Contract extensions will ensure that the Los Angeles-based SportsCenter will retain its NOLA and “Aloha” personality as New Orleans native Stan Verrett and Neil Everett, whose delivery includes references to his 15 years working in Hawaii, will remain with ESPN for the foreseeable future.
Neil: “What was the high there today, nine? Dead of winter here – 85.”
Stan: “Eighty-four with the wind chill.”
Verrett and Everett have co-anchored the 1 a.m. ET SportsCenter from ESPN’s Los Angeles Production Center since March 2009 — a move west from Bristol, Conn. heralded in an Audi commercial.
But just how compatible are the commentators from Cascadia and Cajun Country? Front Row asked them:
How Well Do You Know Your Partner? For Neil:
Stan was known as “Stan the Man” during what part of his career?
Around 2:30 in the morning this past Saturday! There also was his radio stint.
FACT: He was known as “Stan The Man” in the early 90s as a radio DJ on JAMZ103 in Hampton Roads, Va., then the country’s No. 1 Urban Station.
What does Stan say is the reason he got into sportscasting?
Because he was terrible at fly fishing. There’s also the no NFL shot, and he was a talented writer and speaker.
FACT: Stan told allhiphop.com: “Covering the NFL is the reason why I’m a sportscaster.”
Each of you were in fraternities in college. What’s Stan’s fraternity?
Alpha… he has the brand to prove it!
FACT: Verrett is a member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Two national sports columnists wrote that Stan cried at what event?
My wedding…and the re-opening of the Superdome.
FACT: Verrett wrote on ESPN.com of the Saints return to New Orleans after Katrina: “As I stood there in the press box, I couldn’t hold back the tears myself, and wound up in columns written by Mike Wilbon of The Washington Post and David Aldridge in the Philadelphia Inquirer, trying to explain the tears for their readers.”
How Well Do You Know Your Partner? For Stan:
What two sports teams did Neil play and start for in high school?
Neil started in football as an offensive lineman and as a point guard in basketball.
FACT: Neil was a football (All-City guard) and basketball starter at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Wash.
What’s Neil’s real name?
BONUS: Why does he use his middle name as a professional surname?
His real name is Neil Everett Morfitt. I think he used his middle name on TV because he likes the way that it sounds better than Morfitt.
FACT: Neil Everett Morfitt. It’s a tribute to his mother who would call him by his first and middle name when she was upset with him.
Each of you were in fraternities in college. What’s Neil’s fraternity?
Neil is a proud member of Beta Theta Pi… they are known simply as the Betas.
FACT: Neil was initiated as a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Neil refers to what team as “America’s Team”?
He calls Gonzaga “America’s Team” because he is from Spokane, where the university is located.
FACT: Gonzaga’s Bulldogs
Variety.com has more on Verrett and Everett’s contract extensions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R376Qt1enc
