School’s Out for Summerall

Pat Summerall, who overcame being born with a backward leg, toy NFL kicker helmets and alcoholism only to spend 21 years covered with John Madden’s spittle, has died of cardiac arrest at the age of 82. With the New York Giants, Summerall played in 3 NFL title games in 4 years – all losses. His personal highlight came in 1958 when he hit a late 49-yard field goal in a snowstorm at Yankee Stadium that beat the Cleveland Browns in the season finale and forced the two teams into a playoff for the Eastern Conference title. The Giants also won that game before losing the Greatest Game Ever Played to the Baltimore Colts. Summerall was the rare ex-player who ended up as a play-by-play man rather than a color commentator, but his style seemed more suited to the golf tournaments he broadcast in the offseason than the gridiron. His sedate style worked well in his teaming with Madden, largely because his broadcaster partner tended to use up all the oxygen in the room, as well as large chunks of nitrogen and argon. In his career, he brought the same hushed tones to the NBA Finals in 1974 and was the man to let Bobby Orr’s father know his son had won the Stanley Cup for the Bruins in 1970. After stints covering the NFL for NBC, CBS and Fox he retired, making it a semi-retirement when he began broadcasting Cowboys home games and the Cotton Bowl in his hometown of Dallas.