Some kids want to be a firefighter, some want to be an astronaut, but myself, oh no, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted. Whenever I was asked the age-old question, “Peter, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I would respond with every job in existence that I believed to be relatively cool. The most common answer being, “a hockey playing chef who skydives and is in movies!” Still waiting on my contract for that one, but a kid can dream right? Honestly, it wasn’t until I was in middle school that I truly realized what I wanted to do with the adult years of my life.
I wanted to be a SportsCenter anchor more than anything on planet earth.
One might ask how I got there, and guess what, I’ll tell you.
I’m a creature of habit, I eat the same things, have a distinct routine when it comes to how I go about my day, and one thing that was consistent every morning before school for me was to watch SportsCenter at 6:30 am in my family room. I obviously watched for the highlights, but what I started to realize was that the anchors made it a spectacle. Whether it was throwing out a catchphrase or screaming after an insane alley-oop, they were what roped me in. As I planted myself in the same worn-out blue chair, I would pray that John Buccigross would be behind the desk. He is the one that inspires me most as a communicator, without a doubt.
To be a television personality, you have to differentiate yourself from the pack. While each anchor on the ESPN payroll is different, Bucci is the one who takes his personality, and absolutely sprints away with it. His big thing is hockey, he loves everything hockey, and for a kid that guess what, loves hockey, he was my guy. His rapport with Barry Melrose made me laugh, his emotion when highlighting a tragic event made me contemplate everything, and his genuine love of life is what made me smile. Bucci is comfortable. He does what he loves, and will not settle for anything else.
For a kid that struggled with finding his own voice, watching a grown man laugh at himself, talk about his favorite things, and connect with an audience showed me that I wanted to be that guy. I want to be the guy who impacts kids like myself. I want to emulate everything that he does on-air because that is what I think professionalism is. Inspiring others.
So while he has absolutely no idea who I am, I still like and reply to his tweets, make sure to catch up on his latest segments, and always hope that if I flip on SportsCenter that he’ll be the one on my screen. John Buccigross showed me that you can be that weird guy and do what you love for a living, and I sure as hell hope one day, just one day, maybe people will write a required blog post about me.
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