Every broadcaster undoubtedly has a tape from early in their career that they’d like to keep under wraps, but unfortunately for Kevin Burkhardt, his was just unearthed by Fox.
Monday night, during the World Series Game 3 postgame show on FS1, the network aired a three decades old highlight featuring Burkhardt that probably never made it onto his demo reel. Rodriguez set the clip up by highlighting some of the Fox announcer’s career accolades. “You’ve called a Super Bowl, you’re gonna call another one soon. You’ve got an Emmy and you’re America’s favorite voice. Now, let’s see how it all started.”
A-Rod then threw it to a clip of Burkhardt as a college sophomore in 1993, making an appearance on William Paterson University’s show Sports Overtime.
The great thing for Burkhardt about the video is that it proves he aged really well. Obviously, you would expect Burkhardt to be a better broadcaster now than he was as a college sophomore. But his style, his hair, his voice, his inflection, his accent, all of it is better for Burkhardt as he approaches 50.
The not-so-great thing for Burkhardt about the video is that he had to sit on national television and get absolutely roasted by David Ortiz and Derek Jeter as they all watched it for the first time.
“Where are you from, man?” Jeter asked, mocking Burkhardt’s accent. “You can never get on David again! You can’t. No more. I don’t know what you said besides Bawston College.”
Jeter is in his first year as an analyst this season and while he certainly hasn’t been perfect, the former Yankees captain is at least off to a better start than Burkhardt was as a rookie sports broadcaster.
“That was tough to take in,” Burkhardt admitted through a fit of laughter.
“Where you from, man?” Ortiz echoed Jeter once he was able to stop laughing for a second. “You sound like me! At least I have an excuse, I’m from the Dominican!”
“You aged well,” Jeter said, finally offering Burkhardt a compliment.
“Thank goodness!” Added Burkhardt. “It couldn’t get worse after that…that was a gem. That’s enough for me, maybe forever after that aired.”
But Burkhardt’s rags to riches story in terms of broadcasting talent should serve as a pretty great inspiration for anyone who wants to become a sports announcer. It’s also a great advertisement for William Paterson University. You don’t think of William Paterson among the likes of Syracuse, Northwestern or Fordham University, but they must have done something right with Burkhardt.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com