Matt Barrie to continue making his own SportsCenter memories
In his four-plus years with ESPN, SportsCenter anchor Matt Barrie has had the opportunity to visit and cover many memorable sporting events.
Now, with a new, multiyear deal to remain with ESPN, Barrie will have the opportunity to create even more memories for himself and SportsCenter viewers.
Barrie, who joined ESPN in 2013, will continue to as an anchor of weekend morning editions of ESPN’s signature news and information program. Over the past two years, he’s often anchored SportsCenter on the Road telecasts, especially on Saturday mornings during college football season, and from other big events.
“Taking the SportsCenter on the Road campaign in the fall of 2015 to college campuses across the country was a great experience for me,” said Barrie, who grew up in the Phoenix area and graduated from Arizona State.
“The most memorable was the one at [Division III] St. John’s back in the fall of 2015,” Barrie said. “It was probably the coolest thing I’ve done just to see the support and how excited they were to have SportsCenter on their campus. The St. Thomas and St. Johns show and hosting SportsCenter in Chicago when the Cubs won the World Series were two highlights for me.”
Barrie, a huge fan of college football, also has anchored SportsCenter from the College Football Playoff during all three years the format has existed.
“It’s the best thing to do because the regular season is so much fun and then it all culminates with the four-team playoff and then the national championship,” he said. “I think ESPN getting the playoff just heightens what was already the greatest regular season in sports.”
Barrie’s time at ESPN has coincided with the rise in popularity of the man whose name is a homonym for his own surname, ESPN’s senior fantasy sports analyst, Matthew Berry.
“It’s daily,” Barrie said. “Something will happen where there’s some confusion, and it’s usually me letting someone down that I am not the fantasy football Berry. Usually, they’re hoping I’m the other one, and it never goes the other way.
“When we are in the same room together, which is rare, we both joke around about it,” he said. “So many times I have to forward emails to him that were clearly meant for Matthew, nasty voicemails that were clearly meant for him – I kind of like being on my side and just hanging out while everyone’s yelling at the other Berry for bad fantasy advice.”
Those misplaced messages will only continue, but for Barrie, it’s all part of creating more wonderful – albeit mistaken – memories.
