By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Ken Venturi was a 14-year-old with a camera trying to get a picture of Byron Nelson when he first met the golfer who would become a mentor and dear friend.
Veteran sportscaster Pat Summerall was remembered Saturday during a memorial service as "the voice of the NFL" and a venerated figure who maintained a humble approach despite the praise his broadcast work received for decades.
The voice of football. The NFL's narrator for generations. A master of restraint.
Pat Summerall was the calm alongside John Madden's storm.
Summerall called football games for CBS from 1962-1993 and for Fox from 1994-2002, famously teaming with former coach John Madden for 21 of those seasons.
Pat Summerall was the calm alongside John Madden's storm.
Fans watching NFL games on television have grown accustomed to the imaginary yellow line that runs across the field in accord with the first-down marker.
Mitt Romney is dispatching a gallery of rivals, none of whom has ever looked particularly presidential. Can anyone actually say out loud, without a wince, "President Gingrich"? Or "President Paul" (who sounds more like a pope than a president), or "President Santorum"? Nice guys, maybe, but we know where nice guys finish.
It was Dec. 14, 1958, and I was a 13-year-old boy living in New York City. I was at Yankee Stadium watching my (then) beloved Giants play the Cleveland Browns. We had to win to force the Browns into a playoff to decide who would be in the National Football League's championship game. There was less than two minutes to go, it was dark, and, worse yet, there were swirling winds and a driving snowstorm. Pat Summerall, the Giants' placekicker, lined up 49 yards away. If he didn't make it, the Giants would be eliminated. Given the conditions, I didn't think he had a chance. He was a straightaway kicker, and he drove it with everything he had.
"I had no intention of quitting, I was having too good a time," Summerall said in a 2000 Associated Press story. "The prescribed stay at Betty Ford is 28 days. They kept me 33 because I was so angry at the people who did the intervention, the first five days didn't do me any good."
"It's right down the pipe. Adam Vinatieri. No time on the clock. And the Patriots have won Super Bowl XXXVI. Unbelievable," Summerall said.
