Sports, Hollywood Pass the Ball at Fun but Serious ESPYs Show

Last winter, everyone wanted a piece of Martin Sheen. He was in the middle of the first season of his award-winning NBC drama, “The West Wing,” and had no time to attend the countless charity functions and awards shows he was invited to. Then “The ESPYs” called, and he paid his own way to get there.

After Matt Damon and Ben Affleck took home Oscars for “Good Will Hunting” in 1998, they could have had anything they asked for in Hollywood. When “The ESPYs” asked them to stop by, they couldn’t get there fast enough.

This year, baseball superstar Mark McGwire is running around excited as a teenager while he tries to meet his favorite celebrity--none other than Mini-Me.

Eight years ago, “The ESPYs” was just a polite little presentation created by the cable sports channel ESPN to honor the year’s achievements in sports. As the network prepares for the 2001 “ESPYs” (airing tonight at 6), the awards show has become the sports world’s answer to the “MTV Video Music Awards,” a ceremony that celebrities go to as much out of excitement as obligation.

“Every movie star wants to be an athlete, and every athlete wants to be a movie star,” says one of the show’s producers, Maura Mandt. “At some point, we all play and watch sports. Actors are no different, and they love being connected to athletes they admire. Suddenly, they’re not the most important person in the room, and they like that. Not one person who has walked across our stage has seemed anything less than thrilled to be there.”

Adds ESPN broadcaster Robin Roberts: “There’s something different about this show. Everyone seems to be in awe of the people they’re around. This is not your grandfather’s awards show. Sometimes you can flick around the dial and go, ‘What was that one? The Golden Globes? The Oscars? The Emmys?’ ‘The ESPYs’ just look different from everything else out there during awards season.”

Samuel L. Jackson will host the show, airing live from Las Vegas, and everyone from Affleck to Billy Crystal to Bill Murray to David Letterman will be handing out awards in such categories as male and female athlete of the year, team of the year, championship performance of the year and most spectacular play of the year. Nearly every major sport from college and pro football on down to horse racing gets some sort of award, and shows up in the numerous tape packages that highlight the past year in sports.

The awards are voted on by a group that includes 27 Hall of Fame athletes and coaches, as well as 80 sports journalists including some from ESPN’s rivals, such as CNN and NBC. It’s a long way from the 1993 show, where Raquel Welch proudly proclaimed the winner of the male college athlete of the year award was Christina Laettner. (His name is Christian.)

“We used to have to beg people to show up,” says Roberts. “Now they call up and ask if they can bring their whole entourage.”

Golfer Tiger Woods, who is up for six ESPYs, calls it “the authentic sports awards, a night when all athletes are recognized. . . . It’s always fun to be in the company of such great sports stars.”

“The ESPYs” has become so critical to the network that ESPN has installed a team to work year-round on nothing but this awards show. Meanwhile, all types of athletes eagerly await the one nationally broadcast show that honors them, while celebrities get genuinely worked up about the chance to get a Mark McGwire autograph for their kids. And the audience watching at home enjoys seeing these two planets of famous people collide.

“People in the sports industry think it’s a fun show to go to. It’s a nice endorsement of what they do,” says “ESPYs” executive director Maureen Murray Quinn. Meanwhile, viewers think it’s nice to see the actors they look up to celebrate sports with them. It’s nice to see the celebrities just get the chance to be fans for a change, and see the athletes without a uniform and being funny.”

With its glib SportsCenter announcers and self-mocking commercials, ESPN hasn’t always seemed to take sports too seriously. According to Murray Quinn, “The ESPYs” strives to project that same attitude.

“Comedy is a big part of the presentation,” she says. “We feel that at ESPN, we take our sports seriously but we don’t take ourselves seriously. You get the same sense at ‘The ESPYs,’ but that’s not all the show is about. We want viewers to laugh at the writing, but also be inspired by the highlights we show from the year in sports, and pause for thought when we present the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award.”

That award is given to the year’s most inspirational sports person, and past winners have included late North Carolina State basketball Coach Jim Valvano, Muhammad Ali and Columbine High School teacher/coach Dave Sanders. The show has its serious moments, and it seems that despite the lighthearted spirit of the evening, the athletes take their awards show very seriously.

“During the first ‘ESPYs,’ I remember Evelyn Ashford getting up to receive her ESPY and saying that it meant more than [an Olympic] gold medal to her because it was validation of her efforts in the eyes of her peers in other sports,” says Roberts. “When we heard that, we were stunned. But ESPN has become such a strong brand, they know that their peers are watching them.”

The athletes have apparently always supported the show, but in the early years of “The ESPYs,” there were a few gripes from purists who ranked the ceremony right up there with the advent of the designated hitter on the list of ideas that ruined the simplicity of sports.

“At first, there were people who were skeptical, because for ESPN to do an awards show, it did seem a little self-serving,” admits Roberts. “But those people, including my own parents, have come around.”

“I haven’t heard any real complaints lately,” adds Murray Quinn. “People in sports believe it to be right and appropriate that they get their own moment to celebrate sports achievements.”

In particular, it’s the crossover factor that makes the show so appealing to those in the sports world. It’s perhaps the only place where all-star basketball player Charles Barkley can be found gaping in awe at U.S. women’s soccer players Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain.

So just how serious are athletes about taking home an ESPY? Adds Roberts: “I broadcast WNBA games during the summer, and when a player who’d just made a good shot would run by me, she’d ask, ‘Was that good enough for an ESPY?’ These people are competitive. I don’t if it’s tiddlywinks, they want to win. We’re giving them something big to shoot for.”

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“The ESPYs” can be seen tonight at 6 p.m. on ESPN.