Ray Ferraro will call two NHL games in one day, how ESPN got the viral Vandy QB interview and more: Media Circus

A working lunch occasionally has advantages. Such was the case last June in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when Mark Gross, ESPN's senior vice president of production and remote events, pitched an idea to Ray Ferraro, his company's lead NHL games analyst. As the two ate near the beach before one of the Stanley Cup Finals, Gross made his pitch to Ferraro.

“I said to Ray, 'You know, I already know what our opening plan is going to be in October,'” Gross recalled last week. “Ray said, 'What is that?' I said, “Seattle will play a Pacific Time day game, and if Florida wins (which they did), they'll raise the banner in midgame.” And we'll get Utah's first home game, too. … What do you think about calling two games that day to create a little excitement and excitement for opening night of the NHL once we get the travel, the charter and all that stuff sorted out? It's something different, isn't it?'”

Ferraro didn't hesitate as he waited for his avocado toast and smoked salmon.

“I would like to do that,” Ferraro told Gross.

Gross told him to plan it and ESPN would organize the logistics for him. So here's the plan: Ferraro, Mike Monaco and Stormy Buonantony will pit the St. Louis Blues against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. After the game, Ferraro makes his way to the airport and on to Salt Lake City, where the duel between the Utah Hockey Club and the Chicago Blackhawks takes place at the Delta Center at 10 p.m. ET. Play-by-play announcer Bob Wischusen, analyst AJ Mleczko and reporter Leah Hextall will also be at the Utah-Blackhawks game. It's the franchise debut for Utah after moving from Arizona.

“I will have a car waiting in the loading dock and as soon as the horn sounds I will rush to the car,” Ferraro said. “This car will take me somewhere to a plane and we will fly to Salt Lake City. Then there will be a car that will take me to the rink. That’s why they better not work overtime in Seattle.”

When contacted by The athlete On Friday, no one in the NHL's communications department could recall a national announcer doing two games in one day during the regular season.

“It's not the trick to have Ray in two places,” said Linda Schulz, ESPN's vice president of production and the company's point person for NHL coverage. “It’s fun, we’ll enjoy it and embrace it. But in the end it is beneficial for us that he does two shows with two different matches on opening night.”

That's true, but it's certainly a way for ESPN to get some more publicity (as this column confirms).

“It's definitely a little jumpstart to Kirk Herbstreit doing 'College GameDay' and then playing the game that night in a different city,” Gross added.

ESPN is investing heavily in the franchise opener in Utah, which should provide great visuals for viewers. The company is sending its NHL studio team of Steve Levy, Mark Messier and PK Subban to do this show live on site. They will have one set outside the Delta Center and one inside when Utah takes the ice.

“We will do all of the pregame and final coverage from this studio in Utah outside and then move inside as we get closer to puck drop,” Schulz said. “You have to pick your spots with your coverage in mind and be careful about where you really want to go all-in, and we've made the decision that this is not just because we want to be strong partners with the NHL, but Because we are too. Hockey fans are really excited to be there.”

When asked about his preparation for canceling two games in one day, Ferraro said he had a similar experience for the IIHF World Junior Championship.

“I actually did three games in one day,” Ferraro said. “Of course no travel is necessary, but there is still a different team for every game. The preparation doesn't change for me here and it becomes a little easier because we mostly know the lineups in advance. Remember, teams are not facing players with questionable injury status in Game 1.”

Ferraro and the other announcers who will be in Utah all expressed excitement at the prospect of calling the franchise's first-ever game. Wischusen joked that Ferraro would cover the cost of the team's meal after the game, considering he's paying double the daily rate for two games.

“I played in an expansion franchise in Atlanta,” Ferraro said. “Everything is so new for the team, the players, the coaches and the fans. If they weren't there for basketball, they might not even know how to get to their seats. “There’s a different tension there, and I know that will become clear on Tuesday.”

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SEC Network and ESPN's Alyssa Lang was literally in the middle of one of college football's biggest upsets in recent years – Vanderbilt's 40-35 victory over then-No. 1 Alabama on Saturday night. The Commodores hadn't beaten the Tide in 40 years and were 0-60 against top five teams in the AP.

At the end of the game, viewers on SEC Network saw Lang sprinting down the field to get to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia.

Lang said she and game producer Bill Paladino began discussing end-of-game strategy when Vanderbilt got the ball back with 2:44 left. Lang worked on the game with play-by-play announcer Tom Hart and analyst Cole Cubelic.

“I knew there would absolutely be a storm if Vandy made it,” Lang said. “When Vandy was officially first away from running out of time, I told Bill what I was planning to do. I wanted to pursue Diego and hope that Vanderbilt's SIDs (Sports Information Directors) could bring (Vanderbilt coach) Clark Lea to me during his interview.

“I’ve gotten to know Diego pretty well over the last few weeks. I knew he would be running around and partying emotionally and physically. My thought was, if I get (Lea) first, there's a very high chance I'll lose Diego to the crowd. I let her know and asked her for help with about a minute to go. Then I stayed right at the line of scrimmage to go straight to Diego once it was final.”

Lang described the scene as madness and that spectators only saw about 10 percent of the route they were trying to get to Pavia. She said Vanderbilt's SIDs tried to corral Pavia while she navigated the crowd like “a human pinball machine.” When she finally got Pavia, he delivered a memorable postgame interview that included an F-bomb that Lang said she expected.

“The guy is always at his best,” Lang said. “I actually texted my fiancé at the start of the fourth quarter and said, 'If I interview Pavia on TV after the game, he's definitely going to curse.' At that point my main focus was on listening to him and trying to stop him from taking my microphone away from me, and that seemed to be exactly what he was trying to do!”

Last year, Lang was part of a field rush as Missouri beat Kansas State on a last-second Harrison Mevis field goal of an SEC-record 61 yards.

“In that game I got to (Missouri coach) Eli Drinkwitz pretty quickly, but then it took a few minutes and a lot of running to find Harrison Mevis. He was celebrating with students and I got a little caught up in the storm of the much larger people.”

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The 2024 MLB Wild Card round went very well for ESPN. The network said the nine games it broadcast, including games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, averaged 2.823 million viewers, up 25 percent from last year.

The New York Mets' stunning win over the Milwaukee Brewers last Thursday in the final game of this series averaged 4.017 million viewers – ESPN's most-watched MLB game since the 2021 American League Wild Card Game. According to Sports Business Journal's Austin Karp: The Mets have played in the five most-watched Wild Card games in the new format.

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Speaking of the Wild Card round, I happened to watch the final two innings of Game 3 between the Mets and Brewers and was impressed by how both lead announcer Jon Sciambi and analyst Doug Glanville set everything up before Pete Alonso hit the game-winning home run . They were both prepared for what could soon happen.

As for the actual call, Mets announcer Howie Rose delivered an all-time record, as my colleague Will Sammon points out here.

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Amateur lesson footage from USC football coach Lincoln Riley on an innocuous question after a game.

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Chad Finn, Media Writer at the Boston Globe, Editor-in-Chief/Newsletter of Sports Business Journal Austin Karp and I spent 40 minutes on my sports media podcast this week about the NFL's viewership so far; Zach Lowe's firing and Adrian Wojnarowski's resignation from ESPN, the WNBA's viewership without Caitlin Clark and more.

Recent guests on the podcast have included Fox Sports' Tom Rinaldi, MLB Network's Adnan Virk, ESPN's Troy Aikman and a former ESPN NFL reporter The athlete Writer Kalyn Kahler and a round table with The athlete Staff writer Jason Jones and Sports Illustrated media writer Jimmy Traina discuss the six-part documentary series on Netflix about Vince McMahon. If you would like to listen to the podcast or subscribe, click here.

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Many of you have asked me to bring back the Notes section, so I'll try to do that from time to time. Here are some things I've read in the last few weeks that were interesting to me. (Note that there are some paywalls here.)

• Is Disney bad at Star Wars? An analysis. By THR's James Hibberd.

• John Lanchester of The Washington Post on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Can creative writing help America win wars? By Charlie McCann of The Economist.

• City on fire. By Betsy Golden Kellem of The Atavist.

• Numerous works by Eliezer Masliah, prominent neuroscientist and high-ranking NIH official, are under suspicion. By Charles Piller of Science.

• WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert leads the league to historic highs. Critics wonder whether she is taking full advantage of the moment. By Emma Hinchliffe from Fortune Magazine.

• To understand Mississippi, I went to Spain. By Wright Thompson for The Atlantic.

• How Helene became the worst case scenario. By Simon Ducroquet, John Muyskens, Naema Ahmed, Nicolás Rivero and Niko Commenda of The Washington Post.

• Are you studying at an English-speaking university? In Quebec this can cost extra. By Vjosa Isai of The New York Times.

• The American Weapons Mexican Cartels Covet: A Visual Guide. By Steve Fisher and Roque Ruiz of the Wall Street Journal.

• The athleteTyler Kepner wrote a detailed obituary for Pete Rose.

• They're happily married but just can't stand each other's candidates. By Elizabeth Bernstein of The Wall Street Journal.

(Top photo of Ray Ferraro in 2022: Eliot J. Schechter / NHLI via Getty Images)