<div dir="ltr"><div>Please find attached and below Dick Crepeau's review of Rich Podolsky's <i>You are Looking Live</i> about CBS , "The NFL Today" and the evolution of sports broadcasting.</div><div>Thanks</div><div>Duncan <br></div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">Podolsky, Rich. <i>You Are
Looking Live: How The NFL Today Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting</i>. Lyons
Press, 2021. 226pp. $29.95.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">You Are
Looking Live</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New""> is, in part, an insider’s look at “The NFL Today,”
the first of what is now thought of as the pregame show for National Football
League games. As such, it developed the model for the Sunday morning football
shows leading into the networks’ NFL broadcasts. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">Rich Podolsky is an award-winning writer with an impressive
resume in and out of sports. He wrote for “The NFL Today;” covered the Miami
Dolphins for the <i>Palm Beach Post; </i>wrote
for the <i>Philadelphia Daily News</i>,
ESPN, TV Guide and was a staff writer for CBS Sports. His interest in the music
of the ‘60s and ‘70s led him to write <i>Don
Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear</i> and <i>Neil Sedaka: Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivor</i>. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">You are
Looking Live</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New""> starts with a brief look at the early stages of
television coverage of the NFL in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In the next several
chapters, Podolsky writes about those who he considers the most significant
contributors and innovators at CBS Sports and “The NFL Today.” A chapter is
devoted to each of these and Podolsky lays out their career trajectories along
with their role in the development of “The NFL Today.” <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">He begins with Brent Musburger, then goes to Phyllis George and
Bob Wussler. Michel Pearl and Bob Fishman are treated together, followed by
Jimmy the Greek and then Irv Cross. Once the introductions are made Podolsky
moves to a more or less chronological development of his main subject, the
National Football League and the corresponding growth of CBS Sports and sports
television. Other important figures in the story are NFL Commissioner Pete
Rozelle and Van Gordon Sauter, president of CBS Sports. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">This lively book is full of good stories, entertaining gossip
and even some valuable information on the development of sports television from
the inside. It is also a tale of big egos, petty jealousies and unpleasant
human behavior. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">It is doubtful that what Podolsky terms “a revolution” was all
that revolutionary. It is more an evolution of the broadcasting of NFL
football. If this was a revolution, then it fell victim to the forces of
counter-revolution which tamed and dulled the lively early years of “The NFL
Today.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">Podolsky considers Brent Musburger a genius and the most talented
host of “The NFL Today” to ever anchor the program, However, Musburger comes
off as an altogether unpleasant and petty human being. His ego knew no bounds,
and despite his talent, he still found it necessary to steal ideas and lines
from his on-air compatriots ensuring there was no question about who the star
was. Still Brent held the show together and made it work under the considerable
stress of live television and he worked on a blank slate. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">For many, the hiring of Phyllis George was incomprehensible
other than to have a pretty face on the set of the program. On the contrary, what
Podolsky reveals is a very talented person who had a great understanding of
people and how to get the most out of those she interviewed. She knew and
understood football, was a very quick learner of the technical aspects of the
show and was a very nice human being. Needless to say, she broke new ground in
television sports. Her personal life was a bit chaotic and let to her departure
from the show, only to return four years later. In the last thirty-five years
of her life, she suffered with a rare form of leukemia, which she hid from her
friends.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">As the first co-anchor of a live network sports show, Irv Cross
was regarded as Mr. Reliable. He was the first African American to occupy such
a significant on-air position at CBS. He had a great range of football
knowledge and kept himself on top of all the important developments and
personalities in the NFL. He was the steady voice of sanity and had a calming
effect on his colleagues. <span> </span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">The other on camera talent, who came to “The NFL Today” a year
later than the other three, was Demetrios Synodinos, Jimmy the Greek. Jimmy,
too, was a volatile personality and a loose cannon on and off air. As one of
the best known professional gamblers in the United States, the addition of the
Greek was a major departure for the NFL. Pete Rozelle liked to project the
fiction that there was no gambling associated with professional football and
did not like the addition of the Greek to “The NFL Today.” The increase of
ratings that came with the Greek helped to lessen Rozelle’s discomfort. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">The Greek and Musburger were often at odds, as egos clashed. The
Greek felt Musburger sabotaged him, which was probably the case, and, at one
point Jimmy punched Brent during a heated argument. Nonetheless, the two did
manage to work fairly well together on camera. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">Both men would ultimately be fired. The firing of Jimmy the
Greek was a highly public event resulting from an interview he gave at a
restaurant in D.C. He was asked by a reporter about the issue of Civil Rights
and sports. In his answer, Jimmy wandered off to explain how and why Black
athletes were bigger and stronger than white athletes, and, as he did so, he
got into some dubious genetic theories and shaky history.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">Podolsky devotes a chapter to the interview, the public comment
that followed and the subsequent firing. He offers a lot of quotes on the
subject, and serves up an analysis of the affair that is sympathetic to the
Greek. Much of this is quite interesting but it also exposes the lack of
understanding of the issues involved in the Greeks comments, as well as,
American History. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">One other person who spent a short time on the program is Jayne
Kennedy, an African American, who was hired following Phyllis George’s first departure.
Her career path and hiring for “The NFL Today” reveals the perils of being a
woman in the Sports universe and being an African American breaking barriers in
television. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">The last chapters deal with the transition to the second
generation of the star sportscasters at CBS. These included Greg Gumbel, Lesley
Visser, Pat O’Brien and Terry Bradshaw at “The NFL Today” and Jim Nance, who
Podolsky identifies as the Future of CBS.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">This is an entertaining book for anyone who grew up watching the
NFL on CBS. It is a lively narrative of the growth of CBS Sports, a part of the
development of sports on television. For those who wonder about the phrase “You
are looking live” that became Brent Musburger’s signature, Podolsky explains
both its origin and its appropriateness. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">However, this volume lacks historical depth and could have been
strengthened considerably by drawing on the work of Michael Oriard, Michael
MacCambridge, Craig Coenen and David Harris. Also there is a vast amount of
research and writing on the growth of television and media that could add depth
to <i>You Are Looking Live.<span> </span><span></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New""><span> </span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New"">Richard C. Crepeau, Professor Emeritus of History, University of
Central Florida.<i><span> </span></i><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Courier New""><span> </span></span></p>
<br> </div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past<br><br>Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.<br>Professor of History<br>Book Review Editor<br><i>AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature</i><br>Ashland University<br>Ashland, OH 44805<br>USA<br></div></div></div></div>