Five Questions for
Chris Berman
by Andrew Marchand, New York Post
Q: If you had a choice, would you rather have had “Monday Night Football” or kept “Sunday Night Football,” which would have allowed your show, “NFL PrimeTime,” to continue?
A: Selfishly, I miss the show. It is the best thing I have ever done professionally. With the excitement I’ve seen in the first two weeks, I would say that ESPN having “Monday Night Football” is probably better in the bigger picture and, after all, that is who I work for.
Q: When ESPN added “Monday Night Football,” did you ever think of being in the booth?
A: Not at this point. Now, let’s go back to when ESPN went from nine NFL games to 17. That’s going back eight years. We had long discussions about that then. Should I think about doing the games since we have all 17?
Q: What was the deciding factor?
A: In the end, I, we, they decided it was better I stayed in the studio. I think I’m pretty good and pretty valuable at all the things they throw at us in the studio.
Q: One pet peeve with your work I’ve had recently is the video of you playing golf and football. To me, that’s too self-promoting. What am I missing?
A: What you are missing is the totality of a football season, of everything I do in a week, in a month, in a season on football. It would be like someone making a comment on TV, taking 30 seconds to talk about being at the golf course, during a game.
Q: But my point would be it is self-promoting.
A: But the Swami is my little section, see. It is when I get to be an alter ego. I have only done it since 1979. Imagine me as a columnist who puts himself into it- at times, maybe a tad much –but in the column. If all I wrote was a column, every day, every week, and I kept doing it all the time, I would agree with you So it is just a column and then I write the whole rest of the sports section on Sunday (alluding to his NFL studio work). A paragraph or two of my column on Friday (is highlights of him playing sports). But you don’t see it on “PrimeTime,” you don’t see it on “Countdown,” you don’t see it on “Monday Night Football.”