Top Ten Sportscenter Commercials on YouTube

If you read a lot of my articles you may realize that I'm not a very big fan of ESPN. ESPN spends too much time talking about the same three teams and the same five players over and over again. They play stupid games on Sportscenter when they could be spending more time on highlights and they have coverage of completely worthless events. However there is one thing that ESPN does right, their commercials.

For several years now ESPN has aired a series of commercials called "This is Sportscenter." The commercials take a humorous look at what ESPN looks like behind the scenes at their offices. What makes it so funny is that not only do we see the Sportscenter anchors at the offices but all the athletes, coaches, mascots, and even cheerleaders that are seen on ESPN also seem to hang out at the offices. In addition to that each commercial is a very humorous take on cliche or traditions either in the sports world or in the job world. Here are what I feel are the ten best "This Is Sportscenter" commercials.

10. Ringers
In the ringers commercial Keith Olberman tells us about ESPN's intramural basketball team that competes against other corporations. Of course while these other teams have fat, out of shape pencil pushers, ESPN decides to bring in Cherokee Parks, Juwan Howard and Pooh Richardson for their team.

9. International Editions
Bob Ley explains that the job of a Sportscenter anchor is a lot harder than it looks because immediately following the American version of Sportscenter the anchors immediately have to change and prepare for several international versions of Sportscenter.

8. Piano
After Dan Patrick has a bad show he is wandering through the offices when he bumps into Grant Hill playing the piano. Grant Hill decides to play Dan Patrick a song to cheer him up.

7. Crocodile Hunter
During the height of his popularity the late Steve Irwin, also known as the Crocodile Hunter, was visiting the ESPN offices. Irwin was talking to one of the anchors about how baseballers have it easy when suddenly Steve Irwin realized sports are more dangerous than he thought.

6. ESPN Fire Drills
Even the ESPN offices have fire drills. The anchors are standing outside when they see Ben Roethlesberger emerge from the building with a man he "saved". Nobody has the heart to tell Big Ben it's just a drill.

5. The Closer
The Closer commercial is a take on the closer role in baseball. A starting pitcher always wants to pitch a complete game but sometimes they are starting to lose it and a manager will choose to bring in the closer for the ninth inning. This commercial is Sportscenter's equivalent to the closer role.

4. New Kid
The New Kid commercial is another take on the sports world. In some sports kids will be drafted just out of high school but what would happen if Sportscenter hired a sports anchor right out of high school?

3. Betrayal
David Ortiz and Jorge Posada are members of the two biggest rivals in sports, the Red Sox and Yankees. After a simple misunderstanding the Red Sox mascot witnesses something that will scar him for life.

2. Running of the Brats
The Running of the Brats combines two great traditions in the sports world, the running of the bulls and the brat races at baseball games.

1. Manning Brothers
Every commercial that Peyton Manning does is gold and the ESPN commercials are no different. In this commercial the Manning family is being given a tour and Peyton and Eli are acting exactly as they would if they were ten years old.