Kenny Mayne on His Book, Thomas Friedman, and Why ESPN Won't Let Him Yell 'Obama!'

With An Incomplete & Inaccurate History of Sport, ESPN's Kenny Mayne has written a book that perfectly encapsulates the wry, sardonic style that has made him consistently the best part of the Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show.

The book is ostensibly Mayne's commentary on every sport under the sun, from Australian rules football to yachting, but it's really just an excuse for Mayne to crack wise.

As on ESPN, his approach seems so far removed from what you'd expect from an ex-jock (Division I football and even have a brief stint with the Seattle Seahawks) that when I interviewed him on the phone last week, the first thing I wanted to know was whether what we see on TV and read in the book is just an act. My interview with him (and not to pimp the publicity materials, but a pretty low-tech-but-very-funny YouTube of a Mayne reading as well) below the jump.


The book is written in the same style that you use for your Mayne Event segments on NFL Countdown. Is that just sort of a natural style for you, or is that a persona that you worked to develop?
I don't think so. I think I'm the same person you see on TV, more often than not.

When we watch The Colbert Report, we're seeing the real person Stephen Colbert play a character named Stephen Colbert. How similar is the Kenny Mayne we see on Sundays to the real Kenny Mayne?
There's a difference because the Mayne Event – those are entirely made up stories. Three out of four times I've entirely made up the story, and then I'll say to, you know, Tom Brady, "Here's your line." So that's a little more of a theatrical performance. But I try not to over-analyze it. The difference between that and the book is I didn't make up anything. I tried to write in a funny way, but those recollections of my childhood really happened. I didn't make up stories, even though I may have written some farcical things.

With your background as a former NCAA quarterback, do you ever worry that you're selling yourself short by focusing on humor over analysis? Do you have any desire to be a Ron Jaworski-style Xs and Os analyst?
I've sort of daydreamed of that. I probably wouldn't do it as expertly as Jaworski, given that he actually played in the league, but play-by-play of football games, where I'm really covering, not giving a parody of what I'm covering, or being a horse race announcer, I would like to do. But I'm having too much fun doing what I'm doing now.

Do you consider yourself a journalist?
When I'm doing journalism I do, but it's so rare that I do, I think I'm a journal-tainer, that makes more sense for me. It's not like they gave me a job description of make obscure stories about sports stars, there was no job description that I signed up for, it just sort of happened, that we thought if I was trying to be entertaining, why don't we just own it? So for the last six years, seven years, a good part of my workload has been just making up stories.

Would you want to do more serious journalism?
I wanted to be a Middle East correspondent. In my off time I watch news and the History Channel, and those topics interest me. Maybe I could be like P.J. O'Rourke and write comedically about politics. But my last job before ESPN was selling long distance for MCI, so who knows?

Do you read any sports blogs regularly?
I don't read any every day that I have to go and find out what so-and-so is saying. It's more like I'll run into it.

I'm all for the democratization of everything. Bloggers are sort of like independent filmmakers. The difference is some people are funded and some people aren't. If someone's good and they have a platform I don't know that it matters what you call what they do. It's all writing.

The only true criticism -- what bugs me -- is when I see those who don't produce and then stand in judgment of those who do produce. That's why I'm not a fan of some of the talk radio.

Is there any particular person whose career path you've tried to emulate?
Going way back I think my model was Johnny Carson in terms of timing, I watched him all the time. I remember what a huge deal that was to watch his opening monologue. But really, my career is only influenced by others to the degree that I read a lot. The more you read, and it doesn't have to be about sports, the better a writer you're going to be.

Getting through the entire New York Times is difficult, but I read Frank Rich and Thomas Friedman. I sometimes wish Thomas Friedman were president.

And who do you wish were president of the people running?
I'm not allowed by ESPN to endorse candidates publicly, but I'm a total political junkie. All the primaries, I stay up until 2 a.m. to get all of the results.

Speaking of ESPN not letting you do things, you write in the book, "an ESPN boss told me to quit saying, 'The players are gay,' whenever I saw baseball players jumping up and down at home plate to celebrate a game-ending home run." Does ESPN often tell you you're going too far?
A long time ago I think that was the case. I can't really remember too many examples. But as far as saying "The players are gay," it was never meant as disrespect toward gay people. I've on more than one occasion had gay people tell me on the street how funny that is. I just thought it was a funny play on words. It's certainly not a slur because I don't think anything bad about gay people or have any ill will toward gay people.

There was one thing I wanted to do on SportsCenter, yelling "Obama" on three-point shots, but they said it would sound like I was using SportsCenter to support Obama. It was only because it seemed to make sense to me. None of the other candidates' names make sense to me, but they told me to stop doing it.

Yelling "Obama" reminds me of how Craig Kilborn used to yell "Jumanji."
I was there the night "Jumanji" was created. It's the same kind of thing, Obama, Jumanji, they're just powerful-sounding words.

You do commercials for products like Top Flite and Progressive insurance. Does ESPN have any problems with that? Do you have to clear endorsements with ESPN?
They get to approve or disapprove. I'm not the first one to do it. If you look at our own commercial campaign, "This is SportsCenter," they have us in situations where to some degree, people could say we're crossing whatever line there is with our impartiality. But the company trusts us and hopefully the viewers do too.

Which is your favorite SportsCenter commercial?
I like one of the most obscure ones, me and Dikembe Mutombo staring at a cloud. As for the ones I wasn't in, any time Charley Steiner got involved, it was good television.

Your IMDB page says you were a voice on the Clerks animated series. How did that happen?
I just vaguely remember that. I've done some voice work, but I honestly can't even remember what I did, if they lifted it from SportsCenter or if I provided something.

You were once ahead of Randall Cunningham on the UNLV depth chart. One of the few serious moments in the book is when you talk about how Randall and his pastor prayed with you about the twin sons you and your wife lost, and about how soon after your wife got pregnant with a daughter. Did you hesitate at all to put that kind of serious subject matter in a lighthearted book?
Yeah, if there are 50 chapters, maybe five of them are heavy, there's something about childhood, the one about my dad at the end, but the part that was the heaviest was that part about Randall. It was an incredibly devastating time for us to lose our twins, and I happened to visit Randall at the time, and I thought I should tell the whole story.

Most people who know you played football only know that you were on the same college team as Randall. When you think back on your brief stint with the Seahawks, do you have regrets that you never played in the NFL?
I have huge regrets. I don't know that I was really good enough to play in the NFL, but I think I could have played in Canada or the USFL. I think my biggest regret is that some of the experience I could have had in football would be beneficial to me now, and the mental end, I think I could have been more disciplined, and that would have helped me get a shot at the next level.

What's next for you? How long will you be doing what you're doing?
We're debating that now. Something will pop up that presents itself to me that might be more interesting, but for now I'm happy what I'm doing.