A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853. A painting by Vasily Hudiakov.

Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.

There are various motivations to smuggle. These include the participation in illegal trade, such as in the drug trade, in illegal immigration or illegal emigration, tax evasion, providing contraband to a prison inmate, or the theft of the items being smuggled. Examples of non-financial motivations include bringing banned items past a security checkpoint (such as airline security) or the removal of classified documents from a government or corporate office.

Smuggling in literature is a common theme, from Bizet's Carmen to the James Bond books (and later films) Diamonds are Forever and Goldfinger.

Etymology[link]

from Low German schmuggeln or Dutch smokkelen (="to transport (goods) illegally"), apparently a frequentative formation of a word meaning "to sneak" most likely entered the English Language during the 1600 - 1700s ^[1]

History[link]

Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form, or any attempt was made to prohibit a form of traffic.

In England smuggling first became a recognised problem in the 13th century, following the creation of a national customs collection system by Edward I in 1275.^[1] Medieval smuggling tended to focus on the export of highly taxed export goods — notably wool and hides.^[2] Merchants also, however, sometimes smuggled other goods to circumvent prohibitions or embargoes on particular trades. Grain, for instance, was usually prohibited from export, unless prices were low, because of fears that grain exports would raise the price of food in England and thus cause food shortages and / or civil unrest. Following the loss of Gascony to the French in 1453, imports of wine were also sometimes embargoed during wars to try to deprive the French of the revenues that could be earned from their main export. One study of smuggling in Bristol in the mid-16th century, based on the records of merchant-smugglers, has shown that the illicit export of goods like grain and leather represented a significant part of the city's business, with many members of the civic elite engaging in it.^[3] Grain smuggling by members of the civic elite, often working closely with corrupt customs officers, has also been shown to have been prevalent in East Anglia during the later 16th century.^[4]

In England wool continued to be smuggled to the continent in the 17th century, under the pressure of high excise taxes. In 1724 Daniel Defoe wrote of Lymington, Hampshire, on the south coast of England

"I do not find they have any foreign commerce, except it be what we call smuggling and roguing; which I may say, is the reigning commerce of all this part of the English coast, from the mouth of the Thames to the Land's End in Cornwall."^[5]

The high rates of duty levied on tea and also wine and spirits, and other luxury goods coming in from mainland Europe at this time made the clandestine import of such goods and the evasion of the duty a highly profitable venture for impoverished fishermen and seafarers. In certain parts of the country such as the Romney Marsh, East Kent, Cornwall and East Cleveland, the smuggling industry was for many communities more economically significant than legal activities such as farming and fishing. The principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive wars with France and the United States.

Before the era of drug smuggling and human trafficking, smuggling had acquired a kind of nostalgic romanticism, in the vein of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped:

"Few places on the British coast did not claim to be the haunts of wreckers or mooncussers.^[6] The thievery was boasted about and romanticized until it seemed a kind of heroism. It did not have any taint of criminality and the whole of the south coast had pockets vying with one another over whose smugglers were the darkest or most daring. The Smugglers Inn was one of the commonest names for a bar on the coast".^[7]

In Henley Road, smuggling in colonial times was a reaction to the heavy taxes and regulations imposed by mercantilist trade policies. After American independence in 1783, smuggling developed at the edges of the United States at places like Passamaquoddy Bay, St. Mary's in Georgia, Lake Champlain, and Louisiana. During Thomas Jefferson's embargo of 1807-1809, these same places became the primary places where goods were smuggled out of the nation in defiance of the law. Like Britain, a gradual liberalization of trade laws as part of the free trade movement meant less smuggling. in 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt tried to cut down on smuggling by establishing the Roosevelt Reservation along the United States-Mexico Border.^[8][9] Smuggling revived in the 1920s during Prohibition, and drug smuggling became a major problem after 1970. In the 1990s, when economic sanctions were imposed on Serbia, a large percent of the population lived off smuggling petrol and consumer goods from neighboring countries. The state unofficially allowed this to continue or otherwise the entire economy would have collapsed.

In modern times, as many first-world countries have struggled to contain a rising influx of immigrants, the smuggling of people across national borders has become a lucrative extra-legal activity, as well as the extremely dark side, people-trafficking, especially of women who may be enslaved typically as prostitutes.

Smuggling by type[link]

Goods[link]

The International Anti-Opium Association, Peking "The War Against Opium

A poster warning the German women and girls about the danger of human traffic in the USA (ca 1900)

Actress and UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu spoke out against human trafficking and lauded USAID efforts to increase awareness

Much smuggling occurs when enterprising merchants attempt to supply demand for a good or service that is illegal or heavily taxed. As a result, illegal drug trafficking, and the smuggling of weapons (illegal arms trade), as well as the historical staples of smuggling, alcohol and tobacco, are widespread. As the smuggler faces significant risk of civil and criminal penalties if caught with contraband, smugglers are able to impose a significant price premium on smuggled goods. The profits involved in smuggling goods appear to be extensive. The Iron Law of Prohibition dictates that greater enforcement results in more potent alcohol and drugs being smuggled.

Profits also derive from avoiding taxes or levies on imported goods. For example, a smuggler might purchase a large quantity of cigarettes in a place with low taxes and smuggle them into a place with higher taxes, where they can be sold at a far higher margin than would otherwise be possible. It has been reported that smuggling one truckload of cigarettes within the United States can lead to a profit of US$2 million.^[10]

People smuggling[link]

With regard to people smuggling, a distinction can be made between people smuggling as a service to those wanting to illegally migrate, and the involuntary trafficking of people. An estimated 90% of people who illegally crossed the border between Mexico and the United States are believed to have paid a smuggler to lead them across the border.^[11]

People smuggling can also be used to rescue a person from oppressive circumstances. For example, when the Southern United States allowed slavery, many slaves moved north via the Underground Railroad. Similarly, during The Holocaust, Jewish peoples were smuggled out of Germany by people such as Algoth Niska.

Human trafficking[link]

Trafficking in human beings, sometimes called human trafficking, or in the much referred to case of sexual services, sex trafficking - is not the same as people smuggling. A smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is free; the trafficking victim is coerced in some way. Victims do not agree to be trafficked: they are tricked, lured by false promises, or forced into it. Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, physical threats and use of force, debt bondage or even force-feeding drugs to control their victims.

While the majority of victims are women,^[12] and sometimes children, other victims include men, women and children forced or conned into manual or cheap labor. Due to the illegal nature of trafficking, the exact extent is unknown. A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year.^[13] This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally.

Child trafficking[link]

According to a study by Alternatives to Combat Child Labour Through Education and Sustainable Services in the Middle East and North Africa Region (ACCESS-MENA) 30% of school children living in border villages of Yemen had been smuggled into Saudi Arabia. Smuggled children were in danger of being sexually abused or even killed.^[14] Poverty is one of the reasons behind child trafficking and some children are smuggled with their parents' consent. As many as 50% of those smuggled are children. In the Philippines, between 60,000 to 100,000 children are trafficked to work in the sex industry.^[15]

Human trafficking and migration[link]

Each year, hundreds of thousands of migrants are moved illegally by highly organized international smuggling and trafficking groups, often in dangerous or inhumane conditions. This phenomenon has been growing in recent years as people of low income countries are aspiring to enter developed countries in search of jobs. Migrant smuggling and human trafficking are two separate offences and differ in a few central respects. While "smuggling" refers to facilitating the illegal entry of a person into a State, "trafficking" includes an element of exploitation.

The trafficker retains control over the migrant—through force, fraud or coercion—typically in the sex industry, through forced labour or through other practices similar to slavery. Trafficking violates the idea of basic human rights. The overwhelming majority of those trafficked are women and children. These victims are commodities in a multi-billion dollar global industry. Criminal organizations are choosing to traffic human beings because, unlike other commodities, people can be used repeatedly and because trafficking requires little in terms of capital investment.

Smuggling is also reaping huge financial dividends to criminal groups who charge migrants massive fees for their services. Intelligence reports have noted that drug-traffickers and other criminal organizations are switching to human cargo to obtain greater profit with less risk.^[16]

It is acknowledged that the smuggling of people is a growing global phenomenon^{[citation needed]}. It is not only a transnational crime, but also an enormous violation of human rights and a contemporary form of slavery. Currently, economic instability appears to be the main reason for illegal migration movement throughout the world. Nevertheless, many of the willing migrants undertake the hazardous travel to their destination country with criminal syndicates specialized in people smuggling. These syndicates arrange everything for the migrants, but at a high price.

Very often the traveling conditions are inhumane: the migrants are overcrowded in trucks or boats and fatal accidents occur frequently. After their arrival in the destination country, their illegal status puts them at the mercy of their smugglers, which often force the migrants to work for years in the illegal labor market to pay off the debts incurred as a result of their transportation.^[17]

Wildlife[link]

A smuggler of rare birds busted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a U.S. border

Wildlife smuggling results from the demand for exotic species and the lucrative nature of the trade. The CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulates the movement of endangered wildlife across political borders.^[18]

Economics of smuggling[link]

Research on smuggling as economic phenomenon is scanty. Jagdish Bhagwati and Bent Hansen first forwarded a theory of smuggling in which they saw smuggling essentially as an import-substituting economic activity. Their main consideration, however, was the welfare implications of smuggling. Against common belief that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector, they showed that, smuggling might not enhance social welfare though it may divert resources from government to private sector.^[19]

In contrast, Faizul Latif Chowdhury, in 1999, suggested a production-substituting model of smuggling in which price disparity due to cost of supply is critically important as an incentive for smuggling.^[20] This price disparity is caused by domestic consumption taxes as well as import duties. Drawing attention to the case of cigarettes, Chowdhury suggested that, in Bangladesh, smuggling of cigarettes reduced the level of domestic production. Domestic production of cigarettes is subject to value added tax (VAT) and other consumption tax. Reduction of domestic taxes enables the local producer to supply at a lower cost and bring down the price disparity that encourages smuggling.

However, Chowdhury suggested that there is a limit beyond which reducing domestic taxes on production cannot confer a competitive advantage versus smuggled cigarettes. Therefore, government needs to upscale its anti-smuggling drive so that seizures (the taking possession of person or property by legal process) can add to the cost of smuggling and thus render smuggling uncompetitive. Notably, Chowdhury modelled the relationship of the smuggler to the local producer as one of antagonistic duopoly.

Smuggling methods[link]

X-ray of an abdomen pilled up with cocaine

In smuggling, concealment can involve concealing the smuggled goods, or go as far as hiding the whole transport. Avoiding border checks, such as by small ships, private airplanes, through overland smuggling routes, smuggling tunnels and even small submersibles.^[21] This also applies for illegally passing a border oneself, for illegal immigration or illegal emigration. In many parts of the world, particularly the Gulf of Mexico, the smuggling vessel of choice is the go-fast boat.

Submitting to border checks with the goods or people hidden in a vehicle or between (other) merchandise, or the goods hidden in luggage, in or under clothes, inside the body (see body cavity search, balloon swallower and mule), etc. Many smugglers fly on regularly scheduled airlines. A large number of suspected smugglers are caught each year by customs worldwide. Goods and people are also smuggled across seas hidden in containers, and overland hidden in cars, trucks, and trains. A related topic is illegally passing a border oneself as a stowaway. The high level of duty levied on alcohol and tobacco in Britain has led to large-scale smuggling from France to the UK through the Channel Tunnel. The combination of acknowledged corruption at the border and high import tariffs led smugglers in the 1970s and ‘80s to fly electronic equipment such as stereos and televisions in cargo planes from one country to clandestine landing strips in another, thereby circumventing encounters at the frontier between countries.^[22]

For illegally passing a border oneself, another method is with a false passport (completely fake, or illegally changed, or the passport of a lookalike).

The existence of the Multi-Consignment Contraband (MCC) smuggling method (smuggling two or more different types of contraband such as drugs and illegal immigrants or drugs and guns at the same time) was verified following the completion of a study that found 16 documented cases of smugglers transporting more than one type of contraband in the same shipment.^[23] MCC shipments were frequently associated with Phase II and Phase III smuggling organizations.

Legal definition[link]

In popular perception smuggling is synonymous as illegal trade. Even social scientists have misconstrued smuggling as illegal trade.^[24] While the two have indeed identical objectives, namely the evasion of taxes and the importation of contraband items, their demand and cost functions are altogether different requiring different analytical framework. As a result, illegal trade through customs stations is differently considered, and smuggling is defined as international trade through ‘unauthorized route’.^{[citation needed]} A seaport, airport or land port which has not been authorized by the government for importation and exportation is an ‘unauthorized route’. The legal definition of these occurs in the Customs Act of the country. Notably, some definitions define any 'undeclared' trafficking of currency and precious metal as smuggling. Smuggling is a cognizable offense in which both the smuggled goods and the goods are punishable.

See also[link]

Wikinews has related news: Shipwreck off coast of Libya; hundreds of African migrants feared dead Italian police find 24 children living in Rome's sewers 46 illegal Afghan immigrants suffocate in truck in Pakistan Nearly three million contraband cigarettes seized by Canadian and U.S. authorities

• Arms trafficking
• Battle of Mudeford
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• Cigarette smuggling
• Counterfeiting
• Iron Law of Prohibition
• Rum-running
• Snakehead (gang)
• The Yogurt Connection
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Graham, Frank, Smuggling in Cornwall (Newcastle upon Tyne, V. Graham, 1964).
• Graham, Frank, Smuggling in Devon (Newcastle upon Tyne, Frank Graham, 1968).
• Harper, Charles G., Smugglers: Picturesque chapters in the Story of an Ancient Craft (Newcastle upon Tyne, Frank Graham, 1966)
• E. T. Jones, 'Illicit business: accounting for smuggling in mid-sixteenth century Bristol', Economic History Review, 54 (2001). Winner of the Economic History Society's "T.S. Ashton Prize" in 2001.
• Karras, Alan. Smuggling: Contraband and Corruption in World History (Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, 2010) 199 pp.
• Morley, Geoffrey, Smuggling in Hampshire & Dorset 1700-1850 (Newbury: Countryside Books, 1983). ISBN 0-905392-24-8
• Rattenbury, John, Memoirs of a Smuggler (Newcastle upon Tyne, V. Graham, 1964).
• Smith, Joshua M., Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783–1820 (Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2006). ISBN 0-8130-2986-4.
• Waugh, Mary, Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700–1840 (Countryside Books, 1985, updated 2003). ISBN 0-905392-48-5.

External links[link]

Look up smuggling in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Smuggling in 18th and 19th century Britain
• Smuggled Goods and Products information
• King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855, by E. Keble Chatterton, from Project Gutenberg
• "Organized Crime." Oxford Bibliographies Online: Criminology.

Organizations working against Trafficking

• Ansar Burney Trust - working in the Middle East

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Smuggling

Eek-A-Mouse
Eek-A-Mouse performing in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Ripton Joseph Hylton
Born	(1957-11-19) 19 November 1957 (age 54)
Origin	Kingston, Jamaica
Years active	1975–present
Website	www.eeksperience.com

Eek-A-Mouse with band performing in 2006

Eek-A-Mouse (born Ripton Joseph Hylton, November 19, 1957, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican reggae musician. He is one of the early artists to be described as a "singjay".^[1]

Biography[link]

Eek-A-Mouse began his music career when he was in college, releasing two roots reggae singles under his own name, which were produced by his mathematics tutor, Mr. Dehaney. These early works were influenced by the music of Pablo Moses.^[1][2] He then went on to work for various sound systems over the next few years and also released a few more singles. He adopted the stage name "Eek-A-Mouse" in 1979, taking the name of a racehorse he always bet on; it was a nickname his friends had used for some time.^[2][3][4] He began recording for Joe Gibbs in 1979, having a hit straight away with "Once a Virgin", now showing the influence of Ranking Joe,^[1] and this was soon followed with "Wa-Do-Dem" (produced by Douglas Boothe), and "Modelling Queen", which began an association with Linval Thompson, who produced his debut Bubble Up Yu Hip album.^[2]

By the end of 1980, he had linked up with producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes, with whom he had big hits in 1981 with the likes of "Virgin Girl" and a recut "Wa-Do-Dem".^[3] In 1981, he was the star of the Reggae Sunsplash Festival, cheering audiences still mourning over the death of reggae icon Bob Marley.^[4] His association with Lawes led to a string of successful singles and albums, and in 1982 his hits included "Wild Like a Tiger", "For Hire and Removal", "Do You Remember", and "Ganja Smuggling". The same year he released his second album, Wa Do Dem.^[4] The "Operation Eradication" single showed Hylton's serious side, the song inspired by the vigilante killing of close friend and fellow DJ Errol Shorter.^[2][4][5] Skidip was released before the year was out.

Further albums followed with 1983's Mouse and the Man, produced by Linval Thompson, and 1984's Mouseketeer, again produced by Lawes. He also featured on several of the live dancehall albums from the era, including the Aces International and Live at Skateland collections.^[2] In the second half of the decade his popularity began to wane slightly, and he targeted the United States with the Assassinator album in 1985 (his first US release), produced by Anthony and Ronald Welch.^[3][4] He also travelled to the United Kingdom to record The King and I the same year, the album targeted at the rock crossover audience to which he had begun to appeal to.^[2]

His 1988 album Eek-A-Nomics saw him begin to establish himself with an international audience, spawning a club hit with "The Freak", and he was signed by Island Records in 1989.^[4] He returned to prominence with 1991's U-Neek album, which continued the rock-oriented style, including a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er", and from which the hit single "You're The One I Need" was taken.^[3][4] He went through a period of relative quietness before returning in 1996 with the Black Cowboy album.^[2]

He also has a performance in the 1991 gangster movie New Jack City playing a drug-dealing Rastafarian, Fat Smitty, who comes to a shockingly grisly end.^[2]

Eek-A-Mouse is a regular at Sunsplash and often teams up with reggae duo Michigan & Smiley. An album was issued of his performance in 1983. He was also featured on nu metal group P.O.D.'s album Satellite, lending his vocals to the rock-reggae track "Ridiculous." He can also be heard on OPM's album, ForThemAsses, on the track "Perfect Day." Eek-A-Mouse recorded a song with hip-hop recording artist Ditch, called "Smoke it up" (2007, released in 2009), which is featured on Ditch's CD Public Intoxication. The song by Ditch and Eek-a-Mouse is featured on the Jack Herer documentary as well. Has as well teamed up with Bounty Killer and Damian Marley in " Khaki Suit"

Discography[link]

• Bubble Up Yu Hip (1980) Greensleeves
• Wa-Do-Dem (1981) Shanachie
• Skidip! (1982) Shanachie
• The Mouse and the Man (1983) Shanachie
• Assassinator (1983) RAS
• Live At Reggae Sunsplash (1983) Sunsplash (with Michigan & Smiley)
• Mouseketeer (1984) Greensleeves
• The King and I (1985) Original Sounds, (1986) RAS
• Eek-A-Nomics (1988) RAS
• U-Neek (1991) Mango
• Black Cowboy (1996) Explicit
• Eeeksperience (2001) Coach House
• Mouse Gone Wild (2004) Sanctuary
• Eek-A-Speeka (2004) Greensleeves
• Live in San Francisco (2006) 2B1
• Eekziled (2011)

Compilations

• Mouse-A-Mania (1987) RAS
• The Very Best Of (1987) Greensleeves
• Ras Portraits (1997) RAS
• The Very Best Of Vol.2 (2003) Shanachie
• Most Wanted (2009) Greensleeves
• Ganja Smuggling (2009)

See also[link]

• Hyman Wright

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eek-A-Mouse

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (September 2008)

Chris Berman
Born	(1955-05-10) May 10, 1955 (age 57) Greenwich, Connecticut
Education	Brown University, '77 B.A. History
Title	NFL Studio Host, SportsCenter Anchor, Baseball Commentator
Spouse	Kathy
Children	Meredith and Doug

Christopher James "Chris" Berman (born May 10, 1955), also known by the nickname Boomer, is an American sportscaster. He anchors SportsCenter, Monday Night Countdown, Sunday NFL Countdown, U.S. Open golf, the Stanley Cup Finals, and other programming on ESPN and ABC Sports.

Early life and education[link]

Berman was born in Greenwich, Connecticut and raised in Irvington, New York. He is Jewish on his father's side.^[1] During his childhood he went to Camp Winnebago in Fayette, Maine. In 1970, he attended the Hackley School and Brown University from which he graduated in 1977 with a degree in history.^[2]

Career[link]

Berman sings "Walking on a Thin Line" with Huey Lewis and the News on stage.

The embedded lists in this section may contain items that are not encyclopedic. Please help out by removing such elements and incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article. (April 2009)

Berman moved to WNVR in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was eventually hired at Hartford's WVIT-TV to do weekend sports at $23 per shift. He joined ESPN in 1979 a month after its founding and has been with the network since. Along with Bob Ley, he is one of ESPN's longest-tenured employees. Berman, who is generally known to be heavy-set, often jokes that he now uses his original ESPN jacket from 1979 when he was much skinnier. He is the host of Monday Night Countdown, replacing previous host Stuart Scott. In 1988 and 1989, he hosted ESPN's first game show, Boardwalk and Baseball's Super Bowl of Sports Trivia which was taped at the now-defunct Boardwalk and Baseball amusement park in Orlando, Florida.

He is well known for his various catch-phrases and player nicknames. His rendition of, "He could...go...all...the...way!" is adopted from Howard Cosell who would say "He's going to go all the way," while another of his famous calls, "Back-back-back-back" comes from Red Barber. This strategic and often complicated call is usually screamed by Berman when a baseball is hit a very long way, and is followed by "Gone!" when the ball leaves the field of play. Another catch-phrase: "Whoop!" during highlights when a player makes a quick move or causes someone to miss or make a mistake. He is most known for the use of puns to make nicknames for certain players, e.g. calling former Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Bert Blyleven Bert "Be Home" Blyleven (a pun on the phrase "be home by eleven"). A fan of the Canadian Football League, Berman watched their games growing up in Connecticut. He has talked to many people such as former coach Marv Levy, Joe Theismann, Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia, Joe Horn, and Trent Green about their participation in that 'other' football league and often shows CFL highlights and does Grey Cup picks every year as well.

Berman also goes by his alter ego, "The Swami," when making predictions on Sunday NFL Countdown. Renowned for his gravelly voice and imperious on-air presence, Berman's reputation for penny-ante tyranny was bolstered by the release of an outtake from a broadcast of Monday Night Football in 2000 where Berman is seen furiously berating his staff for distracting him with their off-camera movements.^[3]

In December 2008, the Associated Press ran a long retrospective on Berman's 30 year career with ESPN.^[4] "He is our most important person," said Norby Williamson, ESPN's vice president of production. "He is the face of ESPN," he added. Berman noted that his contract with ESPN expires on his 55th birthday, and that he does not see himself broadcasting into his 60s. In April 2010, however, ESPN extended Berman's contract for an undisclosed period of time, only noting that it was a multi-year deal.^[5]

Despite being born in Connecticut, Berman has become a strong backer of the Buffalo Bills in recent years.^[6] This sentiment is echoed in Berman's on-air phrase, "No one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills."

In September 1999, Berman was honored by his boyhood team, the San Francisco Giants, with the privilege of throwing out the first pitch at one of the final games ever at historic Candlestick Park. He is proud to say that he’s the only guy east of the Rockies to have a patch of outfield grass from both Candlestick Park and AT&T Park growing in his backyard.^[7]

In other media[link]

• Berman lent his voice to the videogame ESPN NFL 2K5 and hosts the pregame show. As a hidden feature, Berman appears as a free agent quarterback in season mode, and also has his own team in the game, the Bristol Swamis, named after Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN headquarters are located and his nickname, "the Swami."
• Berman appeared in Adam Sandler's 1998 goofball comedy The Waterboy as well as Sandler's The Longest Yard in 2005 where he played himself as the play-by-play announcer of the prison football game. Berman also appeared as himself in Necessary Roughness in 1991, Little Big League in 1994, and Eddie and Kingpin in 1996, as well as the 1995 Hootie and the Blowfish video for the single, "Only Wanna Be With You."
• Berman has cameoed on various episodes of Even Stevens as a SportsCenter anchor.
• Berman appeared in the ESPN Baseball Tonight computer game and videogame.
• During a segment of the "Chase the Cheese" event on an episode of Sesame Street, Berman voiced the sports announcer.
• Berman had a cameo appearance in the MTV animated series Clone High. He, along with Dan Patrick provided commentary for the school's basketball game until he was eaten at the end of the episode by the rival school's mascot.
• Berman appears in Nutrisystem commercials with Don Shula, Dan Marino and Mike Golic, using some of his trademark phrases and nicknames who show how much weight they lost.

Honors[link]

• National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association National Sportscaster of the Year (1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2001)
• American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year – Studio Host (1995, 1997, 1998)
• CableACE Award Best Cable Sportscaster 1987, 1988, 1990
• 1997 "TV's Most Fascinating Stars" from People
• 2001 Maxwell Football Club's Reds Bagnell Award
• 2007 honorary degree from Brown University.
• 2009 Presented Ralph C. Wilson Jr. into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
• Received star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 24, 2010
• Received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award on July 12, 2010

Career timeline[link]

• 1979–present: SportsCenter anchor (occasionally since 1990)^[8]
• 1985–present: Sunday NFL Countdown host
• 1985–present: NFL Draft host
• 1986–present: U.S. Open Nightly Show host
• 1987–2005: NFL Primetime host
• 1987–2005: ESPN Sunday Night Football halftime host
• 1990–present: MLB on ESPN Play-by-Play (selected games)
• 1986–present: Home Run Derby Play-by-Play
• 1996–1999, 2006–present, and during NFL playoff between 1998 to 2005: Monday Night Football halftime host
• 2003–present: U.S. Open host
• 2003–2004: NHL on ESPN and NHL on ABC studio co-host (Stanley Cup Finals)
• 2006–present: Monday Night Countdown host

Personal life[link]

Berman and his wife, Kathy, live in Cheshire, Connecticut. In 2007, Berman built a house in Olowalu, Hawaii on the island of Maui. He has vacationed on the island for the past 30 years.

See also[link]

• You're with me, leather

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Chris Berman at the Internet Movie Database
• Deadspin Videos
• Berman's ESPN Bio