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”
The amount of production work on this must have been incredible.
Michael Jordan content is all the rage right now, and rightfully so as the “The Last Dance” on ESPN has been some phenomenal television about Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
What else is great is how Scott Van Pelt has been able to do really good SporstCenters even with no sports going on. He’s been incredible during the last two months.
Last night he did a “Bad Beats” segment on random Bulls games from the 1995-96 season and it was pretty awesome. The amount of production work to put this together has to be a lot – finding spreads and games from so many years ago couldn’t have been easy.
Free-agent running back Marshawn Lynch is currently in talks about a potential reunion with the Seattle Seahawks for the 2020 season.
Marshawn Lynch told @notthefakeSVP that his agent has been in discussions with the Seahawks about a potential return to Seattle. https://t.co/dpleGXgZTl
“Well, it’s almost on that ‘expect the unexpected,'” Lynch said. “But just as far as right now, what I do know is, Imma keep it solid. My agent [Doug Hendrickson] has been in talks with Seattle, so like I said, we’ll see what happens. If it works out and I get back up there, it is what it is. And if not, s–t, I’m lookin’ good. So I ain’t really trippin’ too much.”
The Seahawks have relied on several different running backs since Lynch’s initial retirement. Lynch returned in Week 17 of the 2019 season and made a few valuable contributions in the postseason, including three touchdowns.
However, Lynch is now 34 years old. There is no telling how much fuel he has left in the tank. If he does re-sign with Seattle, fans will hope he can still contribute in a meaningful way.
We’re doing our thing now but after this we’re going to need you because we’re going to want to watch those games.
Marshall Leonard is an ER doctor in New York City who is working the front lines in a tremendous city that is getting hit really hard by the coronavirus pandemic right now.
He’s also a former professional athlete who played for the New England Revolution from 2002-2007.
On Wednesday night Leonard appeared on Scott Van Pelt’s SportsCenter – which continues to be a great and thoughtful show during these tough times without sports – and shared a message to all the athletes out there who aren’t playing games right now.
Leonard spoke about how missing sports is tough for the doctors and nurses, too, who used to unwind after long shifts by throwing on a game and forgetting about life for a while.
He delivered this message to pro athletes and others and it gave me chills:
Marshall Leonard used to play pro soccer for the New England Revolution. Now he’s working as an emergency room doctor in New York City. Here’s his final thought with @NotthefakeSVP tonight: pic.twitter.com/xNkSBcV4zx
Use this time – and I know it’s completely awkward – use this time to keep yourself in whatever shape possible because when this is done, I’m telling you right now, we need you. We’re doing our thing now but after this we’re going to need you because we’re going to want to watch those games at a high level.
Leonard and all the health care workers are the real heroes out there and they are proving that once again during this very difficult time for the nation and the world.
Hopefully somewhere down the line things will go back to “normal” and they can take a seat on the couch and watch a game.
Golf Channel was an audacious idea 25 years ago that has changed viewing habits and become part of the very fabric of the game.
Happy 25th birthday, Golf Channel.
On Jan. 17, 1995, the first 24-hour single-sport station launched in a mere 10,000 households, capitalizing on the cable-TV boom.
President George H.W. Bush spoke the network’s very first words, welcoming “his fellow Americans and fellow golfers to this special occasion” before handing off to hosts Lynda Cardwell and Brian Hammons, who took the reins for two hours of live programming, beginning at 7 p.m.
Golf Channel has changed the way golf fans consume the game and paved the way for the eventual creation of the NFL Network as well as MLB, NBA and NHL channels. It has grown from just 15 hours of live programming in the network’s first week (the 1995 Dubai Desert Classic was the first televised event) to more than 100 live hours from three U.S. time zones and five countries this week.
A 24-hour golf channel was the brainchild of Joe Gibbs, a Birmingham businessman who made his fortune in cable and cellular phones, and partnered with Arnold Palmer, who gave instant credibility to an idea that drew more than a few snickers. One writer called it “24 hours of chubby guys in bad clothes” and another claimed, “We’ve already got C-SPAN.”
If I hadn’t tried to hit it through the trees a few times in my life, none of us would be here. – Arnold Palmer
“There were plenty of questions about who’s going to watch it?” recalled ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, who got his start in TV as a production associate working in Golf Channel’s video library. “We kind of figured it out as we went.”
Despite the skepticism and resistance from investors, Gibbs forged ahead in selling his vision. He touted an audience of 25 million golfers and conducted a national survey that suggested there were more than 44 million golf fans that would be interested in tuning in.
His biggest sales job may have been on Palmer himself. In what has become part of Golf Channel legend, Gibbs was in a meeting with Palmer and Palmer’s financial advisers, who had their doubts about the notion of a 24-hour golf channel. Retaining Palmer’s involvement was critical to future success. When it was Palmer turn to speak, he said, “Gentlemen, if I hadn’t tried to hit it through the trees a few times in my life, none of us would be here.”
Brandel Chamblee is one of Golf Channel’s most-opinionated commentators. (Photo courtesy Golf Channel)
That was the last time Gibbs worried about his co-founder’s participation. “It was almost like we were going to the party; it was just a question of what were we going to wear,” said Alistair Johnston, Palmer’s longtime manager with IMG, in the short film “Day One: The Making of Golf Channel.”
Another key moment that gave the start-up further legitimacy was securing a rights agreement with the PGA Tour. The contract was signed in 1994 during the Masters on the hood of a rental car.
Some photos from the earliest days of @GolfChannel – original Golf Central team, launch night studio shot, Masters 1995 Golf Talk Live … and the guy who hired the talent Mike Whelan with me last year who shared some photos and stories. #HappyAnniversaryGCpic.twitter.com/vrRHhl6LEn
Gibbs put together a consortium of six cable companies that together invested $60 million in Golf Channel. In short order, they assembled a state-of-the-art digital facility and hired a rag-tag crew, but they were still flying by the seat of their pants. Two weeks before launch, producer Dave Kamens turned to a colleague and said, “Why don’t we do 12 hours of golf and 12 hours of tennis per day. I mean, 24 hours of golf?”
“I had come from the launch of F/X seven months earlier where we put on eight live shows a day and still ran re-runs of the old Batman series,” he said. “The Golf Channel being ‘born’ as Tiger took hold of the game was mighty fortunate, but the secret sauce was Joe Gibbs’ visionary idea and the eventual viewership that scaled towards Cadillac buyers and Rolex-wearers.”
Producer Jeff Hymes remembers walking down a corridor of the gleaming new studio and Matt Scalici, vice president of network operations, was coming the other direction shortly before the network’s big debut.
“He looked at me and I looked at him and it was dead quiet,” Hymes recounts in “The Making of Golf Channel” podcast. “I said, ‘Matt, stop and listen. It will never be like this again. Starting tomorrow there will never be a dull moment in this building.’ ”
A Golf Channel crew sets up for an early morning live shot at TPC San Antonio. Photo by Erich Schlegel/USA TODAY Sports
Golf Channel has become part of the fabric of the game, with more live tournament coverage than all other U.S. networks combined. Over the past 25 years, it has become the place golf fans turn to watch everything from golf’s major professional circuits to NCAA Men’s and Women’s National Championships, Drive Chip and Putt Championship National Finals, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, golf’s return to the Olympics, documentaries like Arnie, original programming such as more than 100 episodes of Feherty and more than 300 episodes of School of Golf as part of its news, instruction and entertainment programming dedicated to showcasing the global sport in more than 70 countries and nine languages.
“It’s fun to know that the excitement that night and the hope of a group of people actually turned out to be well-founded,” Van Pelt said.
