Jeremy Schaap On the Return of ‘The Sports Reporters’

A few weeks ago ESPN brought back a fan favorite that served as staple Sunday morning programming with a new episode of the The Sports Reporters. Jeremy Schaap, a frequent panelist and host during the original run, who watched his father pilot the ship from 1988 to 2016, led a discussion between Joe Buck, Ian Eagle, Kevin Harlan and Mike Tirico.

The new version of The Sports Reporters will appear regularly with different panelists and subjects going forward. Future editions will feature a mix of new panelists and some from the show’s original run. In addition to appearing on YouTube, segments from the discussion will appear on SportsCenter, NFL Live and potentially other ESPN television programs.

Schaap spoke to Sports Illustrated about climbing back into a familiar chair and the approach going forward as The Sports Reporters enters a new era.

SI: Did you ever think it was coming back?

JS: Well, I certainly hoped. Now that it’s back I’m thinking about how often I said we should bring it back or it deserves to be back. I’m not sure. But it’s certainly a sentiment I’ve expressed frequently. And then it was about a year and a half ago when I was told that it was coming back. It’s great that we got here. I’m obviously excited about it. It’s interesting because when it did go away seven years ago, that was difficult because the show meant so much to me. And to the people on the show. Obviously it’s associated with my father, John Saunders, and so many other people I was close with. It was our show, the one-hour version of E:60 that replaced it so there’s all those mixed emotions. To have it back is great. I am excited about it and the way that we’re going to reimagine it—or old imagine it—however you want to put it.

SI: How are you approaching the reimagination?

JS: With this different format, there’s so much more time to have a conversation. It’s a totally different deal. If you’re watching it now and you used to watch the old show, it’s a different animal. You might have three times as much time. This is not bing-bang, quick comment here, quick comment there. In the old days of Sports Reporters, I think the average comment from a panelist was probably in the 20-second range. There were very few that were longer than that. Here we let them talk for a couple of minutes. We encourage them to talk for a couple minutes. To talk with each other, to engage in conversation.

SI: The original show gave a national platform to a lot of print people that viewers didn’t necessarily have access to. In 2024 everyone is sort of their own publishing house so it’s easier to find them. Why do you think it’s still important that they can use the Sports Reporters platform? Is it as simple as seeing them interact with others who are the field?

JS: I think about about why The Sports Reporters worked for so long. Of course it was the individual excellence of the panelists expressing themselves and their opinions but I think what made it one of the classics of sports television was the interaction. So much of it is about the temperature in the room and how everyone banters with each other before the red light comes on.

SI: It was interesting that when the original show went away a lot of people pointed to it as some sort indication of decline of journalism at ESPN. Obviously that isn’t true but what have you observed about that practice during your time about the way they approach journalism. Just as an observation it feels like you’ve been able to continue a career where you do work you should be proud of.

JS: I’ve been at ESPN for 31 years and I would say that our commitment to journalism is as solid as it’s ever been. We continue to do so much serious work, so much work on all of the subjects where sports and society intersect. It’s easy to dismiss it and say it’s only a few minutes here or there but it’s not. We do so many hours of TV. The seriousness of our commitment to journalism is obscured in the narrative out there by other things people want to talk about. Certainly through my perspective, we are doing very serious work on very serious issues as much as anyone out there.

SI: And what people miss is that without that first layer of reporting, there are no conversations. You can only build a show segment if someone has done the work of reporting in the first place. That’s the base layer of all sports coverage.

JS: I’m very proud of the work the Outside the Lines team continues to do and has done for the last 34 years. I’ve been working on Outside the Lines for 31 years. I think we do great work. E:60, we’re doing the longform, the hour shows. I think it’s compelling. I think it’s important. It’s a different world we live in now. It’s easy to focus on personalities than some of the stuff that we do but we’re still doing the work. I’m working with great producers, great reporters, great executives—people who care about this stuff. Look at the resources still dedicated to it and the seriousness with which we approach it. I couldn’t be prouder.

SI: Last one here. Do you ever think about all of the people who watched the show and decided they wanted to one day be on it? And how that experience crossed over a few generations? How does that land on you?

JS: It’s a responsibility. It’s something I take seriously. I know it’s something the producers of the show take seriously. The show’s had a huge influence on people and I’ve heard so many people tell me this is why I wanted to get in the business. I saw the show and it excited me about being a sports reporter, being a columnist, being a sports television voice. We are very conscious of the responsibility we have to honor the legacy of the show. One thing that has struck me over the last couple of weeks as people have been talking about the return of the show is what it means to them. And the fact that they’re saying it better be great because this was my Sunday morning as a kid. This was my Sunday morning when I was in college. For me personally being there in the control room on the set as a teenager, hoping to get into this business, watching my father do it. Watching those guys do it and seeing the way they crafted their parting shots, seeing the way they engaged in these discussions. Having the commitment to do it the right way, the responsible way, it was something I dreamed of being a part of. Then I got to be a part of it. The show is part of my life and I think it’s part of the lives of a lot of people.