Saturday, May 3, 2008

He definitely has that sun-kissed, next Dan Marino look.

When you see this face what do you think?


This guy is a total dork.
Is he a scientist? An aerospace engineer?
Man, I bet that guy got beat up a lot as a kid.


Well, believe it or not non-sports fans, but this guy is a football correspondent for ESPN. And no, his talents aren't relegated to writing and behind-the-scenes pursuits. This guy is a regular sportscaster on a number of ESPN programs.

The guy, John Clayton, is actually pretty knowledgeable, and not in that spouting off statistics kind of way. He's qualified. He's well-spoken. I will never know how he broke into the business though, because it's hard to believe an overly nerdy face like this has found a successful career in broadcasting, let alone the television sportscape (is that a word?) which is dominated by ex-players and well groomed guys, who for the most part, look and sound like jocks.

Everyone at some time or another has heard that if you must beautiful and can't have a discernable accent if you want to break in, and furthermore, stay in, broadcasting. Honestly, how many ugly people do you see delivering you your local news? It's not that Clayton's voice soothes the listener either, like a Morgan Freeman or Dennis Haysbert (of 24 and Allstate commercials fame). This guy has somehow slipped through America's harsh judgmental cracks and made a broadcasting career for himself based on merit, not beauty.

This is not to say that Clayton is ugly, as he certainly isn't. He is however, not handsome, and yes, he is outrageously geeky-looking. He looks like the last person you'd expect to know anything about football, and seeing him on TV analyzing the NFL Draft and other such news causes a huge disconnect between my expectations and what I actually see on TV.

Though Clayton has worked in this capacity for ESPN for several years, I still can't get myself to get past his appearance. Perhaps this makes me shallow, but in a glamor-obsessed media landscape (yes, that is a word!) John Clayton is the ultimate enigma. Despite his qualifications however, I will always look at him and think, "What does this guy know about football?", "He would get massacred if he ever stepped on a field and played a down!", and "Why isn't this guy using his intellect to make a killing in the stock market or conducting neurological tests in some obscure wing of a psychiatric hospital?"

Or then again, maybe he is for all that we know, and leading a clandestine double life.

Picture Source: Tan13506's Xanga Site
http://www.xanga.com/tan13506/478323381/item.html

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