Monday night will not only be the debut of Aaron Rodgers with the Jets, but it will also be the debut for Scott Van Pelt as the host of Monday Night Countdown. It is a new journey for Van Pelt, who has had the chance to do a variety of things at ESPN. He also will host SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt after the game as well.
Van Pelt was a guest on The Official Jets Podcast with Eric Allen. He mentioned he is nervous, but in the best way.
“It’s fun to be nervous. I don’t mean nervous like I’m going to get on TV and screw it up. To have that nervous kind of energy of I don’t know what it feels like. SportsCenter, I know what it feels like. I’ve done that a long time. Monday at 6, I have no idea what that will feel like.”
As Van Pelt prepares for this role, his goal is to be a good teammate.
“I feel like this is when you move into an apartment that there are a bunch of people that are already there. I’m not moving into the space and saying ‘we are getting rid of the furniture and repainting the walls.’ I feel like this is somebody else’s house. From the production side, a ton of the people that are a part of this show have been there.”
If there is one thing fans know to expect from anything Van Pelt does, it’s passion. It’s a piece of advice Chris Berman gave him years ago.
“Boomer showed me a million things that really mattered. One of which is to be an authentic fan of the game and I am. If you feel something from me Monday through Christmas night, it’s just an authentic sort of fandom. I love sports. I have the best seat to talk about it. I just want to get out of the way and let our stars shine and try to be a good quarterback.”
