May 27th, 2009

It’s Official: Matthew Berry Has Too Much Power

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

It’s one thing to be able to introduce yourself as “The Talented Mr. Roto” and not have people snicker or look baffled. That’s simply a sign of progress for the fantasy games and industry we all love. Today’s news is quite another, though.

USA Today’’s Michael Hiestand reports that ESPN fantasy face Matthew Berry will preside over the wedding of a California couple on June 6:

ESPN says it’s aware of 33 children who were named “ESPN” — or some variation of it. Its records date to Espen Blondeel, a Chicago-area boy who recently celebrated his ninth birthday. And watching too much ESPN has been formally cited as grounds for divorce at least once — in Texas in 1982.

The brand’s next obvious step: Preside over a wedding.

Matthew Berry, an ESPN fantasy sports expert, will become a justice of the peace for a day to marry James Hammer and Rachel Luna in Benicia, Calif. on June 6. It came after Berry, on an ESPN podcast, talked about starting an elite fantasy league and asked listeners to apply. Hammer offered to let Berry perform his wedding if he got in — he did.

Historians might eventually cite the ceremony as an antecedent to the First Church of ESPN.

Does this officially destroy the line between fantasy and reality?

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