Nightmare travel stories are a lot like bad sports betting or fantasy football beats. Everyone has one and when you hear someone complaining about it you completely zone out because we’ve all heard it before. When it comes to Scott Van Pelt trying to escape Atlanta after the national championship game though, maybe an exception can be made.
In scenes straight out of the pilot episode of The Walking Dead, the entire sports media world that were in the city for the national championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame ended up stranded in the tenth circle of hell known as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
One of those individuals was SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt, who was on site in Atlanta for the game. SVP was one of many to tweet about their nightmare travel experience.
But he also has his own podcast where he can go into more detail. And true to form, he was very self-deprecating and had a great sense of humor about the whole thing.
Two words to describe @notthefakeSVP‘s Atlanta Airport experience Tuesday:
Never. Again. pic.twitter.com/qrJd2Wnowq
— SVPod (@_SVPod) January 23, 2025
“I get there, I look, I just ask the guy, I’m like ‘Washington?’ ‘That plane’s been gone.’ And now I just sort of spin around in a circle and just go ‘F—!'” Van Pelt relayed. “And it’s at that point that I realize I’m 6’6″, I don’t blend in well, and I realize there’s a lot of people looking at me and you kind of feel like, ‘oh, that probably wasn’t the way to go.”
“I look like a crazy European wearing regular pants but fancy boy shoes. My bags are all asunder, I’m laying down, I’ve just screamed an obscenity in front of everybody, I’m 51 in line, and I start firing off texts to bosses, ‘I’m never going to make it for the TGL tonight, I’m not sure what to tell you, I’m sorry!’ And at this point I say, ‘Never Again! From this point forward it’s the PJ life for me exclusively, that’s it,” he added.
The image of Scott Van Pelt of all people towering over everyone else in the Atlanta airport screaming out loud at the travel gods that have forsaken him as one of the most recognizable people in all of television is an incredible image.
For the record, SVP did miraculously make it back to his DC studio in time for the TGL broadcast on Tuesday night. But why Van Pelt wasn’t on a private jet in the first place given he was scheduled to go on ESPN the next night to host TGL is an interesting decision. At least next year’s title game is in Miami so hopefully there won’t be a repeat.
Nevertheless, the image of Scott Van Pelt screaming obscenities in the middle of the Atlanta airport is something that you could tell your grandchildren about if you were lucky enough to witness it first hand.
