NFLN: Pat Summerall- A Life Remembered

Source:NFL Films- Left to right: Pat Summerall & John Madden, when they were the lead announce team for FOX NFL Sunday.

Source:The Daily Press

“Spanning an NFL career that lasted 50 years both on the playing field and broadcast booth, Pat Summerall dies at the age of 82.

Legendary television announcer Pat Summerall died on Tuesday at the age of 82. In the days before cable and Red Zone, NFL Sundays were spent with Summerall and John Madden, first on CBS, then on Fox. His distinctive, deep voice and understated style perfectly contrasted with the bombastic Madden to make the pairing an all-time NFL favorite.”

From Pig Benis 

As Pat Summerall’s former partner at CBS Sports and FOX Sports during the NFL season John Madden said: “Pat Summerall was the voice of the NFL. The best whoever was and is when it comes to calling NFL games, because he had a great voice and also because he knew what he was talking about. He was the play by-play announcer with an analyst’s voice because he not only could see what was happening, but he knew what it meant because he use to play the game himself. So you were getting an insiders look not just from the analyst, but the guy calling the game.

Pat Summerall was just like Frank Gifford when he did play by-play for ABC’s Monday Night Football. Frank Gifford not only being a great announcer, but a Hall of Fame player for the New York Giants and a teammate with Pat Summerall.

I also feel lucky to be able to hear Pat Summerall as the lead play by-play announcer when I did. He and John Madden became partners and CBS Sports lead announcers for the NFL on CBS in 1981 or 82. Which meant they got the top game in the National Football Conference every week.

My first year watching football was in 1982 just as the Redskins my team were starting their big run in the 1980s winning two Super Bowls in that decade and three NFC Championships. So I got to see Summerall and Madden calling a lot of Redskin games that decade.

When I was growing up, it seemed like every Sunday at one point Summerall and Madden were calling the Redskins game and they were either playing the Giants or Cowboys or Eagles on Sunday afternoon at 4PM. And if they weren’t playing at 4PM they were the Monday Night or Sunday Night game.

A big reason why I fell in love with football so early in life was because I was fairly athletic early on as a kid and enjoyed playing football for fun, as well as the Redskins being so good early on. But also because I got to hear the best broadcast duo of all-time calling so many Redskins games.

When I think of Pat Summerall I think of the voice of the NFL and especially the voice of the NFL when it came to intros to games and a lot of those intros involved Redskin games. Again I feel lucky to of heard him call so many Redskin games, because he would do the intro almost as if he wrote it himself. It seemed so natural to him and his ability to deliver when it came to calling game action. Or talking about the NFL seemed so natural which is why he is the voice of the NFL. And while he be missed because there will never be someone as good and as talented calling NFL games. 

Chicago Tribune: NFL 1963- NFL Championship -New York Giants @ Chicago Bears: '63 Bears Reflect on Championship Season'

 

Source:Chicago Tribune- The 1963 Chicago Bears: the last last of the great George Halas teams.

Source:The Daily Press

“Chicago Tribune photographer Michael Tercha sat down with former Bears players to talk about the chemistry and attitude of the 1963 team. For more video, visit:Chicago Tribune."  

From the Chicago Tribune

This was an end of an era because this would be the last time that the Giants and Bears would play each other for the NFL Championship. Because even though both teams were still competitive for the rest of the 1960s, they were no longer NFL Championship contenders. And by 1970 they were now playing each other in the same conference what is today known as the National Football Conference, after the NFL/AFL merger.

So the 1963 NFL Championship wasn’t the end of one of the best NFL rivalries, but it certainly changed and was no longer very important as far as the current league. Because both teams were fairly mediocre for the rest of the 1960s. Both teams were bad in the 1970s, only making the NFL Playoffs a total of two times. The Bears both times in 1977 and 79. With both clubs not becoming contenders again until the 1980s.

NFL Films: 1966 Atlanta Falcons

Source:NFL Films- the 1966 Atlanta Falcons.

Source:The Daily Press

“1966 Atlanta Falcons First Campaign” 

From Er Big Fan 

“1967 Atlanta Falcons” 

Source:NFL Films- name this Falcon.

From Er Big Fan 

The 1966 Atlanta Falcons I guess could go down as one of the worst NFL expansion teams of all-time. Especially if you consider that they gave up over thirty-one points a game in the mid-1960s NFL where the rules still benefited the defenses. So take that up to the 1980s and we are definitely talking about one of the worst defenses of all-time. 

The Falcons offense wasn’t much help either only scoring 204 in fourteen games. The great defenses are going have a hard time being successful when their offense is only giving them less than fifteen points a game to work with. 

But a franchise’s expansion year isn’t really about having a good season. What you do with that season is use it almost as an extended preseason and look at a lot of players unless you find some very good ones early on and just go with. But generally you use that year to see where are strong early on and where you need to improve going forward. On a positive note: the Falcons did win 3-5 games in 1966 to finish at 3-11.

NBC News: ‘Huntley Brinkley Report- Outtakes From An Interview With President John F. Kennedy'

Source:NBC News- President John F. Kennedy, being interviewed by NBC News in 1963 

Source:The Daily Press

“Outtakes with President John F. Kennedy during an NBC-TV interview on September 9, 1963, two months before JFK’s assassination. Chet Huntley and David Brinkley of NBC News conducted the interview from the Oval Office in the White House.” 

From David Von Pein 

President Kennedy, getting a rare opportunity at a retake of an interview that he had before. David Brinkley and Chet Huntley, interviewing President Kennedy about Vietnam which of course in 1963 was going through a civil war between Communists in the North and Democrats in the South.

The Eisenhower Administration decided to back the Democratic North in Vietnam in a limited way through aid and other resources that the Kennedy Administration decided to continue when they came into office in 1961. Almost three years later in late 1963 President Kennedy was in a position where he needed to decide how much should America help the Democratic South after they sent advisers into Vietnam to assist the South. But I think it was clear that he wasn’t in favor of sending American troops in to fight the Vietnam Civil War.

The second question being about the Kennedy tax cuts of 1963 that President Lyndon Johnson finally got through a Democratic Congress in 1963 after the assassination of President Kennedy in November of 63.

The American economy of 1963 wasn’t that different from the American economy of 2011-12 as far as economic and job growth. The economy in both periods was growing and creating jobs, but not very rapidly and slowly recovering from previous recessions.

What President Kennedy wanted to do was put through an across the board tax cut and pay for it by cutting loopholes to drive consumer spending and economic growth. There were concerns in Congress about how a tax cut that size would affect the deficit. And that is what the President was dealing with then.

Jack Kennedy, was a true Liberal Democrat, because he believed that liberty was worth defending here at home. That America had to be strong at home first economically before we try to show strength abroad. And the we way we should try to show strength abroad was not to try to police the world by ourselves, but work with our allies to preserve peace and expand freedom to people who were looking for it, but didn’t have it because they were being held down by an authoritarian dictatorial regime. Where they have very little if any say on what goes on in their own country.

These were the reasons that the President wanted to help Democratic Vietnam, get the Senate to pass the Test Ban Treaty and to pass a large tax cut. Because he wanted to defend freedom at home and abroad and strengthen the American economy so more Americans could live in freedom.

The Film Archives: ‘The War on Drugs is a Failure’

Source:The Film Archives- with a humorous look at the War On Drugs.

Source:FRS FreeState 

“The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade. More on this topic: 

While the War on Drugs may have sounded like a good idea at one time, the consequences have been catastrophic. From physicians persecuted for providing health care to their patients to parents grieving the loss of their children to overdose or prison — we’ve all become victims of this war.

Our health, our families, our assets, our safety and our freedom are at risk…

Source:Amazon- book at about War On Drugs.

From Amazon 

From The Film Archives 

President Richard Nixon started the War On Drugs in 1971 with good intentions. Thanks to the Vietnam War, the Hippies, Counter-Culture, the personal freedom revolution of the 1960s, narcotics use was on the rise in the 1960s which came with real health care costs to our economy and health care system in the 1960s and early 70s. 

Chicago Economics Professor Milton Friedman (one of my favorite Liberals) had a great saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You can’t just judge economic polices by their intentions, but the actual effects of the policies. Do they work or not, do a cost-benefit analysis and if you do that with War On Drugs, it’s a colossal failure. Narcotics use is up since 1971, our prisons are not overcrowded and filled with drug addicts because of this so-called War On Drugs. 

Just because Big Government outlaws something, doesn’t mean it goes away. It just goes underground if you have a big enough market of people that still want to do that activity. And little things like jail time especially when they’re not actually hurting anyone (perhaps even themselves) probably won’t stop them from still doing that activity. And the so-called War On Drugs is the perfect example of that.

NBC News: Update With John Dancy: December, 1979

Source:NBC News- correspondent John Dancy.

"From December 1979, here is a NBC News update.  All copyrights acknowledged, uploaded for historical purposes.  This one features John Dancy talking about Ayatollah Khomeini allowing independent observers to view the hostages in Iran, Jody Powell saying it's a step on the right direction, President Carter overseeing the lighting of small Christmas trees but not the big tree until the hostages come home, (OPEC) oil prices rising by $6 per barrel, rising price of gold.  Ends with a commercial for Geritol."

Source:Jacky 9BR

1979 was a very rough year as the summer showed with an energy shortage and high inflation and interest rates and so-forth. And this was after the so-called crisis of confidence speech from President Carter in I believe August of that summer. And after the Iranian Hostage Crisis in November that year. 

One of the ironic things about 1979 economically, was that the economy was growing and jobs were created before the recession later that year. But people weren't feeling that because whatever economic growth there was, was getting wiped out by high inflation and interest rates. The economic malaise and the Great Deflation of the 1970s, a combination of high inflation and interest rates, was the worst economy America had at that point at least since the Great Depression.

But the bad economy was obviously bad enough for President Carter and the Democratic Congress then. And probably enough reason for President Carter to lose reelection and for Democrats to at least lose a lot of seats in Congress, even if Republicans didn't win back the House or Senate. The Iranian Hostage Crisis late in 1979 was simply the toper to that. 

The country was still dealing with an energy crisis that a very cold winter and very hot summer that year obviously didn't help. I actually remember a little of that summer. The country was essentially in crisis mode that year and except for what was going in entertainment and sports which was great that year, especially the World Series and Super Bowl which were both classics that were both won by Pittsburgh, there wasn't much to be happy about.

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on Blogger.

The Economist: Margaret Thatcher: Freedom Fighter

Source:The Economist with an article about the legacy of former United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Conservative, England)

"ONLY a handful of peacetime politicians can claim to have changed the world. Margaret Thatcher was one. She transformed not just her own Conservative Party, but the whole of British politics. Her enthusiasm for privatisation launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill won a war, but he never created an “-ism”.

The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom—odd, since as a prim, upwardly mobile striver, she was in some ways the embodiment of conservatism. She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Unlike Churchill’s famous pudding, her struggles had a theme: the right of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from micromanagement by the state... 

From The Economist