Chris Berman Biography

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Christopher (Boomer) James Berman (born May 10, 1955, in Greenwich, Connecticut) is a sportscaster, who anchors SportsCenter, Monday Night Countdown, Sunday NFL Countdown, Baseball Tonight, U.S. Open golf, and other programming on ESPN. He joined ESPN a month after its founding and has been with the network since. Berman also goes by his alter ego, The Swami when making prognostications on Sunday NFL Countdown. He is currently the highest paid analyst at ESPN. He is the new host of Monday Night Countdown, replacing previous host Stuart Scott.

Biography

Berman joined ESPN in October 1979, a month after the cable channel debuted. There, Berman was a regular anchor on SportsCenter for the first 11 years at the network. Since 1980, Berman has hosted the network's coverage of the NFL Draft. Beginning in 1987, Berman hosted pregame and postgame highlight shows during the NFL season. He joined ABC Sports as the halftime host on Monday Night Football in 1996. Berman is also the chief play-by-play announcer for ESPN's Wednesday baseball telecasts. On September 6, 1995, Berman called Cal Ripken, Jr.'s record breaking 2,131st consecutive game. He has also announced hockey and golf.

Berman graduated from Hackley School and began his broadcasting career while attending Brown University, where his son and daughter also attend school. At Brown, he served as the sports director for the campus radio station, WBRU Radio and commentator for the school's basketball, football, ice hockey and baseball games.

After graduation in 1977, he hosted a news talk show and covered football and basketball games for WERI radio in Westerly, Rhode Island. In Naugatuck, Connecticut, he hosted an early evening sports talk show, Calling All Sports for WNVR radio. In 1979, Berman took his first television job as a weekend sports anchor for WVIT-TV, an NBC affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut.

Although Berman no longer regularly anchors SportsCenter, he still appears on special episodes, including the program's 20,000th and 25,000th shows and two "old school" editions on August 11 and August 12, 2004 with Greg Gumbel and George Grande, respectively.

Berman and his family practice Judaism and live in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Bermanisms (Nicknames)

Berman is well-known for his colorful nicknaming of players who show up on the highlights. He often targets baseball players, recalling a time when it seemed that every ballplayer had a colorful nickname.

The nicknames are often puns on the players' names or pop-culture references, such as Bert "Be Home" Blyleven (as in "be home by eleven"), Curtis my favorite Martin (as in the movie My Favorite Martian), and Barry "U.S." Bonds (based on rhythm and blues musician Gary "U.S." Bonds). Among the more outlandish are Jose "Won't You Let Me Take You on a Sea" Cruz, Jake "Daylight Come, and You Gotta" Delhomme, C.C. "Splish Splash, I Was Taking" Sabathia, and Scott "Supercalifragilisticexpiali-" Brosius.

Most of the nicknames or "Bermanisms" are used exclusively by him, although fellow ESPN sportscaster, the late Tom Mees, used to cite them from time to time. One creation, "Crime Dog" for Fred McGriff (a play on McGruff), entered mainstream usage, especially after McGriff expressed that he rather liked it.

When the show changed executive producers in 1985, Berman was instructed to no longer use his now famous nicknames. After receiving many letters protesting the decision, including support from baseball player George Brett, not to mention Berman following the decision to the letter and referring to then St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog by his given name (Dorrel Norman Herzog) on-air, the brass at ESPN relented, and Berman was soon back to using the nicknames.

Despite their popularity, some have recently argued that this routine has outlived its novelty. Others have criticized him for what they perceive as frequently injecting himself into stories and lists. (Such as when Berman talked about how he gave Doug Flutie and Bill Belichick the idea for Flutie to dropkick for an extra point in an NFL Game in January, 2006.) Many athletes, in fact, like the nicknames that he gives them, as they use the nickname as a sort-of "title" to let them know that they have "made it" as a professional athlete and star.

Team/location-specific phrases

• "Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills!"
  
• "The New York Football Giants" - term used to differentiate the NFL Giants before the baseball New York Giants moved to San Francisco, and also the legal corporate name of the team
  
• "Da Raid-ahs!" - reference to Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis' Brooklyn accent
  
• "The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" - mimicking the voice of NFL Films announcer John Facenda
  
• "The NFC Norris Division." - The NFC North division (formerly NFC Central), after the NHL's old Norris Division which included teams from similar cities as the NFL teams.
  
• "Geee-Men!" - referring to the New York Giants or San Francisco Giants, depending on which sport he is covering.
  
• "Seabags!"- referring to the Seattle Seahawks
  
• "The Can-Ad-Ian Foot-Ball League" - refereing to the CFL
  
• "San Diego Super Chargers!" - singing the San Diego Chargers' fight song.
  
• "The Big Sombrero" - Nickname for the old Houlihan's Stadium, former home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  
• "The New Sombrero" - Nickname for Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  
• "The Big Ketchup Bottle" - Nickname for Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers
  
• The Homer Dome" - Nickname for the Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins (probably the source of the nickname)
  

Player-specific phrases

• "Mar-shall, Mar-shall, Mar-shall!" - used in highlights of Marshall Faulk, a play on Jan Brady's line about her sister, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia", in the television show, The Brady Bunch and a reference to Faulk's three consecutive NFL Offensive Player of the Year Awards.
  
• "The Brady Bunch!"- referring to the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots
  
• "Curtis My Favorite Martin"- used for Curtis Martin of the New York Jets, a reference to the television show My Favorite Martian
  
• "All he does is catch touchdowns"- on touchdown plays by Cris Carter, quoting former coach Buddy Ryan's criticism of Carter
  
• "Look at that little Meggett run!" - used to describe the diminutive Dave Meggett, a play on the controversial Howard Cosell line, "Look at that little monkey run"; used again in the 2005 movie The Longest Yard
  
• "Primetime, Primetime, Primetime" - referring to Deion Sanders by his nickname.
  
• "Say it ain't Sosa!" - used when Sammy Sosa Hits a home run
  
• "Jake daylight come, and you gotta Delhomme" - used for Carolina Panthers' quarterback Jake Delhomme.
  
• "T.J. you say HoushmandZAYdah, I say HoushmandZAHdah" - used for wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh as his commonly mispronounced name.
  
• "David "Green" Akers" - used for place kicker David Akers Philadelphia Eagles.
  
• "Then the Rams go to...The Marshall Plan!!!" - used when the St. Louis Rams call a play designed for Marshall Faulk resulting in a big play or a touchdown.
  
• "Johnathan Villlllmaaaaaa!!!" - a play on Wilma Flintstone, used for Johnathan Vilma, a linebacker for the New York Jets.
  
• "Mike "You're in good hands with" Alstott" - Used when Mike Alstott gets a touchdown, making fun of the Allstate slogan.
  
• "'Werewolves of' London Fletcher" - Used when London Fletcher (now Fletcher-Baker) makes a defensive play on the ball, in reference to the Warren Zevon song "Werewolves of London."
  
• "John Carney...Sheila McRae...goodnight everybody!" - Used anytime placekicker John Carney kicks a game-winning field goal, a reference to actor Art Carney from the closing segment of The Jackie Gleason Show.
  
• Joseph "Live and Let Addai" referring to Joseph Addai, and the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die"
  
• "Mike Cat Scratch Fever Nugent" referring to Mike Nugent, New York Jets placekicker, and legendary musician Ted Nugent
  
• "Rob My Bironas" referring to Rob Bironas, Tennessee Titans placekicker, and "My Sharona" by The Knack.
  
• "Famous" Amos Zereoue - a play on Famous Amos cookies.
  
• Eric "Sleeping With" Eric Bienemy - a play on the movie Sleeping With The Enemy.
  

"You're with me, leather"

On April 11 2006, website Deadspin reprinted a story regarding "You're with me, leather", a phrase that Chris Berman reportedly used to pick up a girl in a bar [1]. In the following weeks, Berman's reported use of the phrase became a running gag among Deadspin readers, and has been referenced on-air by Tony Kornheiser on his radio show, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, Neil Everett on SportsCenter, Fox Sports Southwest, Damien Fahey on MTV's Total Request Live, and on the NBC show Las Vegas.

Honors

• 12 CableACE Awards
  
• 7 Emmy Awards
  
• National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association National Sportscaster of the Year (1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2001)
  
• American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year (1995 through 1997)
  
• The Cable Guide Best Cable Sportscaster 1987, 1988, 1990
  
• 1997 "TV's Most Fascinating Stars" from People
  
• 2001 Maxwell Football Club's Reds Bagnell Award
  
• 2006 Deadspin Hall of Fame Inductee
  

In Other Media

• Berman lent his voice to the videogame ESPN NFL 2K5 and hosts the pregame show. As a hidden feature, Berman appears as a free agent quarterback in season mode, and also has his own team in the game, the Bristol Swamis, named after Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN headquarters are located and his nickname, "the Swami".
  
• Berman appeared in the remake of The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler in 2005. He played himself as the play-by-play announcer of prison football game. Berman also appeared as himself in Little Big League in 1994, in Eddie in 1996 and in Kingpin in 1996 and in the 1995 Hootie and the Blowfish video, "I Only Wanna Be With You".
  

External links

• Chris Berman's Nicknames
  
• Chris Berman's bio at ABCSports.com
  
• 
  

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