Pat Summerall is the signature voice of sports broadcasting in America. As a professional football player, Pat was best known as the kicker for the legendary New York Giants championship teams of the late 50's and 60's. After his retirement from the gridiron, he became the mainstay of the CBS Sports broadcasting team for 32 years. In 1994, Pat and broadcast partner, John Madden, joined the Fox network. For 21 years, they were the strongest sportscasting team in the history of the game.
Summerall was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1952 but was traded to the Chicago Cardinals before ever playing a single game for Detroit. He was a place-kicker and tight end for Chicago from 1952 - 1957. He joined the New York Giants in 1958 and played in the 1958, 1959, and 1961 NFL Championship games, scoring five points in the legendary 1958 game (23-17 loss to Baltimore) and 10 points in the 1959 game (31-16 loss to Baltimore). Summerall also had a brief stint with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball organization.
In total, Summerall has worked 16 Super Bowls on network television, the first five as a game analyst and the rest as the play-by-play man. To further Summerall's astonishing Super Bowl statistics, he also worked on 10 Super Bowl radio broadcasts. Summerall and Madden worked eight Super Bowl broadcasts together - more than any other network broadcast team. Their broadcast of Super Bowl XVI in 1982 is still the highest-rated sports program of all time (49).
Summerall's book Pat Summerall, On and Off the Air was released in August 2006. His successes and problems are laid out in a humble way, and his faith statement will be hard to match anywhere in professional sports. This book reads like a newspaper account of the great game of football and the ups and downs of life.
Meeting Pat Summerall
I met Summerall when I was at the Cowboy's complex training the coaching staff on Coach's Office. He was leaving the building after his weekly morning Bible study with some of the coaches. It was quite an inspiring experience for me.
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