Madelyn Burke was a production assistant for ESPN at Super Bowl 42 in Arizona — the David Tyree helmet catch game — and Super Bowl 43 in Tampa, cutting her teeth as a young PA trying to get a foothold in the industry. Nearly 20 years later, she’s joining the network as a SportsCenter anchor.
ESPN announced Monday that Burke is coming aboard in April, based at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, where she once interned in the production coordination office while attending Arizona State.
“Nearly 20 years later, to be here now joining SportsCenter, I honestly feel a lot more gratitude than anything else to the people and the experiences and the opportunities that have helped me get here,” she told the New York Post. “It’s also just the full circle moment of remembering being a young PA just cutting her teeth and trying to do whatever it takes to be in and around the industry. And now, I’m about to start my dream job.”
Burke spent the last decade as one of the primary faces of New York Giants coverage, hosting Giants Postgame Live on MSG Network, doing sideline work on WFAN, launching Her Playbook, and picking up additional work for CBS Sports HQ. She announced the end of her Giants tenure on social media last week, writing, “I’ve loved being a part of Big Blue and watching this organization evolve over the last decade. I’ve built some incredible friendships, made lasting memories, and hope to have left a positive impact on the fan base.”
Burke’s path to Bristol wasn’t the conventional one. A journalism graduate from Arizona State, she started her career by hosting a college football show on Fox Sports Net, then spent four years with the Los Angeles Clippers, a stint with Sports Illustrated, and the early ESPN days that started it all. She now joins a SportsCenter anchor rotation that has been steadily adding new faces over the past year as the show continues to navigate a genuine moment of transition following Around the Horn‘s departure.
While ESPN is still determining her anchoring schedule, Mike Foss made sure to tout Burke as “a versatile and dynamic storyteller who brings credibility, energy, and a deep understanding of sports to everything she does.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.