Petros Papadakis

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Petros Papadakis
Born	June 16, 1977 (1977-06-16) (age 30)
Occupation	Sportscaster

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Petros Papadakis (born June 16, 1977) is a former tailback and football team captain at the University of Southern California. He is currently a television personality and radio co-host of the "Petros and Money Show" (PMS) on KLAC-AM, ("AM 570") in Los Angeles, the station's afternoon drive-time program.^[1]

Papadakis' family has long-held ties to USC Sports. Petros' father John, and his brother Taso both played football at USC. Petros' maternal grandfather, Dr. Ernest Schultz, played basketball for the Trojans. ^[2]

Contents 1 Football career 2 Television career 3 Radio career 4 Trivia 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Football career

While at USC Papadakis scored 16 touchdowns. In both 1999 and 2000 he was named USC's team captain but suffered a severely broken foot in August 1999. He underwent several surgeries and missed the entire season. After months of rehabilitation, Papadakis returned in 2000, and was voted USC's "Most Inspirational Player" by his teammates.^[3]

The 2000 season began with a lot of promise for Papadakis and the Trojans. USC won its opener against Penn State in the Kickoff Classic with a score of 29-5 at Meadowlands. Playing on his repaired foot, Papadakis scored a touchdown and gained 29 yards on 11 carries. The Trojans began the season 3-0 and were ranked 8th in the national polls. But the team collapsed and finished with a 5-7 overall record. Because of recurring foot pain, Petros' playing time diminished as the season wound down.^{[citation needed]}

The Trojans 2-6 conference record in 2000 marked the only last place finish in the history of USC football. Since his first year in broadcasting, Petros has used his self-deprecating style to regularly refer to himself as "the captain of the worst team in USC history" on TV and radio.^[4]

Petros made reference to being the "Captain of the Worst Team in USC History" in 2003, during a student body pep rally days before the start of classes. The Trojans would go on to win the Rose Bowl and the Associated Press National Championship that year.

Unlike current USC football players, Papadakis only had one bowl experience, the 1998 Sun Bowl, a USC loss to Texas Christian University. Papadakis scored a touchdown during this game.^[5]

Papadakis' potential as a media figure first emerged during his days as a tailback for the USC football team, where his personality made him a popular interviewee among LA media. When questioned on his popularity, Papadakis replied that, “I just feel like the media is starved for somebody to say something different than, ‘We really have to play hard this week.’ That’s all good stuff, but I deal with that in meetings every day. I deal with that for six hours with coaches.”^[6]

[edit] Television career

That spring, while earning his primary income as a waiter at the family restaurant, Papadakis was hired by Fox Sports West to be a studio college football analyst. Petros rarely held back an opinion. His brutal honesty upset several former teammates as the Trojans started the 2001 season with a 1-4 record under new head coach Pete Carroll. USC bounced back to finish the regular season with a 6-5 record and earned a Las Vegas Bowl berth, but the heavily favored Trojans were embarrassed by the University of Utah 10-6 in the game.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002 and 2003 Petros continued his studio analyst duties on FSN and he added sideline reporting duties on FSN's High School Game of the Week. He also became the host of the USC Magazine Show on FSN.

In 2004, Fox Sports Net hired him to call national Pac-10 games alongside Barry Tompkins. Petros had literally no booth experience when FSN boldly named him as its top color analyst. The 2007 season will be the 4th year together for Papadakis and Tompkins.^{[citation needed]}

Papadakis also appears weekly on FSN's The Best Damn Sports Show Period and The BCS Breakdown & Ratings Shows.^{[citation needed]}

In March 2006, Petros debuted as the host of Pros vs Joes on Spike TV, and has since completed three full seasons. The program began airing in January of 2008.

In December of 2006 Papadakis and Jim Watson called the Division-1 California High School Bowl game on FSN as Canyon of Canyon Country upset the nation's top-ranked team, Concord De La Salle. The duo repeated the task in December 2007, with Concord De La Salle's trouncing of Southern California's Corona Centennial High School.

In January 2007 Papadakis hosted the L.A. Sports Awards live on FSN from the Beverly Hilton Hotel. His co-host that evening was veteran broadcaster Bill MacDonald. Petros has always chided MacDonald about his orange skin.

Starting in March 2007, Petros became a frequent Forum panelist on ESPN's Jim Rome is Burning.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2007 Petros debuted on KNBC Channel 4 as Fred Roggin's side-kick on "The Challenge" which follows NBC's Football Night in America every Sunday night.

Papadakis has been featured on several television networks including KTLA, VH-1, GSN, ESPN and E!. In 2005, he guest starred on the CBS hit series CSI New York, where he played a sportstalk radio host.

[edit] Radio career

Petros first regular on-air radio experience came in 1998 while he was a junior tailback at USC. He was a weekly guest with hosts Vic "The Brick" Jacobs and Karl Malone on AM-1150 which was then an all-sports station. Malone was available because of the NBA's work stoppage.^{[citation needed]}

Fresh off the field in the summer of 2001, Papadakis added radio work to his TV duties. He co-hosted the weekly "USC Insider" with Pete Arbogast on "The Ticket" USC's former flagship station, the now defunct KMPC-1540 AM. He also hosted the station's postgame call-in shows.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002 and 2003 Papadakis was the sideline reporter for USC games on "The Ticket." His daily introduction to Southern California listeners came in January of 2003 with the "Bonus Hour" on 1540. Petros and Mark Willard co-hosted a show from 9-to-10am Monday through Friday. Every morning Petros would tell his audience how much he enjoyed "bringing geekage to the people of the City of the Ciudad."^{[citation needed]}

In January of 2004 "The Petros Papadakis Show" debuted on 1540-the-Ticket in Los Angeles. Petros worked as a solo host but involved producer Craig Larson and board op Corneluius Edwards in daily radio bits. Petros also developed traffic reporter Sabina Mora into a major contributor on the show. Arbogast also contributed as an occasional guest. Petros' college buddy Brian Vieira became the show's producer in June of 2005.^{[citation needed]}

The show's three-year stint came to a close in October 2006.^[7]

On his radio shows, Papadakis has relied on expert guests like USC beat writers Scott Wolf and Gary Klein, Dodgers beat writer Tony Jackson and NBA reporter Howard Beck. Papadakis has bestowed the title "Prince of the City" upon head USC football coach and show regular Pete Carroll.

For pro and college basketball analysis Petros has always turned to Don MacLean, a UCLA legend who played 10 years in the NBA. Petros always introduces MacLean as "the greatest person in the world" and they always end each interview by taking digs at CBS Sports fluffer Seth Davis.

"The Petros Papadakis Show" became renowned for Petros' musical parodies such as "I'm in Love with the Clippers" and "I Love Yee Doyers" (I Love the Dodgers). Petros made spot-on imitatations of The Chicken, The Gallo, The Kool-Aid Man and The Angry Seahawk an integral part of his first radio program.^{[citation needed]}

Papdakis resigned from his position at KMPC-1540 The Ticket in October of 2006 to focus more time on his television broadcasting. ^[8] Within a month after his resignation, KMPC laid off most of its remaining local employees. Sporting News Radio sold their interest in the station on March 30, 2007. On May 1st, KMPC became Los Angeles' third Korean language station.^[9]

On January 8, 2007 Petros returned to AM radio with an afternoon sports program on KLAC AM-570 in Los Angeles. The Petros & Money show runs Monday-Friday from 4pm-to-7pm.^[10] Papadakis and partner Matt "Money" Smith have been friends for the last several years. Petros began referring to himself as the "Admiral of Great Sports Talk" during PMS' remote broadcasts from outside the Honda Center prior to several Ducks playoff games.

In addition to his other media duties, Papadakis has also worked part-time for the USC men's basketball team as their Public Address announcer since November 2004. As far as his future working the SC basketball games, Petros recently said on-air that although "certain members of the athletic department were not pleased with his heartfelt performances" he will "once again don the fedora and do the public address at the USC basketball games for this coming season."^[11]

[edit] Trivia

• The Papadakis family owns and operates the Papadakis Taverna in San Pedro, California,^[12]

• Petros still waits tables at the Taverna, except during football season.^[13]

• Petros attended Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates, California, and graduated in 1995.

[edit] References