It’s The Way Of The World
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One of the toughest aspects of my profession as an on-air sportscaster is when you decide to step away. It’s not an easy thing since the work is so enjoyable and why not do it for as long as you can?
But there are issues we all have faced that make it a dilemma that’s not easy to solve.
Of course, no one wants to be told he’s through by his superiors. We all want to go out on our own terms.
I have never forgotten the lyrics from a song in a Broadway show titled, “Promises, Promises. It was highly successful, by one of the renowned playwrights, Neil Simon and was based on the award-winning film, The Apartment, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. The music was written by the legendary duo of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. One of the songs was titled, “Knowing When to Leave”.
Hal David wrote these lyrics:
Go while the going is good
Knowing when to leave may be the smartest thing that anyone can learn. Go.
Fly while you still have your wings
Knowing when to leave will never let you reach the point of no return. Fly”
What made me think of this subject were the criticisms of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels after last Thursday’s 49ers-Rams telecast on Amazon.
Apparently Michaels seemed confused and not clear on a few critical plays in the game.
Social media can be ruthless as everyone should know, and it has, unfortunately, become the dominant voice in virtually everything in our lives.
Some critics demanded Al retire. There is no holding back the degree of viciousness that we see. Al Michaels is 80. He is in my view, the finest all-around play-by-play announcer in television history. Having done the same kind of work, I feel I am a decent judge. All that aside, there comes a time when you have to face facts and hang up your microphone. I would be the last person to advise Al to do that. In fact, I think it’s out of place for anyone to urge an athlete, broadcaster, or anyone, really, to retire.
It’s their decision. End of story.
I can only refer to my own situation and perhaps it is no different than anyone else in a similar place.
I retired officially four years ago, at the age of 78, after 55 years of broadcasting.
For me, it was an easy decision. It’s a true understatement but I had a rewarding career and loved every minute of it. I can’t say it was a dream come true because I never ever imagined I would do the things I did. It just happened.
But during the difficult 2020 NFL season there were signs that perhaps I didn’t need to broadcast games anymore. It became less important to me. In that COVID year, travel, hotel stays, constant testing on arrival at the stadium on game day, restaurants, no crowds at the actual games, and other limits, opened my eyes.
I knew the conditions weren’t going to last forever, but the signs were there.
I always felt broadcasting was what I did, not who I was. I had a multitude of other interests outside of going to a booth every week to describe the action on the field.
My desire to travel more with Jamie instead of leaving every weekend for half the year was a major factor in my decision. Actually, my last NFL broadcast on Fox was in November of 2020, when I worked with Matt Millen for a Texans-Browns game in Cleveland.
Ironically, my very first Fox NFL game was with Matt in September 1994 for the Eagles-Giants opener, and my final one was with Matt in 2020. He was no longer doing NFL games, and they just paired us up. How fortunate.
My retirement became official when my contract ended a year later.
I do not miss it one bit. I don’t know why, but I am nowhere as intense a follower of the NFL, and less for other sports, with the exception of tennis and golf. Let’s say I know what’s happening, but nothing like it used to be.
Here are the facts of life. There is no way any broadcaster will be the same in his late 70’s and 80’s as he was in his prime years. This has nothing to do with the mental decline that leads to more serious problems. This is simply a natural reduction in the sharpness of calling games that was easy to do at an earlier time.
It is not a case of calling everything wrong for an entire game. It’s more about a handful of situations and plays that may bring on some confusion or hesitation. Once upon a time there was no doubt in everything all of us said on the air, now there may be a question.
Everyone who has ever done this want to get it right as crisply as possible, now there may be a slight bit of delay to make sure. It happens to everyone. It happened to me.
The audience may or may not pick up on it, but if you’re talking into a microphone, you definitely know.
So, the big question becomes why continue? There are several explanations. It isn’t easy to walk away from a dream career. Ego influences you to declare that you’ve done this a long time and you’re more than good enough to go on even if there is a decline.
Then, perhaps the most prominent factor in not reading the tea leaves: What am I going to do now?
Again, no one should ever be urged to retire. But there comes the two-way sword of having established a remarkable reputation, while social media and the younger viewers regard you as too old and seek a younger guy to deliver the commentary.
We all got our chances in our youth, and we all replaced veteran announcers.
That never changes.
It all becomes about knowing when to leave. Hopefully you won’t go too long so that the viewers will regard you as being a legend who struggled at the end.
Maybe you think it goes with the territory. Maybe you don’t care what anybody thinks.
It’s a decision that all of us will have to make at some point.
I personally feel content with the timeline of my decision to step away.
Al Michaels at some point will have to decide himself, just as Marv Albert, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy and all the others did.
But Michaels, in my view, has been one of a kind. From the miracle on ice at the 1980 Olympics, to the decades of working the most prominent NFL games on several networks, countless Super Bowls, as well as several World Series, no one was ever better. I believe baseball, his first sport, was his best. He even came out of the mothballs to work a season of NBA games and excelled there as well.
But it’ll be up to Al Michaels alone.
He’s just going through what everyone does.
It’s the way of the world.
