BRENT MUSBURGER DOMINATED THE NFL IN THE 80’S; BRENT AND JIMMY THE GREEK BECAME GREAT RIVALS IN THE BOOTH NATIONALLY

Why Did It Take 50 Years for Brent to get NFL’s Pete Rozelle Award?

Just this past April Brent Musburger received the Pete Rozelle award for “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” The question is: what took so long

Musburger has been covering the NFL since the early ‘60s, first as a reporter for the now defunct Chicago American, and later doing play-by-play for CBS. In 1973 he did a full slate of games for CBS, and in ’75 he became the host of the brand new, live The NFL Today. The latter was such a hit that it won 13 Emmy Awards its first year and Musburger, along with Phyllis George and Irv Cross were huge reasons for its success.

In fact, the show was so successful it could easily be said that it helped the National Football League expand its audience by bringing the star players and coaches into our homes on a near personal basis. Musburger was the leader of that band. His orchestration of the fast-moving show—throwing it to Irv for analysis and then Phyllis for features, and later Jimmy The Greek for his selections, kept everyone tuned in.

No one ever doubted Musburger’s brilliance in the studio. So, the question remains, why did the NFL wait until more than 50 years had gone by to give Brent this award.

The award itself wasn’t presented until 1989 when CBS Sports’ former president Bill McPhail was honored. In the next few years greats like Steve Sabol of NFL Films, Curt Gowdy and Chris Schenkel won it. Musburger hosted The NFL Today for 15 years but was fired in 1990, so his importance to the game must have been recognized by that time. It should be noted that although there is no doubt that Brent was the best, other CBS studio broadcasters were chosen way before him. They were Frank Gifford, Lesley Visser, Irv Cross, Jim Nantz and James Brown.

But every passing year came and passed with no Brent, not that there weren’t plenty of other CBS broadcasters who were recognized:

1990 Lindsey Nelson (recognizable early College and NFL)

1994 Pat Summerall (assuredly laid back) 

1995 Frank Gifford (who hosted The NFL Today before Brent)

1996 Jack Buck (Did one Super Bowl on TV and many on radio)

2000 Ray Scott (If his pants were burning, he wouldn’t fire!)

2002 John Madden (A color commentator who was amazing)

2003 Don Criqui (What an overpowering Play-by- Player)

2006 Lesley Visser (Fantastic)

2009 Irv Cross (Mostly CBS)

2011 Jim Nantz (Comfortable on CBS forever)

2016 James Brown (Years in Studio at CBS and Fox)

That makes eleven names from CBS Sports receiving the prestigious Pete Rozelle Award before Brent. Even Chris Berman won it in 2010 for doing Brent’s studio gig at ESPN. Brent originated the pregame studio. Everyone else copied him.

It got so bad that Brent went on the air at halftime of a recent Super Bowl and literally lobbied for the award. One can only guess why he may have been overlooked for so long. In “You Are Looking Live,” which highlighted the history of  The NFL Today, several insiders revealed how Brent blidsided Jayne Kennedy, leading to her downfall, and also how he would “steal” Jimmy The Greek’s biggest news scoop and often listen in on Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier’s pregame rehearsals and then spill their news on the air first. It got so bad that producer Mike Pearl had to separate them all at production meetings.

Also in Terry O’Neil’s book, “The Game Behind the Game”, O’Neil outlined how he had to maneuver in rehearsal to make sure Musburger couldn’t listen to their warm-ups and steal their material. He also wrote how Brent threatened him with false racial accusations to the NAACP, and how Brent fought to get O’Neil fired.

Disliked or not, all of those years I guess the NFL felt it was finally time to recognize him. Either that or Fred “The Hammer” Williamson wasn’t available.