Chris Berman has made a public response to the online videos that were released a few weeks ago. The Miami Herald conducted a phone interview with him.
Now I’ve never ever been a Berman fan but after watching a few of the few of videos, I started wondering what the fuss was all about. Certainly, we didn’t expect a famous baseball analyst to let his hair down and act like the rest of us, did we?
To Berman’s credit, he didn’t apologize for his actions on the videos nor did he try to spin it to his advantage.
”It’s almost as if what we would fight against as a country — the Soviets spying — it’s almost like that’s what everyone is doing,” Berman said by phone Wednesday. “What’s said in the huddle, which is what I did, should be in the huddle.
“I’m disappointed people would think I’m not really good with the people I work with, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Do I wish I didn’t say a few things nine years ago? Yes. But if that’s the worst thing I ever did, I can live with it.”
Now the Soviet reference is a tired cliche but otherwise, it’s a solid statement. I think we as baseball people need to not fall into the trap of thinking that if something that doesn’t follow the company line needs to be apologized for.
I still don’t care for Chris Berman as an analyst or sportscaster but let’s not bring him down because of this.
By the way, ESPN has requested You Tube to remove the videos which they did. Now that’s a totally different issue.