Tim Brant: A Helluva Ride

Tim Brant doesn’t know how his storied career even happened in the first place but one thing he knows for sure is that it’s been a helluva ride.

At the end of May, the remaining pillar of Washington D.C.’s TV sportscaster trifecta (Brant, WRC’s George Michael and WUSA’s Glenn Brenner) left his longtime role with WJLA-TV after more than 40 years of service to his hometown.

Brant says he was given a generous offer by the station’s new proprietor, Sinclair Broadcasting, after his contract expired but wasn’t willing to meet the owner’s demands of leaving his ACC Network duties during two of television’s biggest months ratings-wise – February and November.

Brant, a former linebacker for the Maryland Terrapins during his college days, will still be seen on television calling ACC basketball and football on Raycom Sports’ nationally syndicated package of games but he will miss his daily interactions with DC sports fans.

“It is the end of something that I’ve loved and it is the end of part of my life that I’ve devoted a great deal of time to. But I just hope people know I tried my best, I love their support, I am humbled and blessed with everything that has happened to me in my life and my profession and so I leave with a big smile on my face.”

In the heyday of local news before “SportsCenter” and the internet gained major prominence, Brant was pitted in a battle royale for Washington sports fans’ viewership against the uproarious personality of WUSA’s Glenn Brenner and WRC’s George Michael, who had access to video highlights in an era where they weren’t as widely distributed as they are today.

George Solomon, the Washington Post’s former sports editor and the head of the Povich Center, says that Brant is one of the most thorough, well-prepared sports journalists he has ever encountered.

“He was very competitive over his whole career with great local sportscasters. Quite frankly, I don’t think he had the resources that George Michael had at WRC and he still competed against them very successfully.”

Before becoming one of Washington’s longest-serving sportscasters, Brant was the first analyst to be paired alongside Terrapin Radio Network’s Johnny Holliday calling football games. Holliday knew immediately that Brant had what it took to transform X’s and O’s into something tangible for fans to comprehend on the radio and also loved how much fun Brant was as a person.

“The first time we went to Clemson, we’re on the road for the first time and he and I shared a room together. He and one of the assistant coaches came in the room and wrapped me up in the mattress. They took me outside and everybody was laughing. Thankfully, they let me go and didn’t keep me in the mattress,” Holliday said.

WUSA-TV sportscaster Dave Owens first met Brant as a Midshipman. Brant was the master of ceremonies for Owens’ varsity football banquet and at the time Owens was considering leaving. After the event, Owens expressed his interest in sportscasting to which Brant responded ‘son, stay at the Naval Academy, it’ll be the best thing that ever happened to you.’ Owens took heed of the advice and made the best out of his experience joining the radio station and doing play-by-play.

Owens says he admires Brant’s broadcasting style and the way he connects with viewers on air.

“I think Tim is a guy who is very conversational, it’s one of the things I strive to be. Whenever I watch Tim, he reminds me of a guy who is talking to you at the bar. He’s very engaging, he brings you in and that’s really what makes him who he is. You can tell he’s very confident in what he does,” Owens said.

But as Brant leaves, he wonders what the future holds for local news and for sportscasters who only get 2-3 minutes during newscasts as supposed to the 5-8 minutes they used to get before the latest evolution of television and technology.

“It’s going extinct in the way it is formatted. With computers and technology as it is, pretty soon we’ll be watching television on our phones and local television will have to acclimate to that. They’ll have to adjust. It’s in trouble,” Brant said. “I think local television will continue but just in a different form.”

Despite the uncertain future of local news, Brant still believes the institution plays a vital role in feeding sports fans information about their favorite sports teams during good and bad times. He urges sports teams such as the Redskins to stop limiting the media’s role.

“I think it behooves them to give the media access so that their fans, the people that are there to support them on Sundays, the people that really are their life and death, are fed. I think it would behoove them to allow more access to the players, to get to know RG3 as a person and not just as a guy that is required by the team or by the league to make his appearance,” Brant said.

Holliday respects the fact that Brant has gained so much acclaim among the three municipalities that watched him every night – D.C., Maryland and Virginia. He has a suggestion for what Brant should during his newfound off-time in the summer.

“I think he should play golf with me and he should also come to some Maryland games as a fan. I can get him a ticket.”