Bob Ley vs. Those Wise-Cracking SportsCenter anchors
Memo to all young sportscasters: Don’t annoy your audience.
Trying too hard to be funny, or being too much of a wise guy, is the best way to become unpopular.
SportsCenter anchor Trey Wingo snaps to mind as a repeat offender. Ditto fellow ESPN anchors John Anderson, Scott Van Pelt and the granddaddy of them all, Chris Berman.
All their wisecracks and asides take away from the news and enjoyment values of SportsCenter. These guys give off a feeling that they have never actually reported a story from the field.
It’s fine for SportsCenter anchors to inject some humor – it is just sports, after all. But the humor needs to be natural, not forced. The way Dan Patrick does it is appropriate.
ESPN original Bob Ley owns a style that works. He’s the anti-Berman. In exchange for never being asked to pitch beer, Ley gains credibility.
Ley never makes a viewer turn the channel. That might not sound like a high compliment, but it is.
Young SportsCenter anchors should aspire to be more like Ley, a Matchup winner.