Rob Ray was at home watching television almost a year ago when he came across an ESPN special in which the cable sports network ranked its iconic “This is SportsCenter” commercials.
Ray, now a color analyst for the Buffalo Sabres on MSG and revered by the fan base for the punishing blows he inflicted on opponents as a forward with the club from 1989-2003, was stunned when a 28-year-old version of himself was shown on the screen.
Back in 1996, when the Sabres had recently moved into what was then known as Marine Midland Arena and the franchise made a controversial branding switch to black and red, Ray was invited to star in the latest commercial.
(c)1996 ESPN -- Disney/Hearst Corporation
In this installment of the long-running This is SportsCenter series; a hapless courier learns the hard way to remember to bring his ID; especially when Buffalo Sabres right winger Rob Ray is working security.
Also appearing is SportsCenter anchor Karl Ravech.
Longtime SportsCenter anchor Karl Ravech began the short spot by explaining how, as the network had grown, it needed to beef up security. When a deliveryman isn’t quick to show identification to a security guard, Ray throws the noncompliant visitor into the wall before pummeling him with punch after punch.
To Ray’s surprise, among all the star athletes to appear in the memorable commercials over the years, his was ranked by the network as the third-best of all time.
“I’m sitting there by myself, and my kids didn’t even see it,” joked the 53-year-old Ray, as the commercial turned 25 years old this month. “I’m going to tell them it’s No. 3 and they’ll never believe me. I actually had to take a picture when it was on showing it was ranked No. 3 just so I can show them proof.”
Ray was amid his seventh season in the NHL with the Sabres when he was asked to represent the franchise and the league in the playful ad. Following a practice one day under then-coach Ted Nolan, Ray boarded a plane to Bristol, Conn., where he would film alongside the ESPN crew in one of its offices.
Filming couldn’t begin until the office cleared out in the evening, and Ravech’s part was filmed separately. The TV spot began with Ravech sitting back in a chair in a crowded newsroom – even a pirate mascot is walking around in the background – and sets the stage by saying, “Security has always been an issue for us here, like any other company. But since we’ve grown, it’s gotten tighter. We’re not proud of it. We don’t brag about it. You never know who the (heck) is going to walk through the door.”
The screen cuts to a deliveryman walking toward a security guard, who asks to see the visitor’s identification. When the courier doesn't immediately comply, Ray walks over wearing his white Sabres Goathead jersey and replies, “He said he wanted to see some ID, smart guy.” Ray then shoves the man against the wall twice before stunning him with three punches to the face.
“He was cool, the delivery guy,” Ray recalled. “He was obviously a professional stunt guy, and in the beginning, I was so paranoid about hitting the guy because I didn’t know. They wanted it to look as real as possible and finally, he was like, ‘Ya know what, if ya hit me, it’s OK. Just make it as real as possible.’ I’m like, ‘OK,’ and as soon as he said, 'I’m a professional, if you hit me, I’ll be able to take it,' then that kind of helped me. It kind of loosened me up a little bit that I was able to be a little more authentic with it. I didn’t have to worry about hitting some poor schmuck that was hired as an actor.”
With the camera showing Ray pummeling the intruder, longtime ESPN personality and former NHL coach/player Barry Melrose walks by and simply acknowledges the pugilist’s presence by saying, “Rob.”
Ray replied, ”Hey, coach,” before delivering three more blows to the man on the ground.
“That person in all of those knew what their role was,” Ravech said in a phone interview. “I don’t necessarily think anything was broken, but it was made to look real enough that you were left to the imagination that dude wasn’t getting up for a while.”
Buffalo Sabre announcer Rob Ray works pregame prior to action against the Florida Panthers at the then First Niagara Center in 2016.
At the time, Ray was one of the NHL’s most feared fighters and developed an entertaining, bitter feud with rival Tie Domi of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ray was also at the center of a moment that illustrated how different that era was from today’s game. During a Sabres road game against the Quebec Nordiques in April 1992, a 21-year-old fan reportedly acting on a bet, jumped on the ice and tried to climb into the Buffalo bench. He was met with a group of angry players, most notably Ray, who punched the man repeatedly as security tried to drag him away.
The ESPN commercial managed to capture Ray’s role on the ice and his personality off it.
“My recollection of all those spots, whether it was Rob or Roger Clemens or Kerri Strug or whoever the athlete was, the producers of those spots nailed it,” Ravech said. “You couldn’t have come up with a more appropriate spot for Rob to be in. There is some tongue-and-cheek aspect to it, obviously, but that was a very good one. There are so many incredibly memorable SportsCenter ads and that was a very good one that was a quick hitter. Melrose walking by at the end is kind of perfect. Interrupt this for a second, ‘Hey, coach,’ and carry on beating the pulp out of somebody.”
Ray’s portion of the commercial took only a few hours to film, and he flew back the following morning to attend practice. The commercial, Ray said, received enough backlash that it didn’t run for long. This was before fighting was all-but-eliminated from the game. It was an era when almost every team had an enforcer and Ray was regarded as one of the most feared.
Before his trade to Ottawa in 2003, Ray appeared in 889 regular-season games for the Sabres, totaling 40 goals and 90 points with a franchise-record 3,189 penalty minutes. He ranks sixth all-time in the NHL in penalty minutes (3,207), fought more than 200 times and appeared in 55 playoff games for the Sabres. Off the ice, Ray’s work in the community around Buffalo earned him the league’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy for the 1998-99 season.
The trip to Bristol even introduced Ray to his post-playing career. Ray’s work on the commercial later earned him an invite to be an in-studio analyst during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and he joined Sabres game broadcasts in 2012. And it all began with fake punching a stunt man in an empty office following practice.
“It was cool to be around those guys and that environment,” Ray said. “It was the first taste of what it’s all about.”
