Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [378]
MICHELLE BEADLE:
Probably six months after I arrived, I was leaving a concert in Jersey, and from behind me I hear, “I really love you on SportsNation!” and it was a twenty-one-year-old girl, and I just said, “Well, thank you.” It was a little weird. I said to my mom later, “I totally got recognized.”
I think my parents are still a little bit shocked that this is what I do. I went to my dad’s birthday party and all his friends wanted to do was talk about Oklahoma State.
COLIN COWHERD:
Michelle’s really bright, and she has talent and confidence. It’s kind of an “it” quality, and she’s got it. But she’s also vulnerable, and that makes her work hard.
Insecurity’s a great motivator. I’m insecure; that’s why I work so hard. I think anybody that goes on camera for a living or behind a microphone, if you go deep into their psyche, they either want to be noticed or want to be liked. I don’t have all the answers. I’m not Freud here. But I think a lot of us in this business are vulnerable. That’s probably the same for actors and performers. Actually, I’ve never considered myself a journalist. I just consider myself a performer.
My mom used to say to me all the time, “You like being liked.” And yes, I think that probably comes from insecurity, because of the way I grew up, sort of isolated in the middle of rural Washington State. But I learned to be very self-reliant, and because of that, I think I tend to be defiant. I had to fight my way through a lot of divorces in my family. My mom and dad have been divorced a combination of eight times.
MICHELLE BEADLE:
Colin’s forty-five and I’m thirty-four. We’re definitely different-thinking regarding the way men and women are in relationships. He’s just old-fashioned. It cracks me up because there are times when it feels like he’s sixty-five years old. If I go out and come home at 2:00 a.m., his reaction is ridiculous, so I’ve learned what I can and cannot say around him. And his pop-culture knowledge is embarrassing at times. He references shows that haven’t been on the air in, like, fifteen years—it’s always Seinfeld. I’m like, “There are other shows that have been on the air since then, you know.” He’s such a bizarre, eclectic dude.
As ESPN approached its thirtieth anniversary, powerful paradoxes were at work. The American economy—in fact, the global economy—was continuing to suffer, and yet the company was coming off the best year in its history, a record year for growth and profits. The dichotomy was resolved with an all-systems-go order on aggressive acquisitions and technological development, but significant restrictions regarding staffing. Bodenheimer announced a hiring freeze for what was left of 2009 and all of 2010 and put the kibosh on merit-pay increases for any employee who’d reached the level of senior director or higher; funds available in the “merit pool” for those ranking below senior director were reduced. Bodenheimer also suggested streamlining, downsizing, and belt-tightening for the entire organization.
At the same time, however, Bodenheimer said work would continue on an extravagant new Los Angeles production facility for the network; on Building 13 and a new child-care facility, both in Bristol; on the launch of Employee Research Groups; and on continued “smart investments in our future, both in the U.S. and internationally.”
CHRISTINE DRIESSEN:
We continue to play the “little engine that could” card with all our employees and the business community we work in. Despite people knowing we’re very successful, I think what we have tried to drill down in our organization is that when we spend money, we’re going to spend money on the product that goes on the air to serve the fans. We are not Hollywood. We are not the broadcast networks. We have a different culture here about how we spend money. I’d rather have us spend a dollar on great production, great cameras, and