ESPN Tour – 80 of 90

On Monday, we did the ESPN tour. Of course, I had already been on the tour so most of this wasn’t exactly breaking news to me (I kept saying things right before the guide did accidently), but Katie’s camera did give me the opportunity to take some pictures and have visual documentation that, in fact, I have been on the campus all summer and not just hanging out in Hartford or something.

This is the lobby of my building, No. 4. It’s actually the second floor of the building, and I’m on the fourth. The security guard on this floor rotates among three or four people, and they’re all really friendly, especially if I’m not missing my badge that day.

Once you get past the first door — either with your ID or as a guest — the first thing you see is a set of approximately 40 photos. They’re part of a collection of many of the present and past’s top athletes and only so many exist. The photos are all black and white, too. (Maybe I wouldn’t be a great tour guide…)

This is the third floor of Building 4, where most of your news stories on ESPN.com come from. Along the back of this photo is the set of ESPN News. I always find it amusing that there’s a television set in the middle of the newsroom (although I guess it’s not that strange).

This is the Stats & Information department. Most of the ridiculous stats you’ll see on “SportsCenter” or during a game come from here. The man in the blue polo is our faithful tour guide.

This hallway connects the cafeteria (at the bottom of the walkway) to Buildings 1 and 2. It’s all football decorated, as you can see. It’s one of the only hallways with a theme like this, although there are stray conference rooms and other areas that are themed as well.

I can’t remember the exact name of this room (sorry!) but it’s purpose is to make sure all the different ESPN feeds (as well as a few other ABC feeds — Lifetime Movie Network, Disney XD) are working and getting sent out.

A small collection of the Emmys, Cable ACE awards and a few others that ESPN has won. The total number of Emmys is something like 130 at this point.

This is the highlight room, where, logically, all the highlights for the different shows are put together. You’d probably recognize it as the background from halftime shows and the like.

A Joey Logano car used for example during “NASCAR Now.” This half of the “NASCAR Now” set is shared with another all-purpose set, which I usually associate with NBA stuff. Those cameras are robotic controlled, so when they become self-aware, there could be a problem.

Katie and I sitting behind the adjoining set in that room.

Another shot of the same desk.

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The radio set for many a show, including the current setup for “The Scott Van Pelt Show.” The “First Take” set is in here too. Skip Bayless was actually in here working when we were on the tour.

This probably isn’t as cool as I think it is, but this screen is made up for a bunch of little pixels. It’s pretty neat when you see it up close (didn’t come up in a photographic attempt).

The different parts of the “First Take” set.

As much as they try to ignore us, they are at least minimally prepare to talk about us. There were actually two BSU helmets in this cage.

The satellite farm. Apparently, there are only like five of that rectangularish dish in the world, and it can carry like 35 signals at once or something. Most of the satellites have been moved out there at this point.

Me back in the hallway next to Peyton. I haven’t seen a lot of NFL players, except for the retired ones who work for ESPN (Bruschi, etc.) Mack Brown was on the campus Monday, and we saw him then. Plus the Pac-10 coaches were around Wednesday, and I ran into Jim Harbaugh and got to talk to him for a moment. Running into “talent” or celebrities around here is pretty neat. It’s always tough to balance that line of professionalism when you just want to mark out for seeing someone you know.

This is the hallway that connects Buildings 3 and 4. I’ve always liked the commons area you can see in the photo. It was decorated for the World Cup for the first part of my internship. On Thursday, Switchfoot played a 45-minute set out there, which was cool. Eventually, it will be set up like a football field.

The last thing we did was attend a taping of “SportsNation.” Well, half-taping, half-live, which is how they do it. It was the episode with Mack Brown and Herm Edwards.

All in all, a sort of long day at the Worldwide Leader, but I enjoyed it (and I think Katie did.)

Do you believe I work there now?