Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [138]
I said to management, “You guys make the decision who is going to replace Keith because you’re watching the show. You tell me who you like.” It was a pretty tightly knit shop and I wanted everybody to have the chance at it. I didn’t want to decide and then have people feel I had taken away their fair shot. I wanted management to pull the trigger. I think it was Steve Bornstein who ultimately made the decision that he wanted Kenny Mayne in there. And I wanted Kenny to be able to do what he wanted to do.
With Keith, we were probably equal in the stories that we would cover whether it was a serious story or a fun story. With Kenny, I would probably get more of the serious stories just because of Kenny’s personality. When [NASCAR driver] Tim Richmond died of AIDS, for instance, I knew I was getting that story. I was becoming more of the straight guy. You have to be a chameleon sometimes and ask, “Who am I working with and what role do I need to adopt to do this show?” Kenny had a challenging role. He was following in Keith’s footsteps. It’s much easier to be the guy who follows the guy who follows the guy.
VINCE DORIA:
The studio programming for ESPN2 that I was charged with ended up being two shows—a show called SportsNight, which was the Keith show, and the Jim Rome show out on the West Coast, a talk show. SportsNight was an always-evolving show; we were trying all kinds of things on it. Suzy Kolber was the first coanchor with Keith on SportsNight.
JOHN LACK:
Suzy came at the suggestion of Dan Burke. Walsh looked at her and said, “Jesus, she’s cute, and she came from Dan, but I don’t know.” I said, “Let me have her. Let me get this girl in there because she’s attractive and she’s fun and she’s got a sizzle, and we’ll give her what she needs to let her come out of her shell.” She had a fresh face and loved sports. That’s what came across on ESPN2, and it wouldn’t have come across on ESPN under Walsh. If she had started at ESPN under Walsh and played in that game for two years, she wouldn’t be the Suzy Kolber you see today, in my opinion, because she wouldn’t have gotten the chance to feel her own confidence and get to be who she was. I gave Keith another life. He fought me on it, and Walsh hated it. But Keith and Suzy were great together because the lack of chemistry or the inappropriateness of it all kind of worked in some ways.
SUZY KOLBER, Reporter:
How does it work out that an eight-year-old little girl sits and watches football by herself? I just loved it from the beginning. My dad’s a great athlete and my whole family is into sports, so sometimes I wasn’t watching alone, but I believe football was in my soul. I was one of the first girls in the country to play football, back in 1974. It was on the front page of the Philadelphia Bulletin. The league said if I played, they would suspend my entire team. So I never got to play in a game. But my helmet and mouthpiece are still in my workout room.
I had been working in West Palm Beach for a year and a half as a reporter and I got calls from both CNN and ESPN. The ESPN interview was so ridiculously stressful, I didn’t go to the bathroom all day. That sounds like such a silly thing now, but I did so many interviews, with so many people there and they shuffled me from interview to interview, that I couldn’t say, “Excuse me.” I couldn’t wait for them to drop me in the lobby so I could go to the bathroom but they walked me right to the car and I actually got in the car and went to