The Oregon duck sits with his big, yellow feet on a table, listening to Cocky, the South Carolina gamecock, tell mascot stories. Across the table, referee Joe Oliva schmoozes with the U. Conn cheerleaders.
It’s just another day at ESPN, the cable sports network. Around here, seeing mascots or cheerleaders ‘ even Blue Jays ace Roger Clemens pitching oranges down the corridor at 90 m.p.h. ‘ is about as common as Mickey greeting kids at Disneyland. At least, it is today. It’s time to make new commercials for ESPN’s way-popular “SportsCenter” show. The idea guys from ad agency Wieden & Kennedy are here with cameras, crew and actors. Their idea is to make the “SportsCenter” set look like a place where superstar athletes drop by to hang with their buddies, the mascots and sportscasters.
We’re psyched when Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe stops by for filming. Director Steve Miller sets up a shot with Drew in ESPN’s screening room. (If you dream of a job watching TV all day, this place is for you. People here watch sports all day and jot down highlights.) The script has Drew running the last leg of a relay to deliver game tapes. Steve shows how Drew should sprint through the screening room and crash into Cocky in his mad rush to make deadline.
“This is who you’re up against, Drew,” Steve says, introducing Cocky. “Wassup, man?” Drew asks, shaking Cocky’s wing. Cocky, who flew in all the way from South Carolina just to be here, waggles his head.
They’re ready to try it. Steve yells, “Action!” and Drew is off. He gathers speed and clothes-lines Cocky, sending him and the tapes the bird was carrying flying.
Drew glides through an exit, barely missing cracking his multi-million-dollar head on the door jamb. The sound man slaps him five. A woman asks for an autograph. Drew obliges, then tends to Cocky, who is picking himself up off the floor.
“You OK?” Drew asks, grabbing Cocky by the beak. The bird mumbles and Drew claps him on the back. “OK, let’s do it again!” yells Steve, sounding oddly like Drew’s former coach Bill Parcells. “No doggin’ it this time, Bledsoe!”
They do six more takes. Cocky looks like his name ought to be Punchy. “I feel kind of guilty about rolling through him like that,” Drew says, half-kidding. “I had to do it once, but over and over again?”
Cocky takes his head off to reveal a dyed, yellow buzz cut underneath. “It’s all part of the job,” he says. It is when you work for “SportsCenter.”
New “SportsCenter” commercials featuring Bledsoe, pitcher Clemens, sprinter Michael Johnson and, of course, Cocky, go on air in late November and early December.
