I was a high school junior by the time I started to really appreciate quality literature and wordplay. It was around that time that I discovered ESPN’s quirky Sportscenter anchors. Rich Eisen, Kenny Mayne, Dan Patrick and John Anderson, just to name a few, were gifts to a teenage boy looking for a way to combine loves of sports, humor and good writing. Chris Berman, in addition to being one of the original ESPN anchors, was larger than life in both his energy on set and his physical size. When many of his colleagues were using catchphrases to liven up their highlights, Berman found his niche by making popular culture references using athletes’ names during his narration.
I loved every minute of it.
The Chicago Bears didn’t produce too many highlights during my high school years; at least, not the kinds of highlights for which they would have been proud. They finished last in their division every season that I was in high school (1997-2000); their best record in that stretch was in 1999, when they went 6-10. Their defense was mediocre and their offense was even worse, largely due to the quality of their quarterbacks. Erik Kramer was in his mid-30s in ’97 and ’98 and at the end of his career. The next two seasons featured the combinations of colossal-draft-bust Cade McNown, the talented-in-college-but-inconsistent-pro Shane Matthews and the serviceable-but-hardly-a-world-beater Jim Miller.
Matthews might not have set the NFL world on fire but he had a few moments in the sun. More importantly, he had a name that rhymed almost exactly with one of the most popular bands of the ’90s and Chris Berman knew it. I can still hear Berman cheering his way through the highlight, describing the Bears scoring play that never came frequently enough.
“The Shane Matthews Band finds The Space Between for the touchdown!” Continue reading “Navigating the Space Between”
