The Lineup: The revealing reasons for 9 ESPN commentators’ Twitter avatars
1. Adam Schefter
“About a month ago, ESPN sent me the caricature that is my current Avi. They will be using it on their fantasy football app. It’s a funny head shot, different, a dramatic improvement over my real every day appearance. So I figured it was about time to bench the US World Cup soccer jersey and start getting ready for football.”
2. Jon Sciambi
“It’s ‘Broadcaster Boog’ as an Easter Egg… I have friends who have an Easter party every year and they make Easter eggs and so they made me because I couldn’t be there.”
3. Fernando Palomo
“The avatar is a tribute to Magico Gonzalez, the best soccer player to come out of my country, El Salvador.”
4. Aaron Boone
“It’s a scarf with the Cincinnati Reds logo (where I spent much of my career). I get colds a lot, so I’ve been known to scarf up.”
5. Robert Flores
“My avatar is from a recent WWE pay-per-view I attended with my family. The producers were nice enough to show me in the crowd during their telecast. Being a huge fan, it was pretty cool to see my giant head on their big screen.”
6. Marty Smith
“My current avatar is the Boston Marathon starting line. It was a very special moment, the culmination of months of effort for me and a year of pain for Boston and for America. The energy in Hopkinton was electric. Just buzzing. Boston was getting its hometown back, and in a very small way we runners were helping. I took a pre-race selfie to document the moment. It was a very special moment. I had some butterflies. But I knew I was prepared.”
7. Jeremy Schaap
“For my avatar, I use the iconic photograph of [former Green Bay Packers lineman] Jerry Kramer carrying [former Packers coach] Vince Lombardi off the field after Super Bowl II. It’s easily one of the greatest sports photos ever taken – the composition is astounding and it manages to say so much, so eloquently. It is additionally meaningful to me for a few reasons: A) Kramer is my godfather, B) the Packers’ 1967 season – which culminated with their victory in Super Bowl II – was the subject of “Instant Replay,” co-authored by Kramer and my father [the late Dick Schaap] and C) the photographer, Neil Leifer, is one of my oldest friends. It also serves as a reminder to me, and I hope others, of the absurdity of Kramer’s exclusion from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which says a lot more about the Hall of Fame than about Jerry.”
8. Bram Weinstein
“My current avatar is the “Greatest American Hero.” Looks like I have some ego issues. . . ”
9. Danny Kanell
“I change my avatar all the time and I used this pic for a throwback Thursday post and it just seemed to make sense with all the preseason publications out now. Plus, the pic makes it look like I was a mobile QB so I try to fool the people who didn’t actually see me play. . . ”
David Scott, Dan Quinn, Rachel Siegal, Bill Hofheimer, Allie Stoneberg, Andy Hall, Kristen Hudak, Ben Cafardo and Mac Nwulu contributed to this post