Advertising / This Is SportsCenter

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Ever wondered what goes on in the offices of ESPN? These commercials have you covered.

This is SportsCenter. is a long running Advertising Campaign promoting the titular sports news show. The ads are presented in a Mockumentary format, usually featuring interviews with the ESPN anchors before showing the shenanigans that occur behind the scenes in the Bristol offices. What makes these ads especially memorable is the presence of Real Life athletes and mascots from major sporting leagues, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NCAA, NASCAR, IndyCar, Association Football, UFC, and even WWE.

Majority of these ads can be found on YouTube, with ESPN's archive channel even providing a playlist featuring compilations of various commercials.

Tropes found in the commercials:

• Adam Westing:
  • Richard Simmons appears in an ad getting the anchors in physical condition for the show. He of course acts like his energetic self seen in many of his workout videos.
    Richard: Give me energy! Give me energy! Dadada! Dadada! YES! YES!
  • Steve Irwin talks with John Anderson about airing Crocodile Hunter on ESPN before encountering and tackling Albert Gator, the mascot of the Florida Gators, like how usually handles a live alligator.
  • Stephen King serves as a ghostwriter for John Anderson in one ad, only to throw away his script because John tells him that the New York Yankees weren't actually possessed by demons. He then throws away another page shortly after being told not to give the players Psychic Powers.
• Audience Participation: Parodied in one commercial where the show gave viewers the chance to vote on who they wanted to see read the highlights, or whether they preferred to see a roller-skating cockatoo dunk a basketball. In the end, the audience votes for the cockatoo.
• Back to School: Rich Eisen once got sent back to "the minor leagues", which is represented as a local high school. Here we see him working as a co-anchor for the school's news program, despite not being an official student. Though according to John Anderson, he eventually worked his way back up to SportsCenter.
• Bait-and-Switch: Becky Lynch starts to losen up when dealing with a broken vending machine, looking like she's about to break the glass. She moves her arm back… and then grabs the nearby phone and calls facilities.
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • David St. Hubbins, the frontman of Spın̈al Tap, is revealed to have written the SportsCenter theme song.
  • John Anderson and Bram Weinstein are revealed to be the sharks from Katy Perry's Super Bowl Halftime Show, with the latter being the out-of-sync "Left Shark".
• Big Honking Traffic Jam: New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees inadvertently causes one of these because of his massive Mardi Gras float/car.
• Bigger on the Inside: The dishwasher in the office kitchen is apparently large enough to wash The Stanley Cup, with two players from the Vegas Golden Knights using it.
• The Bus Came Back: Tying into his one-off return to host SportsCenter in 2026, Rich Eisen returns to the offices and finds a couple things off about the place, despite claiming that nothing has changed. Firstly, he has trouble getting in without a photo ID (using an old framed picture of him and Stuart Scott). Then he notices the messy mailroom and his old cubicle with a large spiderweb, but at least he found his missing tie. Finally, he is told that the main studio is now on the left and not the right.
• Butt-Monkey: Expect the mascots to be on the receiving end of various gags.
  • Poor Otto the Orange (Syracuse University) is usually punched or shoved out the way whenever he appears. There is one instance where he doesn't get physically harmed, except it has him awkwardly stare at the U.S. Women's National Team eating orange slices.
  • The Stanford Tree is another notable target, notably being tied to the Goodyear blimp and fainting when overhearing Atlanta Braves player Jason Heyward explaining to the anchors how a baseball bat is made.
• Cat Up a Tree: Shaquille O'Neal once rescued LSU mascot Mike the Tiger from a tree just outside the office building.^note For extra meta points, Shaq played college ball at LSU.
• Clark Kenting: Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard, wearing a fedora and glasses, checks in on Hannah Storm after "Superman" came in and saved her. Dwight (who is nicknamed "Superman") comments that she was lucky he saved her.
• Cool Car: Any commercial featuring a NASCAR or IndyCar driver is sure to also feature their race cars.
• Cool Chair: LeBron James once asked Stuart Scott if he took his office chair. Stuart, who's sitting in a king's throne (a reference to LeBron's "King James" nickname), lies to him and says that he didn't steal it.
• Crossover:
  • One ad centers around a fictional trade with Melrose Place that saw Andrew Shue being sent to SportsCenter while Charley Steiner appears on Melrose Place as a pool boy named Bobby who asks Sydney to rub oil on his back.
  • Various Star Wars characters appear in another ad to help the show transition to High Definition.
• Destination Defenestration: When Keith Olbermann and Jack Edwards are debating on whether Roger Clemens had lost his fast ball (Olbermann claims that he hasn't, while Edwards disagrees), Clemens walks in the meeting room and proceeds to throw Edwards out of the window. Olbermann, who is holding a radar gun, measures the throw at 98 miles per hour, thus proving himself right.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Some of the commercials do a good job at showing a joke or bit without explicitly telling the audience. One notable example being Jimmie Johnson using a pickax to destroy a speed bump, with his stock car next to him. Another being Arnold Palmer making his signature drink, with Scott Van Pelt and Stuart Scott looking in awe.
• The Ghost: Longtime ESPN anchor Chris Berman is mentioned a couple times, but throughout the entirety of the ad campaign, he only appears in one commercial (where he talks about the mishaps and bloopers that occur when SportsCenter does a live show).
• Let's Meet the Meat: Stuart Scott awkwardly gets one of the Milwaukee Brewers Racing Sausages (specifically the Hot Dog Wiener) a hot dog in the cafeteria. The rest of the sausages are behind him, with the Italian Sausage walking up to also get food.
• Logo Joke: One ad centered around the Boston Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster working the teleprompter, which because of his larger fingers, resulted in multiple typos and random gibberish. The closing title even reads "This is Spilifantrr." at the end.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Numerous athletes from different sporting leagues are all shown as fellow ESPN employees working in the same Bristol offices as the rest of the anchors and reporters.
• Metalhead: The late John Clayton is revealed to be one of these, complete with long hair and a Slayer T-shirt, while also doing reports from his bedroom, which is covered in posters of heavy metal bands. He also still lives with his mother.
  John: HEY MOM, I'M DONE WITH MY SEGMENT!!!
• Millennium Bug: A notable commercial features the offices getting ready for the millennium bug by checking if their software is Y2K compliant. When the test fails, a riot ensues in the office.
  Charley Steiner: Follow me! Follow me to FREEDOM!"
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Due to them watching a lot of soccer, there has been an increase of injury reports amongst the anchors. Namely, John Anderson yelling and holding his ankle after slightly tapping another anchor. U.S. Women's Soccer star Abby Wambach just tells him to stand up.
• Mundane Object, Advanced AI: After Albert Pujols decides to spare the anchors, the printer-copier suddenly asks why he didn't eliminate them, which Albert responds with a simple "Shut up." before slamming it shut.
• Mundane Utility: In various ads, some sporting equipment is used for mundane purposes. From the NBA Draft Lottery balls being used as spare ping-pong balls, to Stuart Scott using one of Michael Phelps' Olympic medals as a coaster for his coffee mug, which Michael immediately takes back and puts it back with the rest of his medals.
  Stuart: It was just a bronze.
• Muppet Cameo: The Swedish Chef is hired as the new cafeteria cook, but the only person who can understand him is New York Rangers goaltender and native Swede Henrik Lundqvist.
• No Sense of Direction: John Anderson asks NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. for directions on how drive to Denver, only for the directions to just consist of Junior drawing an oval on a piece of paper, resembling the majority of race tracks he competes in.
• Not What It Looks Like: Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz helps New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada break in his baseball cap by wearing it, just as the Red Sox mascot Wally walks in, believing that Ortiz has joined their main rivals.
  David: Hey! It's not what you think!
• Now What?: After New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera retired, Metallica (who played Rivera's walkout song "Enter Sandman") is left wondering what other athletes could use a walkout song, even considering golf as a possible sport to enter.
• One-Steve Limit: Dan Patrick and Danica Patrick have an encounter over a parking spot reserved for "D. Patrick", after the latter's IndyCar gets towed away.
• Parking Problems: Two separate IndyCar drivers get their race cars towed away because of where they parked. This includes the aforementioned confrontation between Danica Patrick and Dan Patrick over the spot reserved for "D. Patrick", and Michael Andretti nearly losing his car because he parked in Chris Berman's spot. Not helping things was him trying to take an employee to a meeting in Chicago.
• Percussive Maintenance: U.S. Men's Soccer player Landon Donovan kicks a photocopier to try and get it to work, only for the machine to print out a yellow card. After Landon complains about it, the copier prints out a red card, forcing him to leave.
• Pro Wrestling Episode: The WWE superstars have appeared in a couple of ads, with their first appearance featuring King Kong Bundy, Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker complaining about their highlights not being on the show. Another ad saw Dan Patrick helping "Stone Cold" Steve Austin concentrate on studying by hitting him twice with a steal chair. Becky Lynch also appeared in some ads.
• Rehearsing a Conversation: In one ad, then-New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski is shown trying to rehearse a conversation that he plans to have with one of the ESPN executives. When he's initially called in after waiting 45 minutes, the executive ends up having to take a call and tells him he has to wait a few more minutes. Gostkowski then returns to the hallway and re-rehearses his conversation by altering his approach, insisting on a raise but not asking for vacation days.
• Ripped from the Headlines: One of the benefits of running a sports news channel is using trending stories as the basis of a commercial a few days after they're posted. One notable ad was based off the MLB steroid scandal, with Scott Van Pelt being caught using "performance enhancers" (a thesaurus) in his broadcasts.
  Scott: Unhand me, you rapscallion!
• Road Trip Plot: One commercial featured Roger Clemens and Cam Neely (who at the time were playing for the Boston teams of their respective sports (Red Sox and Bruins)) driving to the ESPN offices in Bristol to deliver some fruit. They managed to find the location, only to find out that the building is closed for Chris Berman's birthday party.
• Sibling Rivalry: The Manning brothers are constantly picking on each other while their family is getting a tour of the office, with their father Archie giving them a Death Glare to get them to stop.
• Shout-Out:
  • San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson shows how scary his beard is by mimicking the Nightmare Face from Beetlejuice (1988).
  • Carolina Panthers player Calvin Johnson lives up to his "Megatron" nickname by transforming into a vending machine, complete with the sound effects from the cartoon.
  • One of the nicknames the Boston Celtics' late-2000s Power Trio (Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen) suggests is "The Three Amigos", even doing the pose from the movie.
  • St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols is revealed to be a machine, even having the same POV as The Terminator.
  • When James Harden checks in on Houston Astros mascot Orbit, who is working on fixing the ESPN satellite, the poor mascot is seen on a TV screen floating in space with a cracked hole in his helmet, parodying the infamous death scene from Gravity.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: The Oregon Duck (mascot of the University of Oregon) is shown to be working in one of these, preventing him from joining his fellow ducks at the pond outside. He even lets out a loud sigh as he looks out his window.
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: Cincinnati Bengals player Chad Johnson holds meeting where the anchors give him ideas for a potential touchdown celebration. He turns down Stuart Scott's "Boo-ya" dance and the "sizzling bacon action" move before accepting John Anderson's pitch of making the football disappear with a rally towel, even suggesting adding a puff of smoke at the end.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: One ad has John Anderson and Dikembe Mutombo watching the clouds outside, with John seeing a cloud that looks like George Washington and Dikembe seeing one that looks like a rabbit.
• Time Out: The offices have a "penalty cubicle" that resembles a hockey penalty box. Two Vegas Golden Knights players are in there for slashing and high-sticking respectively before being joined by Steve Levy, who got two minutes for hitting "Reply All" to a company-wide email. Josie Bruin, the mascot of UCLA's women's basketball team, later joins them.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: With how many athletes and mascots roam around the office, expect the elevators to get awkward at times. From Mr. Met taking up too much space, to the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks mascots messing with each other before the Super Bowl, to Brendan Moreno getting hyped up by his crew like he's about to step in the octagon.
• Uninvited to the Party: Poor Scott Van Pelt is not invited to a party hosted by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo that features other staff members, the Cowboys Cheerleaders, and the team's mascot Rowdy. He awkwardly tries to invite himself after finishing the show, to no avail.
• Walking Techbane: Played for Laughs in one ad where Michael Phelps is having trouble using the computers in the office, unaware of the fact that he's still soaking wet from swimming earlier.
• "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: Western Kentucky mascot Big Red has trouble deciding which restroom to go to (since they don't have a specified gender). Rich Eisen then suggests using "the woods out back" as he enters the men's room.
• X Days Since: The ESPN offices have three of these, one being the standard "Days since last accident" sign and the other two counting the years since the last "Butt Fumble"^*referring to the infamous incident where New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez fumbled the football after colliding into the rear end of one of his own players and the years since the Chicago Cubs last won the World Series. Both the accident sign and the Cubs sign have their respective numbers erased and replaced with zeros^*the ad aired shortly after the Cubs won the World Series in 2016.

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