As a prelude to the Super Bowl, Rich Podolsky recalls Brent Musburger’s foibles on-air

A few years ago, I wrote “You Are Looking Live!” It was a fun and sometimes dramatically sad account of the people who were the celebrity stars of The NFL Today. I was the writer on that show, on and off, from 1977 to 1982.

The NFL Today, in its current format, started in 1975 when the great CBS News producer Bob Wussler, became president of CBS Sports.

Wussler wanted the show to be completely live and he wanted a few other groundbreaking things, like adding the first woman (Phyllis George) and the first Black analyst for a pregame show (Irv Cross). Wussler also wanted the show to be fun and not ignore that millions of viewers wagered on the games. His answer was adding Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. Nothing like this had ever been done before.

But the biggest surprise of the show was Brent Musburger, who was unknown to most of the country when he became the quarterback of the show in 1975. He was so smooth and fast and so terrific that he was almost invisible as far as the press was concerned. Phyllis and Irv and The Greek received most of the attention. As the show grew in popularity Brent became more and more important and soon became the face of CBS Sports as the host of many other big events. Along with his paycheck growing bigger, so did his ego. Some say he became jealous of the others. He was far from Mister Nice Guy.

That’s why I wrote about controversial events during Brent’s 15-year history of being host of the football show. One of those was his famous fight with The Greek at Peartrees restaurant in Manhattan. In short, The Greek had a major scoop about a high school coach about to be named head coach at Notre Dame. On air, Brent stole the scoop, leaving The Greek flatfooted and mumbling. According to producer Ted Shaker, who was there, when The Greek confronted Brent about it at Peartrees, Brent told him, “I can make you disappear anytime I want to, so be careful what you say.” That’s when Jimmy slugged him.

As producer Mike Pearl pointed out in the book, Brent had a history of “stealing the news.” Pearl explained that Brent would listen in to rehearsals of lead game broadcasters Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier, and then broadcast their news ahead of them. “They wanted to kill him,” Pearl said quite seriously and nearly did before Pearl separated the two groups at the Super Bowl. Game producer Terry O’Neil even instructed his technicians to shut off communication with The NFL Today before the game, so Brent couldn’t listen in. O’Neill often referred to Brent as an “anchor monster.”

When Phyllis George “retired” in 1978 after her failed marriage with movie producer Bob Evans, she was replaced by the gorgeous and talented Jayne Kennedy. Jayne was enormously popular and a big sports fan who personally new Muhammed Ali and Jimmy Brown. But she was thrown for a loop when Brent blindsided her at a halftime broadcast and told her to read the scores of the other games.

Never having rehearsed it, she flubbed it of course. Many thought this was Brent’s way of taking her down a notch. It also led to her dismissal in 1980 when Phyllis decided to return. That was a sad day in the annals of CBS Sports. Jayne went on to host the program “Greatest Sports Legends” for six years.

In 1988 The Greek made some controversial remarks to a Washington D.C. reporter who stopped by his table during lunch. Paraphrasing, The Greek said Black athletes were better because they were bred to be bigger and stronger and faster. The Greek was parroting the theories printed in Sports Illustrated several years earlier, but it didn’t matter. When Brent found out he told his bosses that he refused to go on the air with The Greek or even sit next to him. With Brent vehemently against The Greek and no one standing up for him, Jimmy was fired with Brent reading a statement to that effect live on the air.

With these stories chronicling much of the history of the show its first 15 years, the book, “You Are Looking Live!” became a fun read and for several months was the #1 Sports book on Amazon. It was so successful that when Ted Shaker and I approached CBS about producing a documentary, they showed tremendous interest.

Unfortunately, they chose to produce it themselves, asking Shaker and myself to be consultants. We agreed but were hardly consulted. Instead, CBS hired Brent as the host of the documentary, which put an end to any of the controversial stories about him in the book. The CBS documentary was also called “You Are Looking Live!”

Only the old footage and photos from the early years of the show were great to see. In effect, Brent re-wrote history by never telling why The Greek was so mad at him. He never brought up blindsiding Jayne or his role in getting Jimmy fired.

The documentary was broadcast a year ago on Super Bowl Sunday. Yes, it was a great show that revolutionized sports broadcasting, but it is a shame that nearly 50 years later CBS Sports felt it had to hide its dirty laundry.