NFL Films piece on Paul Zimmerman

That's where I got it from. Only, they were preparing to play the Steelers, not the Redskins. It's an interesting book, but seems pretty tame compared to nowadays.

My favorite Dr. Z story comes when he tells of Weeb Ewbank, and a couple of assistants, with a few hours off before playing at San Diego, decide to go to Tijuana. They get down there, and they're being solicited on the main drag by everyone, including one guy waving canisters.

The guy: "You want movies? Filthy movies?"
Weeb: "Crissakes, no. I've been watching movies all week."

 

Dr. Z's weekly online stiff was great. I loved the little stuff like how he would skewer various officiating crews, not just for blatant mistakes but for stuff like positioning and bad spotting of the ball. His yearly review of the NFL broadcast teams was essential reading too.

 

Dr Z style reminded me a lot of one of my other favs- Mike Royko.
I still go back from from time to time and read the Zim SI archives.

Loved his dispatches from The Super Bowl. Always cynical and biting like this gem:

Press day at the stadium Tuesday. I arrive at the field just in time to catch the day's dramatic highlight. In the shadow of Tom Brady's podium a member of SAFE Security is tearing a soccer ball away from an anchorwoman from Mexico City's TV Azteca named Ines Sainz, who wanted to work some soccer-football gimmick with the Patriots. Ines Sainz ... Innocence ... get it? Is this a clever play on words or an accident? I never get to find out because the confiscation of the soccer ball, "for security reasons," has taken center stage.

"I feel so much safer now," I tell the security guy, whose name reads Ford and is as big as one.

"Where you from again?" he asks me. I tell him, "Soccer World." The look he gives me says, "Oh, brother, if only there weren't all these people around ..."

Like Huggy wrote I too miss is annual commentator rankings. Here was his last
from 2007 season:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/dr_z/02/07/announcers/index.html

 

Best part of those ratings was he would tear apart some of the top crews that the media columnists loved so much.

 

He's an all-timer.