Pat Summerall meant many things to many people. Since I'm not a "reporter" type blog, I'm not going to do the same tired biography that you could get on virtually any website. No, I'll just talk about what he meant to me.
As a child of the 1980s, obviously Summerall is best known to me as one half of the greatest NFL announcing duo with John Madden. And, folks, I remember when those two weren't as mocked as they were in their last five or so years together. Summerall's commanding voice paired with Madden's excitable analysis suited the masses.
The two called 8 Super Bowls together, including Super Bowl XXVI ... the last time my Washington Redskins appeared in (and won) the title. They also called many Washington Redskins games when I was playing many, many editions of Madden on my Super Nintendo and Playstation consoles.
When you are a kid, you are usually oblvious to your sports/movie/whatever stars' personal lives or faults. I didn't know Summerall was an alcoholic while watching him. Of course, in that time with no internet or 24-hour news channels, it wasn't brought out like that. While I can't go as far as to say I idolized him or anything like that, he was a major part of my sports childhood as well as my development in understanding the game of football.
Rest well, Mr. Summerall. You will be missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment