Since moving to Los Angeles to co-host the 1.a.m ET SportsCenter, Neil Everett has slowly grown on me. After watching him consistently for the past two years, I recently became convinced that he should join John Anderson, Steve Levy and Rece Davis on my list of SportsCenter anchors that don’t make me want to blow my brains out.  Who’s on your SCATDMMWTBMBO list?

Unlike Chris Berman, Stuart Scott, Steve Berthiaume and Scott Van Pelt, Everett is a nice balance of personality and professionalism.  He rarely goes over the top with his catch phrases and typically keeps his composure.  He’s at his best when he’s doing highlights; I like his delivery, energy, improvisation and timing. The guy just always seems comfortable, regardless of what sport he’s doing highlights for. Not every anchor is capable of being at ease in every situation. You ever hear Linda Cohn do a soccer highlight? She’s like a camel trying to swim across the Atlantic.

For the most part, Everett does a good job, but every anchor has their issues.  To me, Everett’s biggest problem is that he sometimes gets too carried away with his writing. His scripts are a tad too wordy and his lead-ins are a smidge too cute. I also can’t stand those lame skits that he often takes part in, but something tells me those are his producer’s ideas instead of his.

Anyway, last night, as Baseball Tonight was wrapping up, Everett popped on the tube with a tease for the upcoming SportsCenter.  I almost choked on my midnight snack after I saw Everett turn in a performance that the late  ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage would be proud of…

I understand that his adrenaline was probably pumping before the show and that he was trying to peak the interest of the audience, but there was no reason for Everett to scream and gyrate the way he did at the tail end of that tease.  Hopefully, someone in the control room got in his ear and told him how ridiculous his epileptic episode actually was.  The “X-GAMES ARE TAKING OVER!”  What the hell does that even mean?

Don’t let anything like this happen again Neil.  If you keep pulling the sort of garbage that I saw from you last night, you’ll be eliminated from my SCATDMMWTBMBO list.  There is no place on my list for an anchor that behaves like some roided out wrestler. Why do you think Berman never made the cut?

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