If Scott Van Pelt isn’t the face of ESPN, the long-time anchor is certainly on the short list. Van Pelt has an obscenely high approval rating, especially with younger folks, and his late-night edition of SportsCenter draws rave reviews (including a brand new contract extension) when compared to basically anything you would see on the network in a non-game setting. Beyond that, he has never shied away from expressing his feelings on certain topics publicly, and one such viewpoint is a staunch opposition to anyone who wants to say that ESPN is “dying” or anything in that sphere.
This time around, Van Pelt expressed some interesting thoughts in podcast form as he joined “Off The Board” with Sports Illustrated‘s Jimmy Traina for an extensive sit-down. The headliner within the audio program was Van Pelt teeing off on the notion that people are boycotting ESPN and the NFL for non-sports reasons.
“If you truly wanna boycott the NFL and you wanna boycott ESPN, the notion that some guy sitting out there, or gal, and they decide, ‘you know what, I’m gonna cut my entire cable package because ESPN gave an award on a made-up show in July because there’s no sports, to a woman who used to be a man, so I’m now not gonna have any cable TV at all and I’m gonna sit around at night and read books by candlelight like olden times because of that,’ that’s not happening.”
Then, Van Pelt continued by making things a bit personal for those who actually pulled the trigger on an ESPN boycott for the referenced reason of Caitlyn Jenner’s ESPY award back in 2015.
“And if you did that, then you’re so dumb that I can’t even pray for you because you’re beyond hope. If that was your reaction to this, was to deny yourself the ability to watch television, I mean that just hasn’t happened and didn’t happen, so I boycott them.”
There is plenty of data that would refute the notion of people fleeing from ESPN en mass for social or political reasons, and that seems to be behind most of the animus from Van Pelt here. In fact, he described “never” hearing from detractors in non-internet form to tell him that ESPN, or even his show, were “doomed” for any reason.
The full audio is certainly worth a listen, if only because context is always quite important when evaluating comments made through the free-flowing form that is a well-done podcast. Still, Van Pelt challenging ESPN haters to “define ‘dead’ for (him)” speaks volumes as to just how he feels, and there are almost certainly a few people inside the Bristol walls that agree with him on principle.
Frankly, there are few (if any) voices from within ESPN that are better equipped to fight any sort of PR battle than Scott Van Pelt, and those who are already choosing opposition likely won’t be swayed by anyone or anything. It is definitely intriguing to hear this kind of high-profile voice with this candor, though, and “refreshing” is also a word that could be used to describe his thoughts.
