# Does anyone else miss sports highlight reels with narration (like they used to do on SportsCenter) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 22, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111 "2026-06-22T19:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/1 "2026-06-22T19:14:13Z")
Today a highlight reel from a game will be just that: highlights from the game. You’ll hear what the announcers were saying at the time, which often means that the audio will come in mid-sentence. But there’s no over-arching narration, like there used to be on SportsCenter and similar shows. I rather miss having someone walk me through the highlights, rather than just having them slapped on the screen for me to watch. Like Steve Berman shouting “He … could … go … alll … the … way … but he doesn’t,” or a similarly funny quip. Unfortunately, it seems like various Editing and/or Social Media Departments in the major sports’ war rooms are more keen to get a video edited and live as quickly as possible, and writing (and then having an announcer perform) a script is just not in the cards. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/2 "2026-06-22T19:33:21Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > But there’s no over-arching narration, like there used to be on SportsCenter and similar shows. Does Sportscenter really not narrate highlight packages anymore? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/3 "2026-06-22T19:37:52Z")
I miss Wide Wide World of Sports. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/4 "2026-06-22T19:38:28Z")
I don’t know, I haven’t watched it in decades. Now here in the YouTube Era I’m missing such curated reels. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/5 "2026-06-22T19:40:32Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I miss Wide Wide World of Sports. In a weird way, I rather miss the free-for-all that was sports on network (and later cable) TV. You basically watched whatever a broadcaster (or cable provider) near you was able to secure the rights to. In the early days of ESPN, that could literally mean church-league softball to NFL playoffs to everything in between. Tune in on a random Saturday afternoon and you could be watching powerlifting or karate. Nowadays basically every league has its own app, or at least, its own broadcast package. There’s no randomness to it. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/6 "2026-06-22T19:43:32Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I don’t know, I haven’t watched [SportsCenter] in decades. Now here in the YouTube Era I’m missing such curated reels . I’m nostalgic for those kinds of sports highlight reels. ESPN stable of hosts were the most noted purveyors of those kinds of highlights, but commentators such as George Michael (of _[The George Michael’s Sports Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_George_Michael_Sports_Machine)_) and Warner Wolf (“_… let’s go to the videotape!_”) were great fun as well. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/7 "2026-06-22T19:44:23Z")
Remember Mel Allen’s _This Week in Baseball_? That was fun. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/8 "2026-06-22T19:49:01Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Remember Mel Allen’s _This Week in Baseball_? That was fun . “_How 'bout that?_” That program brought Allen’s voice to a national audience. Watching that program one afternoon was the first time I can recall hearing **[Terry Cashman’s “Talkin’ Baseball”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xsh2XM9yxc)** (set to a highlight reel mixing contemporary 1980s players with black-&-white clips of bygone baseball stars). ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/9 "2026-06-22T19:57:14Z")
I’m pretty sure all of this has migrated to YouTube and Instagram. People make their own highlight reels now. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/10 "2026-06-22T21:36:11Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > I’m pretty sure all of this has migrated to YouTube and Instagram. People make their own highlight reels now . I’d be a little schocked if ESPN (and competing programs like Fox Sports) have totally quit broadcasting highlights with commentary. But like **HeyHomie** , I haven’t watched in many years and so can’t confirm that. It’s true that such highlight shows kind of lost their place in informing sports fans about the “news of the day” once online sports-news sources gained prominence. Once smart phones took off and you could get all that information – with video – on demand any time … then the game was really up for ESPN. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/11 "2026-06-23T20:03:00Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Steve Berman Chris Berman. > [@EllisDee](#): > > Does Sportscenter really not narrate highlight packages anymore? > [@HeyHomie](#): > > I don’t know, I haven’t watched it in decades. I watch SportsCenter regularly. I haven’t really noticed that highlight reels have gone away. Perhaps, just perhaps, the OP should watch ESPN to see if those reels have really disappeared before lamenting their loss? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/12 "2026-06-23T20:05:10Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Perhaps, just perhaps, the OP should watch ESPN to see if those reels have really disappeared before lamenting their loss? I’ll lament their failure to become a thing outside of ESPN, how about that? Because that certainly seems to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/13 "2026-06-23T20:14:39Z")
Check out Jomboy on youtube. He even fills in the blanks with lipreading when people are yelling at umpires. It amuses me, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/14 "2026-06-23T20:20:20Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’ll lament their failure to become a thing outside of ESPN, how about that? And yet your example in the OP was none other than Chris Berman of ESPN. Where else did you watch those highlight reels with narration that have now disappeared? > [@HeyHomie](#): > > Today a highlight reel from a game will be just that: highlights from the game. Where are you watching these highlight reels now? I guess that I’m not following your logic here. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/15 "2026-06-23T20:41:00Z")
I watch highlight reels on YouTube. Usually within minutes after a game will be over, a highlight reel will be up. Arsenal v Everton or Cubs v Cardinals, doesn’t matter. I miss hearing those reels with narration. Are they still a thing on ESPN? Probably. But I don’t watch ESPN anymore, and I wish that whoever put those reels up on YouTube would do them with narration. They won’t because it would be more expensive and would delay getting the reel published. But I miss them. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/16 "2026-06-23T21:00:35Z")
I can’t speak for **HeyHomie** , but I think I know where he is coming from. A lot of us came up as sports fans in the 1980s and were drawn to ESPN, especially _SportsCenter_. It was a great way to catch up on the Big Four pro leagues, college football & hoops, and more. As noted above, others had done and were doing entertaining sports highlights at the time – ESPN was simply providing it in bulk (at least twice per day) and had a deep bench of entertaining commentators. ESPN was King of the Sports Highlights well into the 1990s, when hosts like Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann were at the height of their powers. Chris Berman was still going strong on Sundays when ESPN started broadcasting NFL games and pre/post-game shows in earnest. ESPN was on top of the sports world, and fans like me and **HeyHomie** enjoyed every minute. The decline started very slowly, almost unnoticeably. As the percentage of households with Internet access rose throughout the 1990s and online sports-information sources gained footholds, ESPN lost just a bit of market share. Fewer eyeballs were watching, but not far fewer. As we all know, the Net was a fast-rolling snowball going downhill in hurry as the 21st century dawned. Us teens of the 1980s and 20-somethings of the 1990s started settling down, having kids, and spending a lot less time binging on sports in general. Cell phone technology was advancing fast enough that services could text sports results to fans in real-time by the time flip phones became popular in the mid-2000s. ESPN’s slow slide into superfluousness that started in the mid-1990s had never let up, and its effects were getting noticed. Fans – especially the coveted “males 18-49” cohort – weren’t structuring their media intake around _SportsCenter_ so much anymore. Then Apple introduced the iPhone. Followed by loads of competitors. The immediate popularity of the smartphone, with robust Internet access always at hand, was equivalent to ESPN’s house catching on fire. Everyone got out, coughing uncontrollable and smeared in soot, but the enterprise was much diminished from even 12-24 months before. Nearly two decades since, ESPN’s role as the clearinghouse of sports news and highlights has never recovered. While _SportsCenter_ still exists, I don’t believe it to be the flagship program of the network any longer except perhaps in an _emeritus_ sense. Other programs like the meta-analytical _Pardon the Interruption_ and _Around the Horn_ – plus their live sports offerings – now (apparently) steer ESPN’s ship. Admittedly, this is more impressions from the outside now, as I don’t watch ESPN anymore. … Now. Folks like **HeyHomie** and myself might, at times, think back on how fun and even special SportsCenter of the 1980s & 1990s used to be. “_Back, back, back, back, back!_” “_Prime Time, Prime Time …_” “_Craig ‘Def’ Lefferts._” “_Bert ‘Be Home’ Blyleven._” “_Welcome to The Big Show._” “_There are no stupid questions … only stupid people who ask questions._” There was a kind of shared culture there, not too different from people who play D&D, or _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ fans, or what have you. And, naturally, some of us miss all that from time to time. In the YouTube/streaming age, no one has really filled the role that ESPN’s _SportsCenter_ had back then. Not that no one’s doing highlights–there are probably hundreds of amateurs on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Some of them might even be fantastic at it. But none of them are capturing 50% of the 18-49 male demographic these days. It’s a little sad to realize that there will likely never be another _SportsCenter_, not really. Not the same _same_ thing. And yet the earth spins and makes its way around the sun all the same. Same as ever. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/17 "2026-06-23T21:02:50Z")
Well-said, @bordelond ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/18 "2026-06-23T21:13:06Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Where are you watching these highlight reels now? I see **HeyHomie** has posted, but I still wanted to post a quick example of the kinds of highlights that seem to be more prominent now (though it could be simply a matter of not being turned on to the right outlets). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0gkuvC3Icoc/maxresdefault.jpg "Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints Game Highlights | NFL 2025 Season Week 8") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gkuvC3Icoc) BTW, that is from the NFL’s own YouTube channel. That’s another kind of sport-information change that’s kneecapped ESPN – professional sports leagues, college athletic conferences, and even many individual colleges now control their own content and are happy to provide (bare bones) highlights to the public on YouTube, _et al_. This particular movement likely started in 2003 when the NFL launched the NFL Network (poaching some of ESPN’s talent, to boot). Surprisingly (to me), ESPN bought NFL Network last year. ESPN has apparently remained solvent into the present day even though old 1980s-90s fans like myself always talk about how “_nobody watches anymore_” and share news with one another about this round of ESPN lay-offs or that iconic ESPN personality retiring/going to a competitor/whatever. Apparently, we’re not in the know as much as we might once have presumed to be. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/19 "2026-06-23T21:18:06Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Other programs like the meta-analytical _Pardon the Interruption_ and _Around the Horn_ – plus their live sports offerings – now (apparently) steer ESPN’s ship. Around the Horn was canceled last year, with the final episode airing in May 2025. It was replaced with a pared down, half-hour long SportsCenter. Also, the SportsCenter anchors have apparently been ordered to high five each other at the end of every show. It is extremely cringe and awkward every time. This isn’t related to anything in this thread but it’s been annoying me for months so I felt compelled to share. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111/20 "2026-06-23T21:28:25Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > But I don’t watch ESPN anymore, and I wish that whoever put those reels up on YouTube would do them with narration. They won’t because it would be more expensive and would delay getting the reel published. Now that I think on this some more … there ARE some “fake” highlights to be found on YouTube and social media. What I mean by this is that someone will put up a YouTube video titled “Saints vs Cowboys, Week 3 highlights” or somesuch. You’ll go to the video, and you’ll often see a lone commentator or maybe two guys bantering about the game – but not over actual highlights of the contest! Often, there will be no game video at all. Other times, there will be a handful of very short clips (not like old-school highlights, I mean really fast cuts, 2-5 seconds). Sometimes, a series of such short clips will be shown on a loop behind the commentator(s). I’m pretty sure the reason these fake-highlight shows are like this is that the various leagues and organizations now have an interest in controlling their content directly. Sure, I could try to lift long segments of the Saints-Cowboys game footage and do my best Chris Berman over them in front of a rung light. Post that to YouTube or Instagram. In 2026, however, the NFL will appeal to Alphabet or Meta or whoever and get my highlights video pulled _tout de suite_. That was a problem ESPN never had thanks to licensing agreements. Anyway – the kinds of offerings described two paragraphs above … they don’t really scratch the _SportsCenter_ itch. At least not for me. Today, I’ll watch league-sanctioned YouTube highlights to recap a game I wanted to watch or something like that. But that’s not the same thing as _SportsCenter_, either. It’s just what we have today. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-miss-sports-highlight-reels-with-narration-like-they-used-to-do-on-sportscenter/1031111.md?page=2)