Jeremy Schaap is a self-described historian of sports.
“Without a PhD,” the well-known ESPN reporter likes to joke.
Just a quick peek at the work that Schaap has done over the years would suggest that joke isn’t too far off from the truth. Schaap, 56, has authored books on heavyweight boxing champions in the 1930s and Jesse Owens at the Munich Olympics, directed a “30 for 30” on Buster Douglas’ 1990 upset of Mike Tyson, won a Peabody earlier this month for his “E60” episode on the life and legacy of Jim Abbott and has countless times explored stories at the intersection of sports and society.
“I think this stuff matters, you know, we dismiss it because it’s sports and it’s the toy section or it’s the toy store, but I think it matters and it’s fun. … The history of sports is endlessly fascinating to me,” Schaap told The Post in a recent interview at ESPN’s Manhattan studios.
Schaap, who hosts “E60” and “The Sports Reporters,” is now using that passion for a new project at ESPN as the network spends the next nine months gearing up for the Super Bowl. The venerable ESPN reporter is now hosting “The Biggest Game” podcast as part of a broader initiative of programming centered around the Big Game, as the Worldwide Leader airs the Super Bowl for the first time in the network’s history in 2027.
The audio and video podcast is hosted by Schaap and explores the history of the Super Bowl by diving into some of the defining moments and elements of the Big Game, as football fans and the public at large have come to know it as the culture behemoth it is.
“This is like a dream project,” Schaap said, whose father, Dick Schaap, was an esteemed sports writer and co-authored Jet legend Joe Namath’s autobiography in 1969. “For me, as somebody who really loves the history of sports, loves the history of professional football, I feel a deep connection to it, especially through my dad, who’s really present, if you want to put it that way, at the creation of professional football as we know it. … This is kind of the stuff that I’ve always loved growing up with the history of sports. The history of professional football, the greater cultural and societal meaning of the Super Bowl, which is something we’re addressing.”
The first episode was released after the Super Bowl in February with Schaap talking with fellow ESPN colleague Chris Berman, who covered 43 Super Bowls during his career. The show began releasing weekly episodes last week, before the 2026 NFL Draft, as Schaap explored the impact of the Herschel Walker trade on the Cowboys’ three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s with Jimmy Johnson.
Other episodes will look at everything from the impact of Super Bowl III, which will be released this week, to the blackout at Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, to the rise of the halftime show and Whitney Houston’s performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV and its significance amid the start of the Gulf War in 1991.
Schaap has long been considered one of ESPN’s most prominent reporters, having covered some of sports’ biggest stories and earning acclaim from The Post’s Phil Mushnick for his interview with Bob Knight after he was fired from Indiana University, describing it as “one that should be stored in the annals of sports broadcast journalism.”
While ESPN has taken some criticism in recent years over its focus on opinion-based talk shows rather than sports journalism, Schaap said that “storytelling” is still an important aspect of what the Worldwide Leader does. ESPN has made investments in the journalism areas, including hiring six former Washington Post journalists to join a unit that is focused on investigative, enterprise and digital journalism.
“Storytelling is such an important part of what we do, and I know it’s something that the guys at the top of the company feel very strongly about. That it’s in our DNA,” Schaap said. “The stuff that I get to do, that my colleagues and the storytelling and enterprise journalism units get to do that matters. There is room for all of it on our platforms. It’s very encouraging to see the commitment to storytelling, to investigations.”
Schaap noted the pride he takes in being part of the network’s bigger journalistic endeavours, specifically mentioning the documentary on Abbott.
“I get a thrill out of being associated with that kind of work,” he said.