Espn Always On The Lookout For Sports Nuts

Maybe you’ve seen the promos for ESPN’s SportsCenter. There’s the one where Cherokee Parks tries to bribe Dan Patrick with his Rolex watch in exchange for some air time. There’s another where Roy Jones barters for the same thing with Mike Tirico, except he uses his championship boxing belts as bait. “C’mon,” Jones says, “I’ve got two.”

You’ve watched them and thought, hmmm. What a great job those SportsCenter guys have.

Last week’s ESPN coverage of the Great Alaska Shootout brought numerous employees of the network to town. Several local people helped out by keeping stats, including one who inquired about employment possibilities in ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters.

As it turns out, ESPN is always on the lookout for young, talented people to help out behind the scenes at SportsCenter. These people - most of whom have just graduated from college or who have only been in the work force a short time - are called production assistants, or PAs. At the end of six months, they’re graded and the best ones are hired permanently.

“They get a soup-to-nuts taste of studio production,” said ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle. “One large duty they have is they serve as screeners - watching games and picking out highlights.”

On any given night, dozens of PAs gather in a room filled with television monitors. Each is assigned one game to watch and take notes on his or her observation, identify critical moments in the game and keep track of other highlights.

“It looks like NASA,” Nagle said. “It’s probably a 40-by-70 (foot) room, and at night it’s a bit of a madhouse in there.”

But keeping focused on your game when a dozen others are airing on screens right next to yours isn’t the toughest part of the job. The toughest thing could very well be making it through the interview each PA candidate goes through before getting hired.

Al Jaffe, ESPN’s director of talent and production recruitment, quizzes all prospective SportsCenter production assistants on their sports knowledge.

“It’s somewhat notorious around here,” Nagle said of the test. “… It’s all verbal and somewhat off the cuff. It’s to test your knowledge and creativity. They want to make sure you remember who was in last year’s World Series and who was playing third base.”

Among other things, Jaffe tries to test a person’s knowledge of sports outside his or her geographical region. “He’ll ask someone from San Diego about the Eastern Division of the NBA, or he’ll ask someone from Florida about Big Eight football,” Nagle said.

Here are some other examples of the questions Jaffe might fire at a prospective employee:

Compare and contrast the shortstops in this year’s World Series.

Who will be the top candidates for next season’s Heisman Trophy?

Who are the top three candidates for NBA rookie of the year?

The questions demand specific knowledge of major sports and, at times, require critical thinking and the ability to sell a viewpoint.

“The interview process,” Nagle said, “weeds out the candidates.”