ESPN’s Chris Berman salutes the Riders, cracks jokes, shows off personalized jersey

Despite being shown on competitor NBCSN, the 101st Grey Cup got some airplay south of the border on ESPN's Sportscenter this week, with long-time CFL fan Chris Berman doing highlights of the game and even showing off a personalized "Berman 13" Saskatchewan Roughriders' jersey and a helmet. Here's the video, via the Roughriders' YouTube account:

There are some good lines in there from the typically-punny Berman, including "Darian Durant Durant, hungry like the wolf" and "How could you think a team with a guy named Labatte would not be drinking beer from the Grey Cup when the thing was over?" Berman was born in Connecticut and has been working for Bristol, CT-based ESPN since its debut in 1979, so it's also not surprising that he had a special shoutout for Riders' star running back (and Grey Cup MVP) Kory Sheets, who was born in Manchester, CT and played his high school football in Bloomfield, CT before heading to Purdue for college. It's smart of the Riders to send him a personalized jersey, too, and it's interesting that they gave him #13. This 13th man didn't wind up hurting the team at all, and it gave the CFL some solid south-of-the-border publicity.

Berman's CFL fandom is always appreciated up here, and it's good to see him keeping that tradition alive. (At least he wasn't unexpectedly replacing a CFL touchdown this time, too.) ESPN has also been good to the CFL recently; they showed some games on ESPN2 this year and aired everything not on NBCSN on streaming service ESPN3. A massive U.S. audience isn't critical for the CFL, but southern attention does always help, particularly with future recruitment. High-profile highlights like this can at least give American players and coaches an idea what the CFL's about, and it's never a bad thing to get that on their minds. After all, victorious Saskatchewan coach Corey Chamblin had very little idea about the CFL before an unexpected job opening in 2007. If the CFL can keep its name in the news south of the border, maybe more top players like Sheets and coaches like Chamblin will wind up here.