Pat Summerall, Too Soon

The Loss of a Broadcasting Legend Pat Summerall,

Pat Summerall, the Giants’ outstanding place-kicker who went on to team with John Madden for 21 seasons in network television’s most prominent N.F.L. broadcast twosome, died on Tuesday in Dallas. He was 82.   A family spokeswoman, Valerie Bell, said Summerall had been at Zale Lipshy University Hospital since Thursday, when he broke a hip in a fall at his home in Southlake, Texas in Dallas-Fort Worth area.  She said he was undergoing rehabilitation at the hospital when he experienced sudden cardiac arrest.

Before Michaels and Collinsworth, before Michaels and Madden, there was Madden and Summerall.  For anybody who grew up watching football in the 80s and 90s, they were the voices of the NFL.  Growing up, I would always get excited whenever CBS (or later FOX) had the Super Bowl because I knew Pat Summerall was going to do the game.  The biggest stage deserves the best.  And Pat Summerall was the best.

The great announcers are the modest ones.  Vin Scully knows he’s great.  But he doesn’t have an ego.  He just goes about his business of calling Los Angeles Dodgers, just as he has for the last 60 years.  It was the same thing with Pat Summerall.  He was content to fade into the background and let Madden be the star.  Only so many people could handle sitting alongside such a personality.  Summerall did it with class, grace and dignity.  And with a quiet professionalism that was ecplised only by the elegance of his delivery.

Pat Summerall was the voice of a generation.  People became football fans because of him.  But he was more than just a football announcer.  For years, he called both U.S. Open tennis and the Masters for CBS, and he did college football, basketball and baseball games, too.  And yet you never got the sense that Summerall was out of his element.  He never made the broadcast about him, either.  He either let Madden drive the ship or let the event itself do that.  He was there to tell the story, not be a part of it.

But for all the events Pat Summerall called, his name will always be synonomous with the Super Bowl.  He called a record 26 of them, including the first one.  Summerall worked the first half of Super Bowl I in the booth, then moved down to the field and served as a sideline reporter for the second half.  His last was Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, which the Patriots won on Adam Vinatieri’s field goal on the final play of the game.  Summerall called the final play in the same understated manner he’d called every other play in every other game.  But what I’ll remember most about Super Bowl XXXVI, which was played only five months after 9/11, was the beautiful tribute narrated by Summerall that opened the broadcast.  Poignant and beautiful.  Just like the man himself.

When FOX took over the NFC package from CBS in 1994, one of their first moves was to lock up the services of Pat Summerall.  There were fears that they’d try to establish their own guy as the voice of the NFL on FOX.  But they knew NFL fans wanted that familiar voice.  They also knew that football fans couldn’t picture John Madden calling games with anyone else (until he joined together with Al Michaels, of course).  And that they needed credibility.  FOX made the right call on all fronts.  Because Pat Summerall did all of that.

Perhaps the most amazing part of Pat Summerall’s brilliant career, though, is the fact that he was the rare announcer who started as a player and became a play-by-play guy.  Usually the former players become analysts, and you can tell they’re out of their comfort zone when calling an unfamiliar sport.  The play-by-play guys are supposed to be the “professional” broadcasters.  Doing play-by-play is hard.  Yet Pat Summerall could move effortlessly from football to tennis to golf to basketball to whatever without ever missing a beat.  Not only that, he was one of the best at it.  That’s a natural gift.

Pat Summerall never felt out of place calling anything, and, as a result, he made viewers feel comfortable.  His style was so effortless that it put everyone at ease.  Yet it was so distinct at the same time.  You always knew when you were listening to Pat Summerall.  And you knew you were going to enjoy the broadcast.  Madden was your crazy uncle.  Summerall was your wise grandfather telling you stories about when he was your age.  For some reason, that worked perfectly.

He’ll probably be remembered most as John Madden’s broadcast partner.  And for all those Super Bowls, but those aren’t the only NFL Championship Games Pat Summerall was involved in during his brilliant career.  He was a kicker for the Cardinals and Giants, and he was on that Giants team that lost to the Baltimore Colts in “The Greatest Game Ever Played” in 1958.

It’s safe to say that the NFL wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular it is today without Pat Summerall.  Even though he hasn’t called games regularly in 10 years, he’s still as much a part of the fabric of the NFL as ever.  The NFL has lost a legend.  So has the entire profession of sports broadcasting.  Pat Summerall was in a class of his own.  A truly one-of-a-kind figure.  He’ll be missed, but it’s comforting to know that he’ll also be fondly remembered.  Just like every legend should.

Pat Summerall was a staple on CBS and Fox Sports who famously called NFL games with John Madden for decades — is dead at 82.  A former NFL star kicker with the Lions, Cardinals and Giants — was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999.

Summerall called the Super Bowl in 1982, the highest rated Super Bowl of all time. 49% of the country tuned in to watch the 49ers defeat the Bengals.  Summerall has called 16 Super Bowls in his career.

Cause of death has not been revealed.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says Summerall’s “voice was treasured by millions of NFL fans for more than four decades” — and “always represented the essence of class and friendship.”

God Bless the Family and Friends.