The WORST BROADCAST in NFL on CBS HISTORY (Documentary)
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- At the 1977 NFC Championship, CBS decided to let their #2 crew of Vin Scully and Alex Hawkins call the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings with a spot at Super Bowl XII on the line. The broadcast was a disaster, to the point where afterwards, Hawkins was fired for just how bad it was. This is the in-depth breakdown of that broadcast
Videos Mentioned:
Burt Reynolds: • The STRANGEST ANNOUNCE...
1977 Cowboys: • The EASIEST Game of To...
Joe Greene: • The WORST ANNOUNCER in...
0:00 The Bizarre Reason Why This Even Happened
7:04 Part 1: The Most Hated Man in Sports
20:23 Part 2: The Awful Broadcast
38:12 Part 3: The Part Where He Gets Fired
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#nfl #cbs #cbs_broadcasting #cbsbroadcasting #cbssports #football #sports #highlights #nflhighlights #nflfootball #cowboys #dallascowboys #vikings #minnesotavikings - Sport
That Vin Scully reply is amazing. Perfect. RIP Vin: there are so many reasons we loved Vin Scully, but he outdid even his own magnificent self on that one. Absolute gold.
Vin asked the question I’d imagine most people were asking when he said that.
Vin may have been closer to the truth than he knew. I wonder if Hawkins had CTE. That would go a long way toward explaining his erratic behavior and absence of impulse control.
It's too bad that there's no audio or video (as far as we know) of what went on behind the scenes the moment the telecast ended. Now that would make for an interesting documentary!
@orbyfan Vin seems like the kind of man who would have simply told Alex it was nice working with him, left the booth as quickly and in as dignified a way as he could, while thinking to himself, "I'm never going to be working with that bozo again. I don't need to say anything. The network will take care of it."
@@orbyfanYes, that would be very interesting. Somewhere on CZcams, there is closed-circuit behind-the-scenes footage (doubtless from the CBS truck) of a game Vin Scully called during the '80's. So, it's possible that such footage of this game exists; if someone would have the courage to post it. Incidentally, during the opening comments of this game, one could almost see the color drop from Vin's face when Hawkins brazenly endorsed Dallas. Scully could tell right away that this was going to be a particularly uncomfortable broadcast. But, it's testimony to his professionalism that he was able to maintain his composure on the air. Finally, when Hawkins made the Comment to End All Comments, even Vin couldn't contain it any longer and asked the question everyone watching must have been thinking. It's the football equivalent to saying that someone must have been dropped on his head as a baby in order to make the kind of crack Hawkins made about Staubach, especially after Staubach did what any quarterback should rightly have done in that particular circumstance even though they understandably don't like it, call a timeout. Given his own struggles that day, calling that timeout was probably the best decision he made in that entire game. That made whatever that was from Hawkins coming out of the timeout worse by an order of magnitude, if that were even possible. I say this as one who never has been a fan of the 'Pokes (in fact, I've always been an AFL guy), but who nonetheless has a great deal of respect for Tom Landry and Roger Staubach for their contributions to football.
Best quote of the game “Did you wear a helmet when you played?”
Vin Scullys response back was GOLD. Best comeback answer.
DUI wasn't a big deal before say the mid 1980s. Treated not much differently than public intoxication + moving violation. No license suspensions, no ignition interlocks, no court ordered DUI classes, no felonies for repeat offenses - there was none of that. In many cases, your car wouldn't even be impounded and after you spent your time in the drunk tank, you could simply drive yourself home from the experience. The marijuana possession charge was far more serious at that time.
Frankly, both should be equally serious, with hard time and mandatory detox and rehab.
The unprofessionalism was worth it to hear Vin's remark about wearing a helmet
You really had to have been a massive f-up to have gotten clapback from:
Vin
Dave Niehaus (Scott Sanders, Horacio Ramirez)
Keith Jackson (Dick Vitale during the Indiana/Ohio State triple OT game in '91)
I love Vins' response...." Did you wear a helmet when you played football???"😂😂😂
Yeah, that was hilarious.
I had a teacher ask me that a lot in high school
I had a teacher ask me that a lot in high school
40:21 Vin Scully is saying "Get this damn clown away from me" inside his own mind.
Hey man, just wanted to say I recently came across your channel and really enjoy your in depth stories on the NFL and other sports. You do a really good job.
FWIW, Alex Hawkins flaming out gave CBS an opening for color commentator. A year later CBS hired John Madden, so they made the best of a bad situation.
I think you're looking at the arrest through 2023 lenses. I don't know legally which one was worse, but marijuana was viewed far worse by the public than alcohol. Remember, marijuana was a "gateway" drug.
Yeah, MADD didn't form until 1980, and that's really when the publicizing and crackdown of drunk-driving began. That was very much an '80s thing.
Yes, it’s just fake news that since Malihuan(the 15th century NAHUATL TRIBE’s WORD FOR the drug, meaning “prisoner”) possession laws have been loosened up in COLORADO AND WASHINGTON, DUI’s in those states have risen sharply.
Or… is it?
I really love how a few of your videos lately are longer and they are so entertaining. I really hope you keep doing more videos in long form because you tell a great story and I always learn something really cool after watching your videos. Thank you for the great content and keep up the great work!
I like how Vin Scully not-so-subtly slammed Hawkins there
For the time, it was a pretty major burn..
But Hawkins plsyed5, Vin talked😅😅😅
The only part of this that you are missing is the fact that the Sun Bowl has been the only bowl game that CBS has continuously televised since 1968. It is a major property for them, hence the reason why the #1 NFL crew was selected.
Great insight
The grand irony of the gamble by CBS of moving Summerall and Brookshier to cover the Sun Bowl, is that 5 years later, Summerall and Brookshier would make the absolute worst Super Bowl call ever because they both allegedly went on benders the night before, and it affected the product. It was so bad that CBS even considered moving Vin Scully up to #1, and did in fact fire Brookshier. Thank goodness John Madden moved in and joined with Summerall to save CBS's #1 team.
Oh, and Scully's response to Hawkins' crackback of Staubach (40:31) is classic Scully: "Did you wear a helmet when you played?" #Nuked
Brookshier got in hot water for making offensive comments about college basketball players, but that was after Madden teamed up with Summerall
I just thought Brookshier was demoted/separated from Summerall as a result after Super Bowl XIV as he still called games as a PBP man through at least 1986... although he did around '86 give birth to SportsRadio610 now 94WIP in Philly.
As embarrassing as it would have been, I’m somewhat surprised if CBS didn’t pull. Alex Hawkins off during the telecast and replaced him with Irv Cross who was onsite with the NFL Today crew at the Vikings/Cowboys NFC championship game.
@@JesusTapdancingChristOnaCrossBrookshire went to PBP in 1981 atter Madden worked with Gary Bender for the 1980 season (except week 1 when Bender worked with Brookshire as Summerall was working US Open Tennis). Brookshire would do PBP through the 1986 season before starting the sports talk format on WIP beginning I believe in April 1987 (it was an MOR station before that).
These long form videos are great. I am enjoying the Documentary form and seeing all of your knowledge/research. Truly educational for those of us who enjoy the game and don't know a lot of the nuggets like this.
No doubt Vin Scully was a great announcer weather it be baseball, football or golf. I always wondered that during Scully’s time at CBS, why he never called one of their college football bowl games.
Vin Scully was an absolute GOAT in the broadcast booth. He could turn nearly anything into gold. But even that magic has its limits when it comes to Alex Hawkins being an absolute a$$. And you could probably tell after the “Sissy” comment even Scully had had enough and fired back a jab of his own. An absolute disaster that could’ve been easily prevented.
The sad part is, CBS KNEW Hawkins was a buffoon and STILL made the free will choice to have him do this game.
@@DolFan316 You mean it wasn't predetermination?
@@Bob31415, free will is a micro term, (pre)determinism is a macro one.
Turns out that Summerall and Brookshier a few years later were broken up becauae they had *too much* fun. They were known to be not exactly sober a few times. They didn't have a good performance in SB XIV. They were together one more season after that, with the DAL-PHI NFC Title game being their last together.
CBS had some new management in their sports dept the next year and we had the beginning, of course, of Summerall and Madden together, even though Madden was paired with Scully the first four games. Brookshier went to play-by-play where he stayed for six seasons. That despite him only being suspended for the final week of 1983 after the prior week doing the NO-PHI game with Charlie Waters, his partner for that season. There, while between plays, he did an assigned promo of an upcoming Louisville-NC State basketball game. He said "that Louisville team has a collective IQ of about 40, but they can sure play basketball". In the Wikipedia entry it was noted that Waters offered Brookshier a chance to retract, but nope, he said "it's the truth".
That DAL-PHI NFC Title game was a good one. I was there and it was cold!
I was 11 years old and a Dallas fan back then. It was cold and windy there, thus teams couldn't pass. Wilbert Montgomery would have been awarded MVP for that game if such a thing existed
I remember that Brookshire got in some kind of trouble. I do remember them pairing Pat and John who went on to do many football games together for many years.
But did he lie..😅😅😅😅
Love the documentary style videos your putting out. Keep it up.
Besides the commentary, what made this game memorable was the spectator who set himself ablaze (you can see him being hauled out at 31:05).
Good point.
I remember that well, but I don't recall any media follow-up at the time. It wasn't until about a dozen years ago that I found out that the man survived, thanks to the quick thinking of a military veteran who quickly removed his coat and smothered the fire. The moral of the story: don't wear a snowman suit and bump into a vendor carrying an open can of Sterno.
The announcers were originally told that it was a blanket that was on fire, but when they saw that it was a man, Hawkins' comment was, "Anything can happen in Texas. Whoo!"
Being a huge Cowboy fan as well as being a big Roger Staubach fan, I would've obviously watched this game as a teenager. I do not remember the comment about Roger nor do I remember this Hawkins guy. I don't remember the guy setting himself on fire. It was so long ago.
35:36 I love how when hawkins asks the question he says yes but vin says no
Vin Scully called the Catch in 1981
1981 was a weird outlier.
That's when they promoted Madden to #1 Analyst, yet didn't know which of their top 2 play by play men he'd be best with, so they did Scully-Madden for the first 2 weeks, then Summerall-Madden for two weeks, which ultimately became the pairing CBS came with.
They gave Scully the 81 NFC Championship as a consolation prize for being demoted, but he was still upset, which drove him to NBC in 1983 to become their lead Baseball announcer.
@@ElFuego35That’s not a bad consolation prize.
@@ElFuego35 Jack Buck had the national radio call for that game, too, with Hank Stram. Those two did the Monday Night Football radio calls for years. A young Tom Brady was also in attendance. So many sports royalty figures were there that day.
@@craigmergenthal9291 Stram did TV with Vin. On the Radio was Jack Buck/Pat Summerall. The only one of CBS's top announcers not assigned to the game, either on Radio, or Television was Madden.
That said, to further your point about sports royalty being in attendance, Verne Lundquist was calling the game for the Cowboys radio network.
@@ElFuego35 Had Vin Scully stayed at CBS, then Dick Enberg would've likely had become NBC's lead baseball announcer instead. I do wonder in an alternate timeline, where Vin Scully stayed at CBS through the rest of the 1980s. Would Scully for example, have taken part in CBS' own baseball package beginning in 1990? Scully did do the World Series for CBS Radio from 1990-1997 however.
I’m liking these long form videos. You’re doing great with them.
Thank you so much for this. I was 12 years old and thought that this was a weird when it happened, but my father who grew up a Brooklyn Dodger fan and loving Vin Scully assured me that CBS had Scully announce the game because he was more experienced than the man he remembered as the NY Giants place kicker, Pat Summerall. Ofcourse, there was nothing wrong with Scully's performance, he was the consummate professional. Still when Hawlins said that Staubach ran like a sissy, my Dad, who detested the Dallas Cowboys had a few choice things to say about how "draft dodging Hawkins should shut his fudging trap" (only he didn't say fudging he said said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word)
Ha ha!
Was he also helping his dad change a tire when he said that?
*Gasp* He said the queen mother word?
Imagine having the kind of broadcasting roster where VIN SCULLY is on the B Team.
NBC had Dick Enberg, Don Criqui, Charlie Jones and Marv Albert as their play-by-play men in the 80s. Try to rank them.
Rule 1 of broadcasting: you have to be neutral.
Collinsworth: *hides behind a Patrick Mahomes poster*
Romo: Looks up from his knees in the Bills locker room. "What was that?"
Matt Underwood: *Uses the sentence "GO, BALL!" on occasion to punctuate home runs.* He couldn't be more biased if he tried.
@@drewzuhosky6826What was meant is be neutral if it's a NATIONAL telecast. If an announcer is employed by a team, then it's expected they would have a bit of a bias for the team.
@@drewzuhosky6826, is he local or national?
Does he work for the team or the outlet contracted with the team, or what?
A local yokel. @@robertsprouse9282
The newer documentary style vids are in depth as all heck. I'll watch this on my TV later and if I have more to say i'll edit it into this comment. I've watched a couple games and seen some long form highlights with him involved. He seemed like an amiable kind of guy who had a bit of an ol' time guy feel to him kinda in the mold of Don Meredith. It's a bit of a weird pairing with the always professional Vin Scully.
EDIT: Well....I knew Hawkins was a pretty crummy announcer but that was BAAAD! I also cracked up at how often you'd show the clips of him in the booth and in every single one he looked drunk or high.
I will defend him on one tiny point though it's a backhanded defense at best. He wasn't saying the Vikes were a class team for being the Lions. If you listen closely he was saying the LIONS were the class team which is backhanded defense because as you rightly point out the Lions were a crap team that year.
Anywho, he rightly lost his job with his arrest and piss poor defense of why it happened but yeah, I think he'd been demoted to the lowest ranks if that didn't happen. You don't call the QB of America's Team a sissy. Staubach also did an interview a couple years back that made him out to be quite virile and an object of lust for women sooo....
it is WEIRD though how many of Hawkins' strange comments were sexual or sexual adjacent in nature....Makes you wonder if he was a self loathing closeted man?
JG9 I love all your videos but these long form ones are particularly good. You can really show off your impeccable research and you present the content so well with your trademark humor. You gotta be the hardest working guy in the wide world of CZcams sports.
He's a god damn savant when it comes to this kind of thing.
LMFAO VIN “Did you wear a helmet when you played” IS FRICKEN HILARIOUS
I recall Cosell got heat for saying publicly that former players should not rate an automatic color job just because they had a good career on the field--Hawkins proved how right he was.
Howard called it the Jockocracy
I once read that when Roone Arledge then president of ABC Sports put together the package of MNF in 1970. Vin Scully was courted by Arledge to become play by play for MNF but turned it down because of commitment to the Dodgers. Imagine Scully working with Cosell. I wonder how that would have turned out.
Wait, that dude was 40 at the time? 😅 There’s no way. He looks like maybe mid-50’s
Really enjoyed this video. Fantastic work!
Love your stuff man. Really great job!
"Did you wear a helmet when you played" WOW! Great one Vin!!!
He played, Vin talked
No joke,this might be one of the best behind the scenes sports docs ever..I can't believe I never heard of this guy. Amazing job,bro
I've always been informed that nobody ever got offended by anything before the '90s and we're all just a bunch of PC weenies nowadays. Of course that's transparently ridiculous and this video is just another bit of proof among many that people have never been at a loss for things to clutch their pearls over. Not that I'm defending Hawkins or saying he got a raw deal. But clearly people in the '70s had uncrossable lines, too.
Almost as ridiculous as pretending PC hasn't existed since the late '80s and people were just as bigoted in 2010 as they were in 1960 before wokeness "set them straight".
Now, I'm inclined to make a list of the all-time worst NFL broadcasters:
Color commentary:
*Alex Hawkins, Joe Greene, Jason Whitten
Play-by-play:
*Mike Goldberg, Bryant Gumbel
Sideline reporters:
*Charissa Thompson, Lisa Guerrero
Studio analysts:
*George Seifert, Rush Limbaugh
Add Eric Dickerson to the worst sideline reporters.
24:28 man I thought he would say something like: “no I don’t think they (the Vikings) have a chance. The Cowboys are statistically better in every category. This unfortunately might not be a close game.” Which, don’t get me wrong, would still be bad commentary. But what I heard was so much worse.
Yeah that's miles better than straight up biasm lol
Summerall and Brookshier did the Sun Bowl from 1976 to 1980 with Brookshier working the game with Hank Stram in 1981. In 1976 (actually January 1977) CBS was done with the NFL so Summerall and Brookshier worked the Sun Bowl. 1978 thru 1980, the Sun Bowl was the Saturday before the Wild Card games (only two games were played at that time) so Summerall and Brookshier would work the Sun Bowl. They were fine doing it because they could party in Juarez in the days before the game. For this game, Scully and Hawkins were assigned to do the game probably to keep Scully happy. He would leave for NBC in 1982 after John Madden was paired with Summerall and not him.
Replying to myself...ABC was the only network that showed college football on a weekly basis in the 1970's with CBS and NBC only showing bowl games so they would use their top NFL crews for those games.
Excellent work as always!
To be fair, i think Hawkins was trying to say "cuts down the pass rush" not touchdown pass rush.
Great video and crazy story as always!
Then, if he is an actual pro, he says just that.
He was a clown on the WFL games before his time with CBS.
I felt sorry for MERLE HARMON the WIFFLE’s play-by-play guy who had to work with the “HAWK” SQUAWK..
I'm not defending this clown at all, but back then, a marijuana charge was way more serious than a drunk driving with something at the cops would let you park your car and walk home if caught doing it. marijuana was still considered a serious drug back then.
The fact that the Dallas CBS affiliate received not just local but also long distance calls to complain is actually pretty notable. This was long before unlimited nationwide calling, those people were paying good money to wait on hold for their chance to complain.
This is a key difference between that time and today. Back then people weren't upset that Hawkins used a "mean" word, they were upset that he used it to insult one of "their" guys. If he'd called another NFC East team's player a sissy those same people would be yukking it up and saying, "Right on!"
@@DolFan316 I'm sure even today cowboys fans would be happy If a commentator call an eagle or giant player a sissy lol
@DolFan316 I've heard people call brady alot worse...but that's all fan driven stuff...you don't say it on national TV as a broadcaster in the second biggest game of the year...and I don't care if it's 1977 or 2023.
I remember everybody got excited "it's long distance!"
Actually, according to the newspaper article, those long-distance calls were to Texas Stadium in Irving where the game was being played.
The full NFC game has restored video on Dave Volsky's channel.
Is there a link
@@thedude19766 YT frowns on links in comments. Just do a search on the game and the link should come up.
@@thedude19766 Sadly, I have been warned about linking another YT video in comments. With no appeal process. So, just search 1977 NFC Championship Volsky and you should find it. In fact, JG may have asked permission to use his restoration, because, for 1977 video, this looks great.
Well, it hasn't ruined football but the trend to hiring ex-tight ends to sit behind a mike has dumbed down the sport to a tedious commercialfest. It's been like that for decades. Watch with the sound off.
Is Mike a big guy?
Alex Hawkins liked to drink, pretty sure he would've failed a field sobriety test 😂
I saw this game on CZcams a few months back and heard about the arrest as well, and thought this is a perfect story for Jaguargator9. It’s as if Alex Hawkins said and did all this just so this video could be made some 45 years later. Of course we get another great video!
Hawkins also marred the broadcast of the classic Bears-Giants Slush Bowl two weeks earlier, in which Scully gave one of his classic calls at the end of OT. As an aside, CBS also employed Phyliss George on the NFL Today pregame in those years who also openly rooted for the Cowboys.
Fun fact: Hawkins was the NFL's first ever special teams captain. When the team captains met for the coin toss, HOF/GOAT Johnny Unitas, HOF DE Gino Marchetti, and the obscure Hawkins would be introduced, usually leading to opposing captains quizzically responding, "Captain Who?" Hawkins was ever after addressed by teammates as "Captain Who."
😂😂😂
According to Wikipedia, Captain Who was first coined by Dick Butkis, which seems appropriate.
Was Butkis related to DICK BUTKUS?
YOU HEARD Scully's response!!
love it!!
The biggest question to me is how the hell Hawkins ever managed to play for Don Shula, let alone become his special teams captain.
What does being a sh!tty broadcaster have to do with your worth on a football field?
As a player... Shula obviously had a damn good reason for keeping him on his football team. I doubt his special teams had any need for a broadcaster.
@@Seemsayin That's actually my point. Hawkins HAD to be great at his job as a special teams player in order for someone like Shula to overlook his obvious personality flaws.
Not going to lie; the Jake Scott (and I agree, how he's not in Canton; I don't understand) bathroom line does make me chuckle. But yeah, even then people thought it was tasteless. But the Roger Staubach line ..... no bueno then or now.
As for Alex's arrest; through a 1978 prism Marijuana was worse then DUI. In a 2023 prism, the other way around.
Summerall vs. Scully. Summerall was usually very good, when he was sober, although he really tailed off at the end of his career. Scully is arguably the best sportscaster of all time. Actually, I doubt anyone would argue that.
I would
In the 1984 NBA Finals Larry Bird used the same word to describe his Celtics that Hawkins used to describe Staubach. The next game Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis. The Celtics won that game and the series. Not that this is an endorsement for using that word.
Hawkins' last game was Super Bowl III, so if he was still triggered by it I could see it and Staubach was the target of his wrath. Of course leading to why the hell he's even in the booth...................
Me a previous comment: I love broadcast stuff from the 70s. It was like the Wild West.
JG9: You're gonna frikken love this then!
I feel bad for Vin Scully, one of the best to ever do it, having to be paired with this guy. I could listen to Vin Scully all day long, and I credit Scully's professionalism here in dealing with this.
Ok I take back everything negative I said before about this video, it is fantastic. I ended up watching it until the end and didn’t expect to hear Hawkins blurt out & say what he said. “Roger Staubach runs like a sissy doesn’t he” might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard an NFL announcer say.
I didn’t really know who Alex Hawkins was, but now I’m left wondering why CBS kept him around for so long. Could they really not find anyone better for most of the ‘70s?
I was just thinking, if CBS knew that Alex Hawkins was a bit of a loose cannon, why did they let him become their #2 NFL color commentator. I mean, did CBS not have that many good options in their talent pool at the time. And even if Alex Hawkins had an eccentric streak, it wasn't like he was otherwise considered a stellar football analyst to make up for it.
Vin Scully's clap back comment on Hawkins's sissy comment was funny and sad at the same time! Alex Hawkins makes Dennis Miller looks like a saint when Dennis Miller was on Monday Night Football! For crying out loud, Rob Barnett calling a few early episodes of Monday Night Raw looks decent
There are college FB analysts working today who are just as bad or worse when it comes to stating the obvious, non-sequitirs and padding airtime with pointless commentary. But few will ever top Lamar Thomas, analyst and former U of Miami WR, who was in the booth for the infamous UM-FIU brawl. "You do that in OUR house!?" Thomas thundered, referring to the 'Canes then home field Orange Bowl. "I wanted to go down the elevator and get in that thing!" Thomas finished the broadcast but was cut loose the next morning.
Oh boy, that was crazy!!!!!!! Great documentary!!!!
Wow I remember watching this game ! Guy Benjamin was the QB and Bill Walsh was the coach. January 1982 Vin Scully and Hank Stram did the NFC Championship rather than Summerall and Madden in their first year together
"The Catch" game was a consolation for Scully because he had been passed over for Summerall as #1 PBP NFL voice with Madden. Scully would leave CBS the following August after completing golf commitments with "The Catch" turning out to be the last NFL game he ever called.
@@WaltGekko I would have loved to have seen Vin call some NFL games for NBC.
That BILL WASH was some kind of clothing cleaning charge, errrr coach, almost as good as Bill WALSH..
Charles Alexander ran for over 180 yards
@@tommyparkerparker Apparently, Scully didn't want to call NFL games (even during the stretch where NBC had to use replacement announcers on NFL games during the 1988 Summer Olympics that overlapped three weeks of the NFL season) after leaving CBS and that was why he never did after "The Catch."
Sorry, but that Jake Scott line was kinda funny.
By the standards of that time it was. By applying 2020s social standards to the '70s, not so much.
@@DolFan316well good thing the game was in the 70s.
Burt Reynold as did the 1987 Miami vs Flordia State game also
The world needs an Alex Hawkins (1937 - 2017).
I truly appreciate any kind of Norm McDonald reference. RIP to him and Burt.
Kudos to the late, great Vin Scully for putting up with a (probably drunk) jerk for a whole game which must have felt to Scully to last all day. Also, I think Hawkins kept trying to imitate the call of Bobby Thomson's HR versus the Dodgers in 1951 (Whoa-ho) Which only sounded even weirder. I clearly remember the Jake Scott broken hands story too. My father and I, watching the game, looked at each other like, "Did we just really hear that?" What a bizarre choice for a broadcaster...
Howard Cosell was at one point, mentioned in the video and that just reminds me of another infamous national playoff broadcast, Game 2 of the 1984 American League Championship Series between the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. Cosell was working that ALCS with Al Michaels and Jim Palmer for ABC. The broadcast is infamous due to a post-game blow-up that Michaels had at Cosell for sabotaging the broadcast by being drunk on air and continuously making rambling, inane "analysis". Cosell was obviously testing the patience of Michaels and Palmer as that game went on.
This seemed to be the norm for CBS during that era where they had their No. 2 crew call the NFC Championship game in seasons when they were broadcasting the Super Bowl (except 1979, but Summerall and Brookshier didn't call the wild card or any divisional games during that postseason).
Vin Scully of course, would later call the 1981 NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Cowboys (the "Dwight Clark catch game") with Hank Stram while Pat Summerall called the game with Jack Buck on CBS Radio. That was the final NFL game that Vin Scully would call.
@@TMC1982Part2, he moved on to do MLB for NBC.
Possibly the most off-the-rails commentator ever.
RUNNING to the Burt Reynolds video after this. LOL
0:46 I see what you did there 😂😂😂
Turd Ferguson, it's a funny name
A deaf person spiking his ball in the end zone would sound better. JG! Seriously, what were they thinking of?
BTW, thanks for everything you do to help us old timers remember the games we watched or attended, and thanks for your enthusiasm and the amazing research and time you do. Good to finally put a face with a voice also. My best to you and yours for a great holiday!
?????
I think the problem wasn't arrogance on CBS's part in using the number two team to call the game. It was the fact that Hawkins was on the number two team with Scully. He should never have been that high in the depth chart.
I believe the reason Scully and Alex Hawkins got the N|FC Championship Game on New Year's Day was because in addition to the Sun Bowl, Summerall and Brookshire also worked the Cotton Bowl (Notre Dame vs. Texas) in Dallas when the game was actually in the Cotton Bowl Stadium (played on January 2 because the bowl games are usually played Monday 1/2 when New Year's Day falls on a Sunday). At that time, those were CBS's only two college football telecasts all year I believe (as CBS only began with regular season college football in 1982), so CBS may have wanted Summerall and Brookshire on both games since they were a couple of days apart and not too far from each others.
Actually Lindsey Nelson worked the Cotton Bowl with Paul Hornung and Don Criqui ( who was in his last year at CBS cat the time before coming back in 1998 after 19 years at NBC) worked the sidelines with Jack Whitaker who was there and also at the NFC championship game the day prior.
@@tommyparkerparkerAh! That makes it even more odd. I wonder if a sponsor of the Sun Bowl insisted Summerall and Brookshire be at the Sun Bowl.
Lindsey Nelson calling the Cotton Bowl made total sense. Don Criqui had been at CBS for a while before leaving for NBC, where he did PBP of what for 40 years was the greatest NFL game of all time, the January 2, 1982 AFC Divisional Pl ayoff between the Chargers and Dolphims in the Orange Bowl.
Alex Hawkins was an analyst on the short-lived World Football League's broadcasts in the mid-70s. I don't remember him getting in trouble for anything in that gig, but maybe that was because no one was watching. I do wonder if CTE played a role in his erratic behavior.
There weren't hard and fast rules until 1982 on these broadcast. Vin Scully was good and did call the nfc title game in 81 while madden and summeral got the super bowl.
I knew Vin was classy because of the time he sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley the year after Harry died. I knew he had a sense of humor for calling the Scott van Sleight (or however you spell his name) hotfoot. I knew he was loved because I’ve heard so many stories of Dodgers fans saying so. I knew he was one of, if not the greatest, to ever do the job. I cannot believe I’ve never heard this story before.
Many times I have heard people say Staubach walked/ran like a girl. BUT not one of them said it during a live broadcast 😂
Not near as much a Mahomes.
he certainly did not play like a girl. jack lambert said staubach was the toughest player he ever played against
Hawkins unprofessionally cheering on a team as a color commentator is similar to when you watch professional wrestling and the heel color commentator cheers on the heel. 😂 And I thought Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football was awful.
At least with Dennis Miller, you could say that you were getting what you paid for so to speak. I don't think that anybody was expecting Dennis Miller to be like John Madden in the booth. And at least, he wasn't the only color commentator in the booth, given that he was working alongside Dan Fouts.
Maybe the reason 'The Hawk' said the Vikings were a class team because they beat the Lions in the last game of the season was because it got the Vikes into the playoffs. Not because the Lions were a mediocre team.
And it's not like this: Vin Scully deserved so much better!
Hawkins was sipping something..he thought it was party time but ends up he had a job to do.
You might not be old enough... but Vin Scully, Schram and Summerall and Brookshire were 1 and 1A. Scully did the 81 NFC Championship(Cowboys vs 49ers) aka the catch. Also back then the #1 crews did bowl games. For instance the Monday Night Crew did the Sugar Bowl. Enberg... and whomever was the color man did the Orange Bowl
Since the fact that several people have mentioned CBS - save for 1979 - gave the #2 crew the NFC Championship Game in years CBS had the Super Bowl between 1975-81; I'll mention a different broadcast oddity.
Turns out, neither CBS or NBC had their #1 crew working on New Year's Day 1978; as NBC assigned newcomers Dick Enberg (in his first year working the NFL on NBC, though he had already supplanted Curt Gowdy on college basketball by then) and Len Dawson in place of Gowdy and John Brodie.
First of all, excellent documentary. I do remember this statement on air. I was in Jr HS and hated the Cowboys, being a Rams fan, so I laughed at it at the time. But that’s the point, right? If you are appealing to JRHS boys on a national playoff broadcast, you are not hitting the right audience. This says nothing of the actual cringe of it.
But…I believe in 1977, possession of marijuana was a steeper charge than DUI, and it would have been viewed by the public with more disdain. It wasn’t until the early 80s that the laws began to toughen up on DUI. And weed was still considered to be frying your brain like an egg in a pan, as we kept being shown. 😆
Lotsa on-air talent were not shy about their adoration of the Cowboys. Prolly why so many people grew up hating the Cowboys. Go Niners!
So true. They just love the Cowboys back in the 70s it was bad.
Typically enjoy your posts. Some constructive criticism however. Too much useless and repetitive information,you could shorten your posts by 10 minutes
Before watching this video I must tell you that I remember this game and the NFC CG between my Vikings and Dallas. Alex Hawkins said that Cowboys QB " Roger runs like a S***y". I actually recorded the game on a tape recorder
The funny thing is I remember people making fun of Staubach's running stryle in private, but never in public. Also, his criticism of Dallas' consistent time out miscues was something Dallas fans were angry over, and other commentators were critical of it.
I don't think it was as shocking to have the #1 Crew doing the Sun Bowl in the 70's. CBS had often only won the Bid to do one Big Bowl Game, & there was not nearly as many Bowls back then. My Dad told me that Bowl Games in that Era were a Big Deal. Also Bill Walsh was coaching Stanford & they were really good in the 70's. LSU was the 2nd biggest SEC Program then as well.
CBS did have one major bowl game in the Cotton Bowl, so if they sent Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier to that game, they could have stayed in town and made a short trip to the Cotton Bowl game.
This video just made me appreciate Don Meredith all the more. Don had that rich Southern drawl, but was actually funny and witty. Alex Hawkins was just trying to be like Dandy Don. Hawkins liked to party hard and he played hard - it caught up to him.
I remember Pat and Tom doing NFL games. I never knew Burt Reynolds covered any football games. I do know that Burt played
college football.
So my guy was literally one of those heel wrestling commentators from back in the day LOL
I’m appreciate all of the announcers. This guy may be among the worst analysts ever.
CBS didn’t have any college football games to broadcast in those days, so they just winged it with Pat and “Brookie.” But the presence of Turd “Gator Bandit” Ferguson puts this one into the stratosphere!!!
It wasn't that CBS didn't bid for the NFC games in the mid-'90s. It's that it was a blind bidding system and CBS didn't anticipate that Rupert Murdoch would submit a bid as insanely high as he did. Murdoch wanted to insure that there would be virtually zero chance that Fox wouldn't get the NFC games.
He was really bad, wasn’t he? - a good pro football player but a terrible broadcaster! The remark about stabauch was so bad to make everyone mad at him ! That was a good documentary. 😮😮😮😮
Being drunk while driving in Jan. 1978 wasn’t nearly as frowned upon like it is today. Even MADD wasn’t founded till 1980! Alcohol related fatalities were just starting to climb as more and more ‘kids’ were drinking more and more often.
However, being in the possession of marijuana was a big no no, especially for a 40 year old man like Hawkins. It wasn’t socially acceptable yet, that’s why he was so adamant about not having any in his possession.
It was still seen as a hippie drug mainly used by rock bands and motorcycle gangs, even though it had already gained a foothold in American high schools by ‘78.
I think he was calling the lions a class team. Also, this happened 3 days before I was born
"Did you wear a helmet when you played"? No, Vin, I don't think he did.