Longtime ESPN star Scott Van Pelt has helmed the midnight edition of SportsCenter since 2015. As he comes up on 10 years as the show’s solo anchor, it sounds like Van Pelt is ready for something else.
During an appearance on this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina, the 56-year-old Emmy winner said he does not see himself hosting the show on a full-time basis for many more years.
“I’ve been doing this a long time where, look, I don’t want to do that forever,” Van Pelt s. “And that would lead to the natural, ‘What would you want to do?’ I don’t know. I don’t know.
“I still enjoy it.”
“Talking to Jamal Murray when you can ask him, from a scale of 0 to 10, 0 I’m sober and 10 I’m wrecked, what are you, and he gives you the Mutombo wag because he's just been playing 48 minutes, he has 0% body fat and he’s been chugging champagne. He’s probably bombed, but you wanna give him an out so we can frame the conversation here.
“Like, those nights are such a blast, Jimmy. You just feel like it’s such a treat to talk to these people in the middle of those moments. They’ve just achieved the pinnacle, and you’re the one who gets to talk to them and that’s awesome.
“At some point, it’s Tuesday night and you're following the White Sox and it’s like, that’s fun, too, but it’s just not the same level of juice as a night like this. Or you’re following taped programming, it's a 30 for 30, and here you come. Coming off a game, at least there’s a game.”
Those comments led to this exchange, during which Van Pelt shared some surprising information.
Traina: It sounds like you've thought about how much longer you want to do this.
Van Pelt: For sure, for sure.
Traina: Is there like, a three-year, five-year, 10-year ...?
Van Pelt: No chance I’m doing this that long.
Traina: Five years?
Van Pelt: Eh. I don’t know. Like this? Every single night?
Traina: Three years?
Van Pelt: Nah.
Traina: You don’t think you’re doing SportsCenter three more years?
Van Pelt: Nah. I don’t think. My contract doesn’t run that long, and there are conversations to be had about what all is part of it. At some point you just gotta step aside and let somebody else have it.
After being asked whether he would maybe stay on SportsCenter either on a part-time basis where he’s not hosting five nights a week or host during the NFL season only, or whether he would just leave the show cold turkey and say “Goodbye, God bless,” Van Pelt gave a brutally honest answer.
“I don’t think it would be cold turkey, goodbye, God bless,” he said. “Listen, they have reestablished the market and they can come to me with LIV numbers and say to me, ‘Van Pelt, we really like this thing you do’ and they’d get you caught up to some of the numbers they’ve thrown around and you [think], they can roll people out there and I’ll be sitting out there going [in old man voice], ‘Let me tell you about the game tonight.’”
Other topics discussed with Van Pelt on the podcast include:
- The PGA-LIV merger, what players think about it and whether it’s good for golf
- U.S. Open betting tips
- Pat McAfee’s joining ESPN
- The night he lost his voice on live TV
- The beauty of his “Bad Beats” segment
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
