Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

"Chris Berman, the longtime ESPN sportscaster who has been with the company since 1979, is leaving the network after next football season, multiple sources tell The Big Lead. Berman is in the final year of his contract, which ends sometime after the 2016-2017 football season. He is expected to retire, rather than leave for another network."

entire (though brief) read at:
http://thebiglead.com/2016/05/26/chris- ... spn-after/

Like him or not, there will be no filling the void his retirement leaves at ESPN. Berman has pretty much been the face of ESPN since day one. I for one hate to see him go, but wish him well in retirement.

Hallelujah. Chris was great for the network and sports broadcasting world in general throughout the 80s into the early 90s, but his act had grown tiresome for some time. He has for all intents and purposes become a parody of himself. That said, he certainly carved out his little niche of broadcasting schtick and hopefully will be remembered as someone who helped launch a network from ground zero into a corporate behemoth.

I think ESPN would have been a behemoth regardless of whether Berman ever entered the city limits of Bristol. In their early years, they lost buckets of money under Getty Oil, and at one point, resorted to showing a few hours of business news in the early morning hours every weekday. His presence, like most ESPN "personalities," has never been THAT important.

Berman's problem is that he quickly became an NFL lapdog (i.e. See no evil...) and his whole schtick never got past childish nicknames and sound effects.

He would always HAVE to come up with a goofy nickname for every player when doing highlights. Like Ben "winter" Coates. He seemed to at least have an appreciation for the history of the game though based on his enthusiasm for the HOF induction ceremony.

Steviek wrote:Hallelujah. Chris was great for the network and sports broadcasting world in general throughout the 80s into the early 90s, but his act had grown tiresome for some time. He has for all intents and purposes become a parody of himself.

I agree with all that. His phony nicknames for players and noises were fun at one time but not really anymore. I liked Bob "Sister" Christian and Eric "Sleeping With" Bieniemy the most. In 2000, while narrating a pass play in a Jets game, he commented that Laveranues Coles went shopping for x number of yards. That was deemed inappropriate by the league or the Jets or ESPN and he was not allowed to ever again make references to Coles' shopping fiasco from his college days.

Or, maybe not so much....

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... etirement/

JWL wrote:

Steviek wrote:Hallelujah. Chris was great for the network and sports broadcasting world in general throughout the 80s into the early 90s, but his act had grown tiresome for some time. He has for all intents and purposes become a parody of himself.

I agree with all that. His phony nicknames for players and noises were fun at one time but not really anymore. I liked Bob "Sister" Christian and Eric "Sleeping With" Bieniemy the most. In 2000, while narrating a pass play in a Jets game, he commented that Laveranues Coles went shopping for x number of yards. That was deemed inappropriate by the league or the Jets or ESPN and he was not allowed to ever again make references to Coles' shopping fiasco from his college days.

How bout Steve "I got you babe" Bono? "Dih-dih, dih-dih, dih-dih.. " NFL Primetime with him was at its best late-'80s thru mid-'90s IMO.

Berman's problem is that he quickly became an NFL lapdog (i.e. See no evil...) and his whole schtick never got past childish nicknames and sound effects.

Good point. He especially kissed 49er butt a lot back then. I think that DeBartolo and Carmen Policy gave him a ring after their 94 SB win, but he had to give it back because of public outcry or something.

Bert "be home" Blyleven is a personal fave.

I have always enjoyed Berman on football. He does indeed have great respect and enthusiasm for the history of the game and obviously grew up as a fan of the AFL. Heck, he even has a pretty good working knowledge of the CFL.

I do wish, however that he would have stayed away from baseball and golf. As much as I felt he was perfect for football, I absolutely hated him on those sports. "Back, back, back, back..." UGH!