ESPN had a charity auction about a month ago to benefit the Jimmy V Foundation. Lark bid on the tour of ESPN with Howie Schwab and won so on August 22nd, we had our tour.
We drove up on Tuesday night and got to the hotel around 10:30. Woke up and got to ESPN a little after 9:00, while we were scheduled to meet Howie at 9:30. Better to be early than late for something like this! We hung around the lobby for a little while checking out some of the memorabilia, and watching all of the 4 TVs they have tuned to different ESPN channels. Howie showed up at 9:30 and very soon after was Coach Herm Edwards. He said Hi and kept going while out came Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler and Desmond Howard. Lee stopped and introduced himself to us but only for a second as they were all on their way over to the studio to tape. So Howie showed us a the first floor - mostly empty desks, but Max from ESPN News was at his and stopped to talk to us for a few minutes.
Then we made our way up to the Newsroom on the 3rd floor. I've never seen so many monitors in one place. We ran into John Anderson who had just finished up filling in on Mike and Mike. Then we talked to Jay Crawford and Robert Flores who were finishing their scripts for the noon Sportscenter, but took a few minutes to show us what they were working on and how their systems ran. It was very cool and so nice of them to let us in on that. Then we made our way over to the desk where Coach Edwards was working and Howie introduced us. He stood right up and had a 5 minute football conversation with us which was so neat. We let him get back to work and Howie showed us around the rest of the newsroom - where they sometimes shoot the "coming up" shots, the bottom line, and the ESPN News desk.
As we made our way back around the newsroom, we caught Adnan Virk on the way out. He was coming in from filling in for Mike and Mike and stopped and talked to us for a few minutes also. He told us how he was supposed to be on his way out, but since someone called in sick, he had to go get ready for the 3:00 Sportscenter. So we let him head out and we made our way out of the newsroom having done all of this before 10:30am.
Next, we headed down to check out some of the studios. We watched Colin Cowherd live on the air and got to see Scott Van Pelt's set which is in the next studio over. Lark sat in his chair and then we went into the production room attached to meet Ryen Ruscillo and Johnathan Coachman. They told us to come back in the afternoon to watch some of their show live as well.
Howie took us around to show us the other studios and by luck, College Game Day was just finishing up taping so we snuck in and hung around until they were done. Lee said hi to us again on his way out, Kirk stopped to meet us and showed sympathy for being a Penn Stater. Desmond stopped and met us on his way out and then we waited around for Chris Fowler. He was finishing up promos which was neat to watch. He came over and talked to us for a minute as well as Howie who needed a favor.
Then we continued on our journey to more studios. We headed down to the Mike and Mike studio which is also First Take and NFL 32. It was one big studio that faced different directions depending on what show they were shooting. First Take has just finished up so we met Skip Bayless who was much more down to earth than I expected and Stephen A. Smith who we didn't get to talk to for very long since we was on his way to New York for a live broadcast.
In the next studio over was Sportscenter and Howie took us into the control room. It was so neat to watch all of the different shots on the different screens along with all of the graphics that go onto them. You could hear the producer talking to them telling them what shots to use, what graphics to add, and more. No one is allowed in the studio when they are live on the air, so they told us we wouldn't be able to go in, but we could watch from here and that was really neat. But then Howie said, "What are they doing to do? Fire me?" So we snuck in! We very briefly met Cris Carter and watched a little bit of the show before we were kicked out. We watched from the control room for a little longer. Soon after, Cris was done and on his way out so Howie introduced us and we talked in the hallway to him for a few minutes. Another very nice guy.
At that point, we needed a break and some food so we headed to the cafeteria. Lunch was good, we got to talk to Howie some more and on the way out, we watched Colin and Carissa filming a new Sportsnation commercial. We stopped by the ESPN store and bought a few things. We took them to Howie's office so we didn't have to carry them around and he took a few minutes to check voice mail and email. (Our feet were happy to rest)
After that, we headed back to the College Game Day set which was already switched over to Baseball Tonight. We took a few pictures there and headed back up to radio to watch some of the Scott Van Pelt show (with Ryen and Coachman since Scott was off). The producers talked to us about what they were doing, how radio worked, etc. Then we went up to the newsroom to see if the next shift of people had come in. John Anderson was still there and thought it was funny that we were too! We talked to him for quite a bit this time - about the Phillies GM, doping in cycling and if the Brewers were winning. Not only was he very nice but also very funny.
Then it was time to head down to Sportsnation to watch the taping which was supposed to start at 3:45. We got there a few minutes early but the taping didn't actually start until around 4:00. Colin talked to us (and the others there to watch) in between sets and when we told him we were from Harrisburg, he mentioned how great the airport was. We watched the entire show, including being in the background shot when they went outside to throw footballs into a trash can. It was 5:30 and about time to hit the road, but Howie wanted to stop by the newsroom one more time in case anyone was there. We met two of the ESPN News guys and they were very nice. On our way to get our stuff from Howie's office we ran into John Buccigros who was also very down to earth and we had a great conversation with him. We headed to our car and as we were leaving the parking lot we passed Trey Wingo. It just didn't stop all day. We didn't get home until 11:00, but the day was worth it.
