RIP Tom Brookshier

Liked Brookshier. Had a great voice.

Summerall has long-outworn his welcome.
Time to grab some bench, pally. You got
one extension. Enough's enough.

 

But Ben, Summerall only does one game a year, the Cotton Bowl.

It's not like he's on TV every week butchering calls left and right.

BTW, is ESPN getting the Cotton Bowl starting next season? If so, then it's likely that Pat may have called his last one on Fox earlier this month.

 

So chippy that one team lined him up and broke his leg, you could look it up.

 

Brookshier was one of the first to bring an attitude of irreverence to the NFL booth. Most of the other guys of that era treated it like coaching sessions or church.

 

I always wanted to have an network NFL drinkoff between Pat Summerall of CBS, Don Meredith of ABC and...and...shit-I need an NBC announcer from that era with a hollow leg. Hellllllllp!

 

Fixed that for you, WCV.

These two were part of the football soundtrack of my youth as well, chronicling the Tarkenton/Bud Grant Vikings or the Staubach/Landry Cowboys, which -- it seemed like -- were on every weekend.

Perhaps not the time for this, but didn't Brookshier lose his job in some kind of stupid comment incident?

 

Without looking it up, I believe it had something to do with declaring, out of a college basketball promo, that the Louisville team had a combined IQ of 40.

 

Yeah, but I'm 68.

 

I remember one thing he said in regard to Mean Joe Greene being pissed at a referee's call...something about the "refereee (by name) needs to take Joe aside and explain it to him softly and calmly." Kind of dumb.

 

RIP to another good one. I, too, grew up watching Summerall and Brookshier.

And the fact that so many didn't know he was a player is a tribute to him, as well. Unlike the Aikmans of the world, who seem to feel the need to preface everything with, "When I played..."

 

Yep . . . a three-plus-hour cringefest.

It's a major bowl, for heaven's sake.

 

Amen.

I'm old enough to remember "This Week in Pro Football" and how much leaner and straightforward its approach was than today's shows that review last week's games and set up the upcoming games. By comparison, it was like watching someone on PBS.

Two former NFL players who didn't allow themselves to be the story. Instead, they told us what had happened and what to watch for. Nowadays, it's all about Terry, Howie, Jimmy, Jay, a random chick or two, JB, Michael, Deion, Coach ... we'll be right back for a commercial break, then return and tell you the rest of the names on our panel ... and who has the best hair, suit or golf game. Bleh. Oh, and look at me, I can still run a pass pattern on this tiny field we've created so we can remind you we used to play. Bleh.

What I've been thinking since he died, and during the pregame shows last week, this week and especially today, is: RIP to Brookshier, and farewell to him and a lot more.