Q And A With Lexington native Tom Hammond
Tom Hammond is a busy man these days. The former Lafayette product and UK grad has become the face of NBC’s thoroughbred racing coverage, but around Central Kentucky, Wildcat fans know Hammond as a fixture on Raycom Sports’ SEC basketball broadcasts.
This fall, Hammond will be in the booth for his 7th Olympics and may return to the TV booth to do games this winter for the NFL Network.
Recently, Hammond was asked to lend his voice to 20th Anniversary Edition
of the John Madden football video game, which hits the stores in August. One
of the new features in the game is a broadcast booth, with real announcers.
SM:The Madden football game is the best-selling
video game in history. How did you get involved?
TH: Well, it’s the 20th anniversary
of the game. John Madden wanted to change things around and he gave them (EA
Sports) a list of people that he wanted to be the commentators. They wanted
it to be like a real game, so they got Chris Collinsworth and then they signed
me up to do it.
SM: I hear you traveled to Florida to
read your lines. How did that go?
TH: It was hard work, reading thousands
and thousands of lines of everything that can happen in a football game.
And then, of course, the computer plays the right lines. I spent two days
in Florida, reading for six hours a day, and then came back to Lexington,
for another six sessions of six hours.
SM: You’re voice is
on a video game. Does this mean you’ve reached rock star status?
TH: (Laughing) It means John Madden
makes several million off it and I was lucky just to get paid to do it.
SM: Millions of young people, and
some old, will spend countless hours playing this game and listening to your
voice. How does that make you feel?
TH: (Laughing) They’ll be sick
of me.
SM: Do you get a percentage?
TH: No, I wish I did. I got a trip to
Orlando. They’re estimating they will sell 9 million copies of the game
beginning in August.
SM: Will we see you in the booth
when the NFL season begins?
TH: I’m in the mix to the games
next year with the NFL Network. I did a game with Chris last year, when Bryant
Gumbel was ill. I’m one of the ones they’re thinking about, but
I have no idea.