Pleasant banter between anchors is a trademark of any newscast outro.  You know, that time when the microphones are shut off and the lights are slowly dimmed and you see the two anchors laughing or pretending to talk with one another.  With the three hour shifts of live SportsCenters, the anchors are often forced to have this sort of interplay on the air as the show transitions from ending one SportsCenter to beginning another.  Usually this is just blase chatter about the day’s top stories or something amusing from the SC Top 10.  

Before Tuesday’s 4 PM ET SportsCenter on ESPNEWS, we got something much more stimulating.  ESPNEWS anchor Steve Weissman joked with co-anchor Sage Steele that she was flirting with Patriots WR Wes Welker during an in-studio interview while he was going through the ESPN Car Wash.  Judging by Steele’s reaction – gasping “I’m married” and nervously looking around the studio like Weissman may also have an ax under his side of the desk – it probably didn’t go over as well as expected.  Interestingly enough, both Weissman and Steele had tweeted earlier in the day looking forward to the opportunity to host SportsCenter together.  Weissman joined ESPNEWS in 2010 while Steele is one of ESPN’s best on-air personalities.  You have to give her major props for making it through the rest of the segment without any more awkwardness taking place…