Pat Summerall is old and senile.

Submitted by FabFiver5 on

Not sure if anyone else is watching the Cotton Bowl, but how in the world does Pat Summerall still get jobs calling football games?!

All game long it's been "excuse me" or "my mistake" or "whoops" whenever he's trying to give you key pieces of information. He even just called a field goal good when it was clearly wide left. He may have been great back in the day, but he has to give it up now.

Daryl Johnston has been trying to save him time after time when Pat can't get the call right. Is he still drinking heavily or what?

flyboy

January 2nd, 2010 at 5:27 PM ^

...reminds me of the good old day when he would broadcast with John Madden. Those two were always my favorite broadcasting duo. It's good to hear his voice again.

swdude12

January 2nd, 2010 at 5:33 PM ^

ya he is just getting everything wrong...No one wants this game...Bad call on NO CALL on the offsides INT in the endzone...Just fumbles and OSU just doesnt want to win.

Twisted Martini

January 2nd, 2010 at 6:06 PM ^

In the Rose Bowl between Texas and SC. As much as I love Keith, he was past his prime. Summerall drinks way harder than Keith too.

Whatever happened to Ron Franklin? He was a God at ESPN and dissed someone off, Pam gets better games than he does.

formerlyanonymous

January 2nd, 2010 at 6:08 PM ^

His partner was worse to me. So many times they were guessing on penalties and were so wrong. They're calling a personal foul penalty for helmet to helmet when the flag is across the field for a holding call. Things like that. It was as if they were working the call to talk about how one team shouldn't be so aggressive because it looks bad when it is something on the opposite team. That happened at least 2-3 times with them guessing personal fouls. I guess they thought they were calling the Alamo Bowl and expecting MSU to rack up personal foul after personal foul.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 2nd, 2010 at 6:58 PM ^

Not only did Summerall make a mistake every minute, that touchdown run by McCluster called for just a little more excitement than Summerall gave it. Which was about the same level of excitement as I have when observing that I need to go shovel the walk.

I like Pat Summerall's announcing too, or at least, I like the version of it from ten years ago. Time to retire.

jeag

January 2nd, 2010 at 7:53 PM ^

Musburger made plenty of mistakes in the Rose Bowl. The difference is that Summerall is humble enough to admit his mistakes, while most guys will act like they were right all along.

Summerall's voice is an inspiration. I told my dad I was going to start smoking unfiltered cigarettes and drinking straight bourbon for a few years, until my voice got cooler. He supported this endeavor.

Yostal

January 2nd, 2010 at 8:10 PM ^

Who is the best college football national play by play person under the age of 50? Musburger, Lundquist, Nessler, Franklin, anyone you would like to put out there are well over 50, and while I wish them well, should there not be a new generation of play by play announcers for college football that is coming up at this time to give up hope for the future?

Hannibal.

January 4th, 2010 at 9:47 AM ^

There is hardly anyone under 50 because the dominant sports network (ESPN) does a terrible job of cultivating and selecting announcers. Most of their new play-by-play guys over the last 10-15 years have been studio anchors like Chris Fowler, Mike Tirico, and Steve Levy who were promoted to PXP and aren't suited for it. and then there's Pam Ward. Other networks get great radio guys or great local play-by-play guys. For example, all of the hockey announcers for Versus and NBC are the best guys plucked from local markets. They don't make asses out of themselves constantly because they don't view themselves as the story. But ESPN promotes their own personalities becuase they view themselves as a pop culture phenomenon.

bacon1431

January 2nd, 2010 at 8:39 PM ^

And yet he's still far better than Musburger. Summerall just sounds like he belongs announcing football games and I'll still welcome him doing it. Although, it seemed like he didn't know what was going on during the game at times.

gobluesasquatch

January 3rd, 2010 at 5:25 PM ^

Pat Summerall has been sober for a number of years and took huge steps in his life to not only get sober, but to be a voice and inspiration and helpful resource to many others who have had the same struggle in life.

While he does make a number of mistakes, and sometimes seems to fall behind the action just a bit ... I still love his style and voice. He recognizes that he isn't broadcasting on the radio, it's TV and people can see the action. On most plays he gives just enough information that the viewer needs. Sure there are some awkward moments of silence, but that's just because most play by play announcers are trying to create more drama than exists or getting in more airtime then the color commentator (who too often just can't shut up).

He is still better than Gifford was in his last days on MNF. Seriously, who remembers or cares about Norm VanBrocklin? (Yes I knew who he was and his NFL records, but seriously)

And I still can't tell if I'm listening to Summerall live or on a Madden video game. And I love a game called by Ron Franklin as well.

Hannibal.

January 4th, 2010 at 9:49 AM ^

Ron Franklin is still an excellent play-by-play guy. The way that ESPN has put him out to pasture in favor of crappier guys is typical for them.

Fox should pull their regular Fox Sports college football announcers onto their BCS games and the Cotton Bowl. Instead, they put pro guys on those games and they have no feel for the game and no credibility.