Not a ton of people pay attention to the Sports Emmys, but ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky apparently had some feelings going into this year’s show.
During an appearance on “SI Media with Jimmy Traina,” the former NFL quarterback provided an unusually candid walkthrough of his emotions when he lost Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst to future coworker Charles Barkley in May. Put simply, he wasn’t happy:
“Of course I was [furious] … I was like ‘Man, I really believe that I’ve had a strong run here. I really believe that I’ve separated myself.’ I take pride in that. And I know who I was going up against, the greats of the great. And so I was like, ‘I feel very confident about analyst.’ I really did.
And so when Charles won, I texted him. I have no business having Charles Barkley’s number, by the way, but I do, so I texted him, and I said something along the lines of ‘Will you stop winning?’ And he responded back with a laughing emoji face, ‘You know it’s a team effort.’ And so, that one bothered me.
Barkley won the award for the sixth time of his broadcasting career, beating out Orlovsky, Nate Burleson of CBS, Ryan Clark of ESPN and Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN. Orlovsky was the only nominee who had not previously won the award.
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Orlovsky, an 11-year NFL veteran, has worked at ESPN since 2018 and has appeared all over the network’s football coverage. He was part of three different nominations going into the show between the analyst award, the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award (for a VR project) and Outstanding Studio Show – Daily (for ESPN’s “NFL Live”).
Orlovsky said he originally didn’t want to go after the nominations came out, due to concerns about going 0-for-3, but was convinced by his wife and ESPN. After Barkley won, he said “I immediately go to my wife like a child. I want to go home.”
His project fell short in the technical achievement award as well, and was apparently pessimistic about “NFL Live’s” chances after another ESPN show, ESPN’s “College GameDay” won the award for Outstanding Studio Show — Weekly.
However, that award ended up working out for his people:
“I was like, ‘No way ESPN will win two in a row.’ So I’m just sitting there going, ‘Well, we’re not going to win. I was here for the night, blah, blah, blah.’ And then we win. And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I was thoroughly shocked when the show actually won because of the way it went.
“But I thought, analyst, I would have a chance. And I turned into a baby.”
All in all, a very human night for Orlovsky, who joked with Traina that it would have been great if he had made a big scene walking out of the show with his wife. He also acknowledged it feels like he hasn’t won a trophy since a college bowl game and is a “wildly intense and wildly competitive human,” which is how one gets invested in an award such as this one.
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We’ll see if he has better luck next year. At the very least, he’ll be on the same team as Barkley, whose “Inside the NBA” show will be syndicated on ESPN after TNT lost its NBA rights.
