“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” Those are the words that Coldplay front man Chris Martin uttered at a concert in Boston on Wednesday night, launching a million memes in the process. And they also would have applied to Gary Striewski and Randy Scott on Friday morning, as the SportsCenter anchors were caught in 4K, as the kids say, coming back from a break.
As the camera focused on Scott with his arms around Striewski’s waist with the duo swaying awkwardly like a couple of high school sophomores, the pair of ESPN anchors quickly scrambled and hid for cover.
“Uh, it’s time to Kiss It Goodbye,” Scott said, throwing it to the show’s homerun-focused segment. “Baseball’s probably not the only thing you could say that about recently.”
Obviously, Striewski and Scott were paying homage to the man and woman who were caught on-screen in a similar manner at the Coldplay concert, which prompted Martin to question whether the two lovebirds were having an affair. The man and woman have widely been identified as Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and the company’s human resources chief Kristin Cabot, adding a new layer to the viral clip considering that Byron appears to be married to another woman.
The footage was omnipresent on social media throughout Thursday, instantly becoming one of the signature memes of 2025. It also elicited no shortage of reaction in the sports media world, which was more than happy to fill one of the slowest days on the industry’s calendar with thoughts and jokes on the matter.
You can now add Striewski and Scott to that list and it was perhaps only a matter of time before two of ESPN’s resident jokesters put their own spin on the situation. They aren’t two of Awful Announcing’s rising stars for nothing, as it’s hard to imagine another duo in Bristol pulling off such a stunt.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.