BRISTOL, Conn. -- Steve Braband is a 25-year-old program coordinator at ESPN who loves to have a good time, loves sports and loves the city of Pittsburgh. As a graduate of Seneca Valley high school in Harmony, Pa., and Clarion University, he has parlayed those passions into an opportunity of a lifetime.

If you are a sports fan, you may have noticed a series of commercial spots that are currently running on ESPN to promote live weekday morning editions of " Sports Center, " the Emmy award winning sports studio show. The spots, which star Braband live and totally unscripted, started Sunday, July 27 and are a continuous reminder of when ESPN will ditch their current format of re-airing the 2 a.m. Sports Center from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. the following morning.

The spots feature Braband, who lived in Pittsburgh for almost 15 years, milling about his home and the ESPN campus doing everyday things such as making copies and taking trips to the water cooler. Many of the ads have him wearing a clock around his neck counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until morning Sports Centers go live on weekdays. Braband even has done a spot with former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart, a player he used to cheer for as he is a die-hard Pittsburgh sports fan.

Braband will appear daily in at least 25 30-second television ads on the worldwide sports leader over a two-week period. In total, he will star in nearly 400 live ads.

“I’m allowed to give shout outs to friends and the city since it’s all live and I don’t have a script or anything,” Braband, who has even worked for the Pirates in the past, said.

Braband was chosen out of a pool of 160 staff members who showed up for the open casting call and attributes part of his being selected to his Pittsburgh heritage.

“My Pittsburgh personality was huge in helpin’ me,” Braband said. “I was just a regular guy just actin’ like myself and ESPN said they wanted someone who was real.”

You can catch Braband during the next two weeks just about every half-hour while the spots are running. The live Sports Center shows that Braband is promoting will begin to air on the morning of Monday, Aug. 11.