Seth Meyers has his place in Northwestern sports lore.
As a senior in 1995, he not only witnessed the Wildcats’ stunning football victory at Notre Dame from the stands, but also caught the missed extra point, stuffing the ball in a friend’s sweatshirt before stadium security arrived.
He has no such tale regarding NU basketball, but there’s time. The host of NBC’s "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and two-time ESPYs host spoke to the Tribune on Monday about his love for a team that is on track to burst the NCAA tournament bubble for the first time since … ever.
Set the scene. Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Eastern. What is happening in your home?
I will be real honest about life with a 10-month-old (son Ashe). There was a lot of feeding and bathing and glancing at an iPhone with the (ESPN) Gamecast. I only got to watch about the last 10 minutes of the game. Also I had watched the last two (games in their entirety), and I’m still superstitious enough to think: Maybe it would be better to just keep an eye on it.
So for the Maryland game (at 7 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday), you’ll only watch the last 10 minutes?
I won’t get out of the show until 7:30, so probably the last 10 to 20 minutes.
So you’re saying you won’t adjust your show time?
I’ll tell you this — and I am furiously knocking on wood — the most heartbreaking would be if Northwestern finally makes the tournament and the first game is a Thursday game because we do shoot a show that day. A Friday game, I could entertain the idea of getting on a plane and going somewhere.
This will be a test to see how much pull you have.
I don’t have that kind of pull, trust me. I certainly do have more pull with the NCAA than I do with NBC.
You tweeted: "I award a Grammy to @NUMensBBall for best big dance music." Was that referring to the dancing on the bench?
This is the year for the Big Dance.
I didn’t even get it; I’m such a dope.
Not a lot of people did. It was subtle to the point of almost not being a joke. Northwestern did have far more of my attention than the Grammys. There are Grammys every year. What’s happening now to our friends in purple is once-in-a-lifetime.
Chris Collins said you paid the Wildcats a visit when they played Texas in Brooklyn in November. Tell me about that.
I was with some friends and we saw Morty (NU President Morton Schapiro) on our way out and he was nice enough to pull us into the locker room. I got the sense that there was something special in the air. It was great to see Chris do his thing with those players. Also I will say, I’m so bad at sports, I really did not feel like I should have been there. I thought: I need to go back to my cynical world of comedy writing. There have been times where Fitz (football coach Pat Fitzgerald) has asked: ‘Do you want to say something to the team?’ And I don’t know what I’d say. Also I don’t feel like an adult when I’m around athletes. They’re all bigger than me.
Chris said you were cracking on yourself.
I made reference to the fact that I had a brand-new Northwestern hat. It was bandwagon city. It’s like when they make a pink Cubs hat or a green one for St. Patrick’s Day and they’re so crisp, somebody just came from the clubhouse shop. I was pointing out that I understood I looked like a guy who just showed up to take advantage of this newfound success. I said: As you can tell, this is a very well-worn hat. It basically still had the sticker under the bill.
Northwestern coach Chris Collins reacts to the team’s 66-59 win over No. 7 Wisconsin on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. (Paul Skrbina/Chicago Tribune)
Northwestern coach Chris Collins reacts to the team’s 66-59 win over No. 7 Wisconsin on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. (Paul Skrbina/Chicago Tribune)
Do you have a favorite player on this team? If you could invite only one guy to the show, who would it be?
I will do this only based on my time in Brooklyn. I met (Sanjay) Lumpkin’s entire family while I was going to get a drink, and they were really nice people.
Have you bonded with Collins?
Yes, I got to meet him on the sideline of a football game right after he got hired. And I emailed him after the Texas game just to say congratulations. It’s so exciting to have coaches like that at your school who not only connect to the fan base but to their players like they do. It’s good times.
Speaking of that, is this a nice diversion from the real-world stuff we’re all dealing with?
It is really nice. And also no one else in my world cares about Northwestern basketball. My whole family are Steelers fans. So the Steelers are the diversion until they lose, and then everyone in my family is depressed. I’m the only one carrying this around with me. I don’t even think my wife understands it’s happening. I’m doing it in the shadows over the course of the day. I came into work today and no one said, ‘Congratulations.’ I like that. This is very under the radar.
tgreenstein@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein
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