Sports on the Air
Wilson request stunned Berman
If anyone was more stunned than many Buffalo Bills fans when Chris Berman was named by Bills owner Ralph Wilson to present him at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, it was the ESPN anchor himself.
Berman said “stunned” and “humbled” were the words that came to mind after Wilson made the telephone call in February— three months before the Bills announced it— to ask him to be the presenter at the Aug. 8 ceremonies in Canton, Ohio.
“He said, ‘I have a little favor to ask of you,’ ” recalled Berman in a telephone interview. After Wilson asked, Berman said he was quiet for several seconds before telling the Bills owner, “I’m humbled and it’s a good thing I’m sitting down.
“It really came out of the blue to me,” said Berman. “I’ve rarely been so honored or humbled as that phone call. I said, ‘I’ll tell you this, I’ll do a helluva job for you.’ ”
Then he gave Wilson an out. He told the owner he had a month or more to think about a better choice. “I told him, ‘I’m already up there as the emcee to give you a hug,’ ” said Berman. “He said, ‘What, did you think I didn’t think about this?’ in his typical funny way.”
Unaware that the late Jack Kemp was in his final weeks of his battle with cancer, Berman was thinking the Bills quarterback would have been an ideal choice for Wilson. He knew there were probably several other choices, including former Bills coach Marv Levy, who Wilson could have chosen.
After accepting, Berman scheduled a trip to Detroit for an afternoon visit with Wilson and his wife, Mary, to perhaps get a little material for his speech. They shared some stories and laughs about the days of the old American Football League when Berman’s childhood team, the New York Jets, was chasing the championship Bills in the mid-1960s.
“They were the mark of excellence to me,” he said of the Bills back then. “I watched Jack Kemp play, I watched Pete Gogolak kick the football, I watched [Tom] Sestak and [Jim] Dunaway. I watched Cookie Gilchrist. I was there, I watched it. I remember.”
Wilson then made Berman promise to find a way to get the phrase, “No one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills,” somewhere in the Aug. 8 speech. Berman initially didn’t think the Hall of Fame was quite the place to use the line because it is more about him than it is about the owner. But Wilson told him “he better” put it in.
Berman thinks his job Aug. 8 is to explain Wilson’s place in NFL history because the humble owner rarely has sought the limelight.
“He’s been in the league for 50 years,” said Berman. “It’s the history of pro football standing right there or part of it.
“He never really is interested in saying that ‘Ralph Wilson helped bring this about.’ He doesn’t care if his name is mentioned. . . . He doesn’t feel slighted years later in that ‘so-and-so got credit and I was just as [influential].’ That is so admirable. . . . A lot of people don’t really know how important he was. . . . I’m there to remind people or let them know even though his name may not be one of the signatures you recite off of football’s Declaration of Independence, he’s on it.”
As the Hall of Fame master of ceremonies for the past decade, Berman has heard enough speeches to know the presenter can’t go longer than the person honored and he doesn’t expect Wilson to speak very long.
“I’ll have to do what I do and I’ll do it quickly,” said Berman. “Run the no-huddle offense like Jim [Kelly] did in the early ’90s.”
Berman said he and Wilson have always had a good relationship, have exchanged notes, cards and phone calls. Berman also did a brief message for the owner’s surprise 90th birthday party.
“Apparently that was a big hit,” said Berman. “I didn’t know I was auditioning for the Hall of Fame and I don’t think I was.”
Wilson didn’t tell him in so many words why he was chosen, but Berman knows he and the late Tim Russert were considered the unofficial Bills national spokesmen in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
“I think it is typical Ralph,” said Berman of being chosen. “I think it was done as much for the fans as it is for him. . . . I think that I represent the fan to him and will do a good job for the fans. But I think the first part is more important. . . . I think he has himself in mind secondary. Probably most people wouldn’t do it that way, but he’s not most people. He’s a Hall of Fame person.”
Because he is presenting Wilson, Berman is relinquishing his master of ceremonies duties this time. He is hired by the Hall and not ESPN for the job.
Berman didn’t have to ask ESPN for permission to present Wilson, though some people have questioned whether the role damages his objectivity. Of course, anyone who has listened to Berman should be aware of his love and close association with the Bills, their draft day cab driver and the owner.
“When a 90-year-old gentleman asks for a favor, you do it,” said Berman. “ESPN thinks it is great.”
Berman added the honor makes him feel like he’s now a member of the celebrated Bills teams that circled the wagons in the 1990s.
“If the owner says so, I guess so,” said the 54-year-old Berman. “I’ll take [being asked to be the presenter] to my grave. By the way, he’ll probably outlive me.”
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