The Football Sundays of My Youth

 

Pat Summerall and John Madden

Just three days after the All-Madden special on FOX, John Madden has died at the age of 85.

The tributes will rightfully pour in but, for me, that ends a special time of broadcasting.

I've alluded to some of it in the past. My Sundays in the fall and winter consisted of "Monday Night Football" and various other voices. There was Charlie Jones and Bob Costas and (the Great) Don Criqui and Jack Buck and Frank Glieber and Dick Stockton and Tom Brookshier. Just to name a few of the play-by-play voices.

But, the big voices (and dare I say, "The A-Teams") were Pat Summerall and John Madden on CBS and Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen on NBC.

My but it was glorious.

Summerall was steady and a man of few words. He was of the Ray Scott school of word economy: "Simms...Bavaro...touchdown Giants." 

Then Madden would come along with the telestrator and a few "BOOMS" and away he'd go.

Merlin Olsen and Dick Enberg

Enberg was the Renaissance Man, equally adept at anything he called and oh so wonderful at football. His timbre controlled the action but punctuated the big plays as necessary.

Enberg: Draw to Byner. Ernest Byner...

Olsen: Fumble!

Enberg: Fumbled the ball and Denver has recovered! OH MY!

After the excitement died down, the thoughtful Olsen always stayed understated like Jonathan Garvey or John Michael Murphy, the characters he portrayed in "Little House on the Prairie" and "Father Murphy." It was always so strange to think this soft-spoken man with the easy sense of humor was such an anchor of the Rams "Fearsome Foursome."

Olsen left broadcasting far too soon for my taste, departing NBC in 1989 and breaking up that iconic duo. He spent some time at CBS and was soon gone from the booth. He died in 2010.

Madden and Summerall moved to FOX in 1994. Summerall initially retired from FOX in 2002, following Super Bowl XXXVI. FOX lured Summerall back to the booth a handful of times, including his last call -- the 2010 Cotton Bowl.

Summerall died in 2013.

Enberg, having moved from NBC to CBS and ESPN, called everything from the NFL to tennis to golf and basketball. But he loved baseball and, in 2009, accepted the job as the TV voice of the San Diego Padres. He stayed there until 2016, calling his last game on the same weekend that Vin Scully retired.

Enberg died in Dec 2017 

Madden moved onto ABC for "Monday Night Football" and then to NBC for "Sunday Night Football." He retired after the Steelers beat the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLII.

We lost Big John today.

It's not to say that we haven't had other great and wonderful NFL voices before and after but the 80s felt like a golden era for broadcasting. Certainly, Jim Nantz and (yes) Joe Buck and of course Al Michaels and countless others have blessed the NFL broadcast booths week after week.

This was special though. 

And this was nostalgic to me.

This was a big part of my youth. 

Sundays meant making game predictions and watching the first half before the inevitable call to the dinner table at 2:30 which, fortunately, almost unilaterally meant halftime on the 1:00 games. Then it was right back to the TV (which, hopefully, I'd taken over in the living room) before the 4:00 games.

It meant scouring the newspaper to find the broadcasting assignments or simply hoping for the best. Wait, Broncos/Seahawks from Seattle (back when the Hawks were in the AFC)? That probably meant Enberg/Olsen. I'm all in!

Cowboys/Giants always meant Madden and Summerall.

Plenty of BOOMs! and "Oh my's! were to be found and seen and heard.

Dan Fouts would throw a touchdown to Kellen Winslow.

Dan Marino would be lighting up the Miami sky.

Lawrence Taylor would knock someone silly.

The Steelers and Browns would wrestle in the mud in Cleveland.

Joe Montana would be fawned over.

It was a great time. A wonderful time to grow up and be a football fan.

It was, of course, innocent.

The air has since been deflated from the ball and the clock has run out.

Thanks to the big four NFL broadcasters of my youth -- three of whom were active on the field at one time.

Thanks to John Madden, as authentic a man as you'll ever encounter.

A special broadcast booth awaits.