Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [206]
Yet somehow, it was easier for Olbermann to deal with the commissioner of baseball than several members of the management. It’s fair to say that things were reaching a boiling point.
JOHN WALSH:
The Olbermann and Patrick SportsCenter was aimed at the highest level of intellectuals who loved sports, but I don’t think it was as appealing to the average-IQ sports fan. I don’t think he had that much broad appeal. Some people hated to see Keith go, but at a certain point no matter who it is, if they really don’t want to be there and they’re at cross-purposes with the people who are running the company, it’s inevitable.
RICH EISEN:
When I got there, I was obviously very much influenced by Keith’s style, and everything I did, I tried to make a joke. All my on-cameras, I had a smile on my face. Every highlight had to have something funny about it. So I walked by Keith one day in the hallway, and he just goes to me, “Nope, not yet,” and kept walking. About three days later, I walked past him again and he goes, “Nope, not yet,” and walks on again. So I finally asked him, “Keith, you keep telling me ‘not yet,’ but what do you mean?” He goes, “You’re not even close to doing this show the way you should be doing it or can do it.” I’m like, “Tell me, fill me up with whatever you want to fill me up with,” and I think the fact that I had the same agent as him led him to do that. So one day I get an interoffice envelope in my box, and I open it up, and it’s a cover letter from Keith basically saying, “I got this letter from a fan.” It was a three-page letter to Keith essentially saying, “Who is this new guy on SportsCenter? Why has he hijacked my program? He’s treating it like it’s a comedy store. If he’s going to be on this much, fix him.” And Keith’s cover letter said, “Don’t take this personally, but he essentially has a point.”
And he also said that my home-run call—everybody at ESPN has to have one—was so bad that people were mocking me for it. I was absolutely crestfallen. So I went to Keith and said, “All right, man, I don’t know how to respond to this.” He basically said, “Listen, just do one highlight without a joke. Just one. Then try to do one segment without a joke. Then two segments. Then do an entire show where you go home at night and say, ‘That was the most boring show I’ve ever done.’ And do that for an entire week.” He essentially gave me the long-standing concept of less is more, that if I was going to do something really outrageous in the [second segment], then I shouldn’t do anything until I bring it back in the [fifth segment]. Hands down the best advice I’ve ever been given.
KENNY MAYNE:
I think Keith has a warm side; it’s sometimes hidden under a vest. You just can’t see it. Keith is something of a tortured genius. He was rough on the help at ESPN, but he was always good to me. We lost twin sons—Crayton and Connor—back in 1996. Crayton died at birth, and Connor died after six months. And in their memory, Keith made a real nice donation to the Ronald McDonald House up there. He also worked for me both Christmas and New Year’s that year while it was all going on. My wife and I will never forget those things.
STEVE LEVY:
When I first got to ESPN, I wasn’t being myself on the air. I was trying to be either Dan or Keith, and that was the trap that a lot of new anchors fell into. The height of SportsCenter was with those two; they were the signature figures. I don’t think that’ll be different seventy-five years from now.
RECE DAVIS:
The first couple of days that I’m here, someone introduces me to Keith, and he kind of looks down his nose at me and says, “Run! Get out! There’s still time to save your career!”—and turns and walks away. But he was great to me. Early on, I got an opportunity to do a Saturday night SportsCenter, and when I got home, at 3:30 Sunday morning, my message light was on. I figure it’s my mom, she probably stayed up and watched it. I check; it’s Keith. And I’d had zero relationship with him up to that point. He said, “This is K.O. I assume this is what you want to do, and I plan to go in