Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [177]
AL JAFFE, Director of Recruitment for Talent and Production:
I felt like the dean of admissions at Harvard. There was a huge pool of people who wanted to be here, and as a result, I could be very selective. We had started a production assistant program in the late eighties, that’s the entry-level job here, and the number of applicants was growing and growing. We wanted to make sure people were qualified, so during their interview with me, I came up with something that came to be known as “the Quiz.” It wasn’t trivia like “Who hit more than forty home runs in 1950?” It was more about the current scene, so I could have an idea of whether the person was knowledgeable enough to work here, because in addition to being a good writer and needing to be creative, they had to have a thorough understanding of sports on a national level.
I’ll give you an example: “Let’s pretend you’re the general manager of the Dodgers and we’re doing this interview in December. It’s the off-season. What do you need to do to improve your team? Which free agents would you go after?” If somebody said they were from Los Angeles, then I would ask about the Cardinals or the Red Sox. Then I would ask, “Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of SportsCenter, and be candid,” or “If you were to come to ESPN, pitch me an idea for a longer story.” These are mostly kids coming right out of college, although we’ve had older people apply too, but if they said, “Oh, geez, we don’t have cable in the dorm,” well, that was a problem. It’s amazing; there are a lot of people here who came through that process that now have big jobs. Mark Gross is senior vice president of studio production, and he started as a PA. It’s cool for me to walk through the halls here and see people who passed the quiz and have gone on to succeed.
JUDSON BURCH:
When I interviewed with Al Jaffe, I went off on a five-minute dissertation about why Craig Biggio shouldn’t be a lead-off hitter. I think that gave him a general idea that I was a baseball fan, and I remember thinking afterward that this had to be a cool job if part of the interview was getting to assess Major League lineups.
KEITH OLBERMANN:
My mother had gotten used to this attention-garnering thing of mine fairly early on. I was never in a group. I’ve never been a wallflower. And so there was a lot of this for her beginning in the third grade. Obviously a smaller group, but the teachers would all come over to her and go, “Sooo, you’re Keith’s mother,” with a combination of awe and pity. By, let’s say, ’95, my mother would somewhat wearily say, “You know what, I was writing a check somewhere or buying something, and somebody recognized the last name and said, ‘Oh, what a great coincidence. You have the same last name as my favorite sportscaster,’ and she would just wait for it and then have to explain that she was, in fact, my mother. And there was this pride overload. “It’s okay. I get it. He’s your favorite sportscaster, and he’s this guy’s favorite sportscaster and he’s this next guy’s favorite sportscaster. That’s great. Thanks a lot. Can I just have my sandwich now?” It was like George Carlin’s line: “Thanks for wishing me a nice day; now can I have my fucking change, please?”
BRETT HABER:
I had done the 2:00 a.m. SportsCenter and then had to fly the next morning to Philly to do a story. So I get to the clubhouse at the Vet around 11:00 a.m., and the guys were all watching SportsCenter on the big screen in the locker room with me anchoring, but there I was standing right in front of them. A bunch of the guys looked at the TV,