long time — had the best reaction to it:
An ACC team won a non-conference game this week in blowout fashion but it’s how the last 90 seconds went that has the sports world talking.
One of the best things going on in sports-television these days is Scott Van Pelt’s weekly “Bad Beats” segment on SportsCenter each Monday night.
In the segment, he and Stanford Steve go over the worst beats from a gambling perspective over the weekend.
Sometimes it’s a freakish lateral play that gets fumbled and returned for a back-door cover, other times you’ll see a ridiculous catch or bizarre call by an official change who ultimately covered the game.
On a weekend that saw plenty of them, the ACC’s Virginia Cavaliers pulled off perhaps the greatest backdoor cover one will ever against Abilene Christian.
No, not just because of the last play, but because of the last 90 seconds of the unimaginable that led to an even crazier final outcome. Take a look for yourself:
I know we’ll focus on the pick six to end it and give Virginia the ultimate cover but what in the name of Mary and Joseph is with the Cavaliers play-call on 2nd and 12 with 41 seconds remaining, while up 36?
The pick-six to end it is the icing on the cake but the ride to set that play up only blows my mind more each time I go back and rewatch it.
He who gambles lives in shambles.
Thoughts and prayers if you lost money because of that, but more thoughts and prayers your way seeing as you actually bet on Virginia/Abilene Christian.
Scott Van Pelt is fluent in just about every sport, but golf holds a special place in his heart.
As the host of the midnight edition of SportsCenter, Scott Van Pelt is fluent in just about every sport, but golf holds a special place in his heart.
Van Pelt came to ESPN from Golf Channel, where he was an anchor and reporter from 1994-2000. He still feeds his thirst for the game by serving as the main host of ESPN’s golf coverage, including the Masters and the PGA Championship, and he hosts SportsCenter reports and specials from the events.
Van Pelt joined ESPN in early 2001 as the network’s lead professional golf reporter and with the Masters nearly upon us, he made time to speak to Golfweek for a riveting conversation heavy on the Masters with a side of Tiger, DeChambeau and even one heckuva Scott Hoch story.
Q: Let’s get right to it. Who’s your Masters pick and why?
A: I’m going to keep picking Xander Schauffele until he wins because he keeps being close and eventually he’s going to win, and if I don’t pick him and he does win I’ll be livid. Before the PGA I said that this odd calendar year would be a year for breakthroughs, not necessarily people who came from off the grid but who had been lurking around the fringes and when they won you’d say OK. Morikawa was a bit earlier than we would have thought but he and DeChambeau were both first timers, won on Tour, young stars and Schauffele fits that mold and would keep with the trend.
Q: If you were a patron at the Masters, how would you spend the bulk of your day?
A: Get there early and walk the course. The course is the star. Walk directly to Amen Corner just to see it and walk your way back in. I’d go walk the par-3 course which is as beautiful as the “big course.” What’s so cool is that if you’re a golf fan you can go. You can find a ticket. It might cost you big money but if you’re a golf fan you’ve got to go.
Wednesday to me, in a normal year, is the most fun because you do what I just said and then you park yourself somewhere at the par-3 contest. It’s the day before one of the biggest events of the year and everyone’s mind is in a totally calm, happy place. This might be sacrilege to say, but I think any major is a superior televised experience to an in-person one because no matter where you are the overriding majority of what happens is not in front of you. But Augusta is the place to go for all the reasons I said. You can’t believe the place. It’s better than you think it’s going to be. It’s more beautiful than you think it’s going to be. It’s hillier than you can ever understand. You leave the place shaking your head because by like a factor of a million, it exceeds your expectations like nothing else in sports.
Q: What’s the most underrated Masters you’ve worked?
A: Adam Scott over Cabrera. The Masters are moments. As Phil says, history is going to be written here every year. Think about the shots that were made. That Masters doesn’t get brought up enough. It was birdie for Scott – yelling, ‘C’mon, Aussie!’ and he’s finally going to cash in on all that promise, then birdie for Cabrera who stiffs it at the 72nd hole and says, no you’re not, and then Scott rolls in another birdie in the playoff and that tremendous golf sort of Jesus pose and he’s backlit and it’s raining. Any chance I get I bring 2013 up. People always say, it was pretty good and I always say it was better than that.
Q: What historical moment in golf do you wish you could have witnessed?
A: Jack in ’86, just that moment where he puts his arm around Jackie and looks back down the 18th. Now that I’m a dad, I can understand what that moment must have been like. To share that moment with Jackie as his caddie, it doesn’t get any better than that. I did get to watch that moment with my dad, so that was pretty memorable.
Q: How many times have you played Augusta National and what is your most lasting memory of doing so?
A: I played it once. I won the media lottery and I played with the late great Jim Huber. My lasting memory is there’s never been a bigger tourist than I was. I walked around with an Instamatic camera and took pictures the entire time. I played poorly, but I’ll give you a couple.
When you walk across the bridge at 12, I stood there and thought everybody who’s ever been anyone in this game has stood here right where I’m standing. I’m not going to overstate it – it wasn’t religious, it was the 12th green at a golf course – but it’s a parcel that every foot that has mattered has stood here. That moment was great.
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As I said, I played poorly and I fanned one on 16 and I’m far right and the caddie went and stood on the top of the hill and he said you need to hit a ball that bounces once or twice and stops here and that’s it. I said, what have I done today to lead you to believe I’m capable of doing that? And damned if I didn’t hit a perfect chip and I walked up with my hands in the air. It didn’t go in but I hit the shot you have to hit at Augusta. I didn’t hit many of them. What I remember is I was a total tourist and I was intent on preserving the memory. But the funny thing is all I have to do is close my eyes and I remember everything.
Tiger Woods crosses the Hogan Bridge during the second round of the 2019 Masters in Augusta, Georgia. (Chris Carlson/Associated Press)
Q: If you were to take a buddies golf trip, where are you going?
A: I do take a buddy trip. We play every summer at the beach in Delaware at the Midway Par 3. Every year, me and my idiot friends mark time with this. We’re all older than we used to be. We started it when we were young. As cool as playing in Scotland and Ireland in the elements and all that, I don’t have time for that right now but I always make time for a few days at the beach to play this par-3 event. We all look forward to it the entire year.
Q: When did you start believing Tiger might win the Masters last year?
A: Not until Sunday. The Masters almost always does the same thing. So many good players play well there and they all end up in a funnel and they are all packed together and then it’s a question of who can survive the second nine. Remember who was there and remember how well they were playing. Molinari hadn’t made a mistake. Not one. He hadn’t wobbled and then he rinsed one. It took not just him but all three of them – Finau and Koepka included – to rinse it on 12. Often times history isn’t just what you do but what the others don’t. It was all happening and it was all happening in real time. It allowed Tiger to step forward and once he did it was like oh, my God, it’s going to happen. And, of course, it did.
Q: Will Tiger win another major?
A: I don’t think so, just because of the depth of the fields. It will require not just him to play great, but somebody else from that group not playing great. Cosmically, if the first was with his dad and the last was him with his kids, I can’t speak for him but I think I could in saying if that’s how it started and ended, well, that’s not a bad way to start and finish the book. Think about what that took out of him and what that sapped from his reserves. It seemed to be most everything last year. If there really are golf gods and Tiger was sitting around a table with them and they said this is what the cost is but this is what you get, he would’ve pushed all his chips in and said give me that, I’ll take that.
Q: Who’s the best interview in golf?
A: I’m pausing because I really want to give you the right answer. Really what a good interview is, is someone who will honestly tell you something. Among the very best players, I really enjoy talking to Justin Thomas because he’ll tell you what he thinks, he’ll be self-deprecating to a point and he’ll be honest with you. He got caught with a hot mic and dropped an F-bomb at the PGA at Harding Park. I refuse to apologize for the language because anyone who plays golf knows that’s what you say. There was this brief pause and I said, ‘Well…Everyone loved it, including JT.’ His emotion is palpable, he’s fiery as hell and he wants to win so badly, but he’ll be honest when he doesn’t with why he didn’t. That’s all I want from people.
Q: What current golfer would you pay good money to watch?
A: It’s a long list, man. I guess DeChambeau just to see how fast he can swing and how long he can do it. I was at Harding Park and a highly-ranked player who has won a major, I won’t identify him, said, have you seen him hit the driver yet? I said, no. He said, stick around it’s worth watching. You know this, Tour players don’t watch other players hit shots because they’re Tour players. There’s a bit of a ‘step right up and come into our big top and watch the strong man put on a ridiculous show’ to what he’s doing.
Bryson DeChambeau hands his broken driver to caddie Tim Tucker on the seventh hole during the first round of the 2020 PGA Championship. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Q: If you weren’t doing what you do, how would you be making a living?
A: I was in the process of hooking on with an insurance company when I got an interview with Golf Channel. I’d never been on TV before. None of this was supposed to happen. I just try to project gratitude into the universe because I’m sincerely grateful – whether that’s God or the universe – I want somebody to know that I’m appreciative of all this. I truly don’t know the answer. I hadn’t found my path yet when this one presented itself to me. I’m sure something would have revealed itself but I don’t have a clue what it would’ve been.
Q: How do you feel about the Golf Channel digging up its Orlando roots and moving to Connecticut?
A: It’s crushing to me. I understand the business. It’s happened to everybody given the challenges of the landscape and how things are constantly evolving and changing. It was really painful because I was an original. I could get to the Golf Channel offices from the Orlando airport blindfolded. People lost jobs that mattered to me, talented, good people, and lives left in a state of flux. I’m proud of what I got to do there in my time and for lack of a better word, it sucks.
Q: What’s the most valuable lesson you learned working at Golf Channel?
A: To respect the game. I learned an appreciation and respect for the people in it and golf as a metaphor for life that I don’t think that’s corny or hokey. No one sat us down and told us this is how you’ll treat the game. It’s just the way the game revealed itself to me.
Q: What’s the all-time bad beat in golf?
A: I think for me, at the Masters, it’s Scott Hoch. He had a helluva career, but he missed a putt that he could’ve made in his sleep. A couple of years ago I was standing under the Oak tree and a guy said hello and I realized quickly that it was Scott Hoch. He’d driven up that day with Andy Bean and he’s wearing one of those elastic white ties around his belt for his day badge. We chit-chatted for a bit and I walked away and sometime later I sat and thought about it for a bit and it shook me. If he makes that putt, every year since then he’s on this side of the rope with his family and friends to remember the greatest moment you have in golf. You get to do some corporate appearances where you get paid to eat a steak and tell about how you beat Faldo in a playoff and instead he drove up with Andy Bean to walk around the golf course. He wasn’t sad but just think about how different life would have been had he made that little putt, how different the trajectory of his life would have been.
Scott Van Pelt tore Skip Bayless to pieces without uttering his name even once.
Crass and completely out of line are the only two ways to describe what Skip Bayless said about Dak Prescott opening up on his brother, Jace’s, death.
He tried to paint Prescott out as weak in Thursday’s episode of Undisputed for falling into depression after losing his brother. He made the point that Prescott showing any sort of vulnerability in that moment was a sign of a lack of leadership.
He rightfully got roasted on the internet for his awful, and frankly dangerous, take. That includes his former ESPN colleague, Scott Van Pelt.
During last night’s midnight edition of SportsCenter, Van Pelt really dug in to what Bayless said and absolutely tore it apart without once mentioning his name.
Scott Van Pelt puts @RealSkipBayless in his place…. without ever saying his name.
“And that’s what’s so different about the modern athlete. Not Instagram or brand management — it’s the understanding that there will be understanding. That you don’t have to pretend to be tough when you aren’t. That you can ask for help and know it’s going to be met with compassion for the most part. And also to know that those who can’t muster any, aren’t worth your time or you concern.”
Saturday morning, a tweet went viral from Unnecessary Roughness that was taken from ESPN’s Sportscenter with Scott Van Pelt about his opi…
On Saturday morning, a tweet went viral from Unnecessary Roughness that was taken from ESPN’s Sportscenter with Scott Van Pelt about his opinion of Big Ten talks to start the fall season around Thanksgiving or January.
Van Pelt felt that it was pointless to start at the midpoint of the season for other conferences like the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 that are planning to start in late September. He went on to say that the Big Ten would not have a chance to compete for the National Championship and that the only trophies to be seen in the Big Ten would be from rivalry games.
Some Wisconsin players like Eric Burrell, Adam Bay, and Faion Hicks really empathized with Van Pelt’s viewpoint, and have tweeted in support of his perspective.
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The 2020 PGA Championship was unlike any other golf major championship that we’ve seen as there were no fans in attendance at Harding Park to watch a great four days that ended with an incredible back nine of action and a first major championship for Collin Morikawa.
One of the benefits of having no fans at events continues to be what we get to hear from the players and the caddies from the mics all over the course. And yes, a lot of times we get to hear some bad words from players like Justin Thomas, who dropped a F-bomb on Sunday that golf fans loved.
ESPN shared the coverage with CBS at the PGA Championship, with the great Scott Van Pelt leading the way and finally we found our hero for dealing with those bad words. Too often when watching sports you have to listen to announcers apologize to us, the viewers, whenever – gasp! – a curse word by a player gets on the broadcast. The apologies are phony and completely unnecessary, as we can all handle hearing some swears while watching sports.
Van Pelt handled those moments perfectly during ESPN’s golf coverage. He didn’t apologize to us when those things happened but instead said stuff like, “I’m not going to worry about the language, if you play the game then you know what it is.” It was brilliant and it’s how all announcers should handle this stuff going forward.
Sports broadcasts need more realness like that from the announcers. Like I said before, we can handle hearing bad words because chances are we all use them and hear them all the time. If you don’t like hearing bad words while watching sports then you really need to calm down and just let them happen and get over it. They are just words. And if you’re a kid, well, you love hearing those words even more when watching a game. I know I did as a kid and I turned out alright.
ESPN’s coverage of the golf this weekend was so darn good (CBS’ golf coverage continued to be so darn bad). Van Pelt led the way and should be calling every golf tournament ever because he continues to show everyone just how good he is at having some fun while masterfully doing his job on live TV.
Sunday’s biggest winner: Collin Morikawa.
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Morikawa won his first major championship on Sunday thanks to two shots on the 16th hole that he will never forget. Golf fans will never forget them either, as his drive on the short par-4 and his 7-foot eagle putt basically won it for him in stunning style. Just incredible stuff from a rising star who is going to win a bunch more of these things.
Fresh off Monday night’s SportsCenter appearance with Scott Van Pelt, Brian Kelly continued to speak make the rounds Tuesday.
Fresh off Monday night’s SportsCenter appearance with Scott Van Pelt, Brian Kelly continued to speak make the rounds Tuesday. It started when he was interviewed by Mike Tirico. After that, he was the center of a virtual roundtable that hosted multiple media members. Irish Illustrated broke down some of the main points he made.
Unsurprisingly, the meat of the conversation revolved around how Notre Dame’s past, present and future has been affected by COVID-19. Testing players, not having recruits visit this spring and what this all means for training camp all were addressed. As for players and parents who are concerned about coming back to campus, Kelly said no program activities are mandatory, but openness and honesty are required.
Kelly also talked a little about how the recent racial issues that have been raised have allowed for dialogue among everyone in the program. Additionally, players having trouble with things like racial and mental issues have access to mental health specialists, and they’ve taken advantage of that during the pandemic. This is a time when everyone needs all the support they can get, perhaps now more than ever.
Kelly has a duty to keep his team sharp. When many experts are predicting the 2020 Irish will make some noise in the national championship race, no stone can be left unturned. He has no problem letting the media know that, so cool your jets if you’ve felt uneasy about how he might be handling all of this.
Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly joined Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter Monday. Watch the interview right here!
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If you missed Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly’s appearance with Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter Monday night then don’t fret, because we’ve got you covered here at FIW.
Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly was a guest on SportsCenter Monday night and shared some news in regards to Notre Dame football.
Brian Kelly joined Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter on Monday night and discussed a wide array of topics. If you didn’t catch the interview don’t sweat it, we’ve got you covered right here with the five things to takeaway.
On Social Issues:
Van Pelt led Kelly to start the conversation by discussing the current state of affairs in the United States in the wake of the unnecessary death of George Floyd. Kelly offered the following on what went on with his team in the days immediately following that event.
“Dialogue. It started with getting everyone together and to give them the platform to speak on what happened”
Kelly went on to add that he has “failed as a leader” of young men because he hasn’t done enough with his platform to help change things for the better.
In order to create this change we all claim to want, Kelly stated: “It can’t be talk, it’s got to be action”
