Tales From A Real ESPN Insider

In 2005, I worked for the now defunct ESPN show Quite Frankly With Stephen A. Smith. Being behind the scenes of a talk show that was lucky to get quite a few notable athlete guests, I was privy to seeing the sides of players not seen on the playing field, nor even while being interviewed.

While the Braves were in town to lose 3 to the Mets, Chipper Jones and Jeff Francoeur stopped by the show. On-air, they displayed the usual polite appropriateness shown by most athletes who have been interviewed hundreds of times in their careers. Behind the scenes however, I was face to face with that which I have never seen.



Jones was a fiend in the green room, rampaging through pounds of cheetos. Francoeur, being the MLB newcomer that he was, was relegated to crumb mop up duty, a responsibility that was totally unnecessary as Stephen A. was well known for vacuuming the green room himself after each show.


During commercial breaks, Chipper would walk off stage and mutter to himself, not realizing he was still mic'ed up. This is what was overheard in the control room during one such muttering session:

"Glavine...Maddux...Glavine...Maddux...Glavine...Smoltz...Maddux...Andruw...Dale Murphy..."

Braves inferiority complex much?

As for Francoeur, being under the spotlight of the New York media, he couldn't help but feel lowly compared to the Mets right fielder at the time, 15th ballot Hall of Famer Victor Diaz.