Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [333]
JIMMY KIMMEL:
I had a lot of material. I knew some of the stuff was going to be cut out, I just didn’t know how much. I understood some of it, but some of it made absolutely no sense to me. Like you can’t make fun of soccer. Everything was so political. I didn’t realize cuts were made until I watched the broadcast. I was at Huey Lewis’s house in Montana, fly-fishing, and we said, “Hey, let’s watch this.” And we did.
It was a lesson for me, I think. The lesson was that I should have expected that to happen in the first place, and they had wanted me to sign a five-year deal to host every year.
The fact of the matter is, they can’t afford to make jokes at the expense of the characters in their world. And they’re not used to that sort of thing. They’re just not willing to take that risk. They claim they cut the stuff for time, but eh. “David Beckham comes to L.A. this month. I have to say I have never seen my gardener so excited.” Maybe that one seemed racist, I don’t know.
The truth of the matter is, ESPN is great. It’s just when you make the mistake like I did of thinking you can do something edgy on that network, and you can’t. You just can’t. It’s McDonald’s.
DANICA PATRICK, Race Car Driver:
The ESPYS are just the coolest party that I get to go to all year. I’m kind of girly—I like to get made-up and walk the red carpet and look like a girl for the night. It’s nice to show everyone that I’m a girl. Not many people really see that because most of my photos and interviews are done without any makeup or without anything done to my hair except maybe a ponytail. And it’s always flattering to hear what people say.
I also get to meet a lot of people who I wouldn’t normally meet. I particularly enjoyed meeting Will Ferrell. That was pretty cool. I was presenting with Luke Wilson and we were talking when Will came over. He had just done a little skit onstage and he said, “Oh, my gosh, my two favorite people!” and I thought, “Wow, this is so cool.” I was so flattered he remembered me.
DWYANE WADE:
When I first started going, Jamie Foxx was the host, and he was hilarious. I loved the skits. When LeBron hosted, I thought he did a good job. He was funny and entertaining, and he really showed another side of him that was kind of cool. And it looked good for a basketball player to be doing that.
I’m a big fan of the game, but I’m also a student of the game. You have to do your homework. So I watch SportsCenter, ESPN News, and go on ESPN.com all the time. You just gotta do your homework.
SHAUN WHITE, Professional Skateboarder and Snowboarder:
I was standing at the ESPYs and some famous football player came up to me and he was, like, “There’s no way in the world I could do what you do.” And I just looked at him and said, “Well, there’s no way I could go tackle someone.” There’s just a common respect at the ESPYs between all the athletes that you don’t get anywhere else.
But for me, ESPN is obviously also about the X Games. Before our sport really took off anywhere, back before I even started, X Games were our Olympics. ESPN had Travis Pastrana jumping his motorcycle into the water in San Francisco. I remember I wasn’t even allowed to compete, I was so young—but it was my goal to end up getting in the event. And by the time I was old enough and all that, it really started to take off, so it was kind of our platform to get noticed. The X Games have grown from the little backyard event that it was to a full-fledged marketed thing. And now it’s a cultural thing too, because everyone is used to seeing football and basketball, but our sport has grown dramatically all across the world, so it’s become something where they need us. You know what I mean? We’re the new thing, and they’re open to us. I gave them input all the time, and always made sure