If you’re a D.C. sports fan, you’re probably familiar with the humorous bits that Comcast SportsNet anchor Michael Jenkins weaves into his shows.
During the Capitals’ first-round series against the Flyers, Jenkins endeared himself to Philadelphia sports fans after they threw wristbands on the ice in Game 3 with a brutal takedown that opened with the following question: “At what point did you wake up and, as a collective group of people, decide that you would set the standard for deplorable behavior?”
The show that Jenkins did after the Penguins eliminated the Capitals in Game 6 on Tuesday resonated with a much larger audience.
“Did you guys hear about the Caps?” Jenkins asked at the top of the show. “Do you like to drink? I like to drink. I’m going to drink the whole show.”
And then he did! Sort of. While sipping from a glass of unidentified brown liquid, Jenkins shared a message for “all the kids out there.”
“I know everyone says, ‘Oh, you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.’ It’s all one big lie,” he said. “The Caps were supposed to win it all this season, they put their mind to it and look what happened. Crushing disappointment. So, give up on your dreams.”
The hilarious segment went viral and by Thursday appeared on the front page of Reddit, where one of Jenkins’s many admirers commented, “Dear ESPN: Fire everyone. Hire this guy.”
On Friday, Jenkins joined the “Dan Patrick Show” to discuss the bit and confirm that, yes, he’s still gainfully employed. One of Patrick’s first questions: What was in the glass?
“Aw man,” said Jenkins, who joined CSN in 2004. “Iced tea. It wasn’t actual booze.”
CSN management, plenty familiar with Jenkins’ brand of humor by now, fully supported the idea, though it wound up costing them some money.
“The thing they were really upset about was that I ruined an $800 microphone because I spilled some of my drink on it,” Jenkins told Patrick. “That was the actual issue.”
Patrick called Jenkins “the sportscasting Ron Burgundy,” which is just about the highest compliment he could receive. Watch Jenkins’s entire sit-down with Patrick below.
