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Fall 98 Volume III Issue 4 |
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Fall 98 Volume III Issue 4 |
by Daniel Green
SMOKE arranged with FOX to have the four co-hosts of their NFL Sunday program - Terry Bradshaw, Cris Collinsworth, Howie Long, and James Brown - on the phone for a group interview.
| Terry Bradshaw was the No. 1 draft pick in the 1970 NFL draft. Playing over a dozen seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bradshaw led the team to four Super Bowl victories. In 1989, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A staple in the Burt Reynolds theatrical troupe, Bradshaw has appeared in a variety of films and TV shows, including Smokey and the Bandit II, The Larry Sanders Show. and Married... With Children. |
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BROWN: Hey Howie, what do you think Terry's doing right now?
LONG: Probably sleeping. Or playing golf.
BROWN: Oh, I have to believe he's on the tractor, having a good time.
SMOKE: Let me ask you, first of all, what is it about pro football that so obsesses America?
LONG: Well, people always talk about baseball being America's pastime, [but] I think football is truly American's passion. I think that, along with boxing, it's the last bastion of a true gladiator-type sport. I don't know what it is about a couple grown men putting on fiberglass helmets and running into one another from one end of the parking lot to the other, but people seem to really love it.
COLLINSWORTH: I just think you have to have something to watch while you're smoking your cigar. Just a way to kill time. [LAUGHTER] But, more than any thing else, I think you're looking at pro athletes who earn their money. In football, it doesn't matter how cocky you are going in, eventually somebody's going to knock you on your butt and you're going to come out a little less cocky on the other end. With baseball, I think people are saying, "these guys sort of look like glorified softball players that are making 12 million dollars."
SMOKE: Cris, did Howie ever hit you when you were both in the NFL?
COLLINSWORTH: He couldn't have caught me. If he'd have had his Ferrari, he couldn't have caught me.
LONG: But if I got him in a phone booth, I could get him.
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James Brown has been on TV more than William Ginsburg. Along with being the host of Fox NFL Sunday, Brown does work for Fox's NHL coverage and hosts the show
America's Funniest. He's also been seen on the NCAA basketball championships, the Winter Olympics, CBS Sports Saturday/Sunday, and the Tour de France coverage. He is perhaps best known for his work hosting the PBS special Yanni.
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COLLINSWORTH: When I got hit, my trick was always the same thing. Even if I was just in a total fog, I always made sure I was up before the other guy, and then I'd just flip him the ball and say, "Hey, really good hit, man, congratulations." Then I'd get back in the huddle and I'd tell the quarterback, "Don't even think about throwing it to me for a couple of plays. I gotta find my way back to the line of scrimmage." [LAUGHTER] I can remember once, in my rookie year when I went over the middle and Jack Lambert just completely drilled me. He's laying there on top of me and he says, "Don't you EVER come back over the middle again, Collinsworth, or I'll kill you." So I go back to the huddle and I've got this huge grin on my face and one of the guys say, "What are you smiling about? Lambert almost killed you." I said, "Yeah, but he knew my name!" [LAUGHTER]
LONG: You know, baseball boggles my mind - how a guy can pitch the ball and try to take your head off. First thing I'd do is knock the catcher out and then I'd get that pitcher. I mean, if you're going to throw a fastball at my head, we're fighting. I don't get that in baseball, where it's taboo: "Oh, that's part of the game."
SMOKE: Let me switch topics for a second and ask James this. It's 30 seconds after the Super Bowl and you're interviewing the winning quarterback. What's the worst question you can ask?
BROWN: Terry generally handles that. He has it in his contract that he handles all the winning quarterbacks. I'm sure that sometimes, if someone's getting fired or someone's in a controversy, we'll send Cris, because he's more of a pit bull.
COLLINSWORTH: I hate interviewing the winning quarterback, because they always say the same thing. It's boring. It's always, "I want to thank my mother and my country." You could write a script for it. But, when you go into the losing locker room, that's when it gets good, because you don't know if you're going to get punched. You don't know if you're going to see somebody in tears. You don't know if you're going to see somebody blaming the guy that's playing next to him on the line of scrimmage. Typically, there's about a five minute window there where people are really honest. If you can stick a microphone under their nose then, usually you get a pretty good idea what it's like to be a football player.
Football, more than any other sport I know, is that sort of raw emotion on the playing field. You wouldn't have recognized me on the football field. All I did, from the minute I stepped on the field, was cuss and swear and say things that I never said at any other time of my life. I mean, you become like a caveman out there. At least, I did. It was the only possible way I could live with the fear of playing on a weekly basis out there.
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