SERBY’S SUNDAY Q & A WITH ... Jim NANTZ
CBS announcer Jim Nantz, the play-by-play man for the Final Four and the Masters, and takes a shot at some Q&A with Post sports columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Will Tiger Woods complete a comeback at the Masters?
A: He’s got a chance. He’s been flirting with winning in his return, which is mindblowing when he’s only played a handful of tournaments after being inactive in essence for two years. Is his game sharp? Yes. Are there still some loose shots every now and then? Yes. That happens to everybody. Is the golf world surprised to see that Tiger has been able to get his swing speed and his game back up to a competitive level like this this quickly? Yes. Did I think Tiger would never do this again? No. I said, “Never rule him out. You never know with him.” There’s something about him that’s unique. This guy is a once-in-acentury performer. Don’t ever tell him he can’t do something.
Q: What would it mean to the sport for him to make it all the way back?
A: I think you have to say that it becomes instantly one of the top two, if not the No. 1 all-time moment in the modern era for the game.
Q: What has it been like following Loyola Chicago’s NCAA run and Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt?
A: I can’t wait to meet her. She’s been really a great figure for a lot of people. The message of hope. We need hope. Her gentle spirit and her enthusiasm and support of that team goes way beyond that band of believers in that Loyola Chicago locker room. She’s touched the whole nation. We’ve had underdogs at this event before. This might be the best underdog story you can ever find. Sister Jean has elevated that to go beyond college basketball. Who can’t fall in love with this story? To see this sweet soul, who prays before the games not only for her team, but for the other team, for the officials.
Q: What surprised you about Tony Romo in the booth this year?
A: I had 100 percent faith he was gonna be absolutely great at this. I saw it for years. I saw it in production meetings. I saw it at dinner tables. ... He had a way of telling a story, an enthusiasm, that if you’re able to get that guy that I saw away from the field, that would be magic on the air. I had, four years ago, a round of golf with my good friend, Al Michaels. We’re playing on the eighth hole, I can still see it. Al said, “What active player right now will one day make a great NFL analyst? I have a guy.” I said, “Well I have a guy, too.” He says, “You first.” I said, “No you first.” This goes back and forth. I finally said: “OK, Tony Romo.” He goes, “That’s my guy!”
Q: What is the best individual athletic performances you’ve seen during a broadcast?
A: You gotta take the ’97 [Masters] win for the ages by Tiger. It was just such a dominating performance it’s hard to think of anything that could compare. There is one, it’s the other end of it. It’s the oldest to ever win the Masters, Jack Nicklaus in 1986, which happened to be my first Masters. Jack made a pivotal birdie on the 16th hole, and I declared, “the Bear has come out of hibernation.”
Q: Best Final Four performance?
A: I would say the Kris Jenkins shot for Villanova. Grant [Hill] really teed me up like a basketball Hall of Famer that he’s gonna be. The ball was gonna be inbounded, length of the court they had to go, 4.7 seconds. As the ball is coming across midcourt, Ryan Arcidiacono is bringing it up for Villanova. You don’t want cross talk over a championship call. Grant sensed it. I pause for just a second. And he inserted: “Watch out for Jenkins!” Jenkins was the trailer. And I played off of that, said: “They get it to Jenkins! For the championship ... Yes!” It was huge for me. It made the words flow right into a buzzer-beating national championship call.
Q: What stands out about your first Super Bowl broadcast, which featured Peyton Manning’s Colts beating the Bears in XLI?
A: It was comforting, first off, to have Phil [Simms] at my side, or be by his side. He had vast experience calling Super Bowls. The other thing I remember was that we didn’t want any distractions before the game started. So we asked the stage manager to basically lock the door into the broadcast booth. The well-wishers do come out, and they’re very well-intentioned, and I’m appreciative of all those efforts. ... So anyway, someone’s knocking at the door, and took a peek outside, it was Dick Enberg. Well, Dick Enberg’s coming in. I’m gonna actually get down on my hands and knees and roll out the red carpet myself. For him to come out of his way to come over to the booth and just offer some really supportive words that a broadcaster could relate to — “Sure it’s the Super Bowl, but in a lot of ways, once you get going, it’s gonna be another show. Trust your instincts and feel comforted knowing that you were meant to do this game.” That to me was one of the most generous moments that someone had offered to me in this industry.
Q: Jack Whitaker told you over dinner two weeks earlier about the do-over in Super Bowl I when NBC hadn’t gotten back from commercial.
A: Jack told me, “Just be ready for the opening kickoff.” And as the ball is being kicked, I said, “You have to be careful here. Indianapolis is last in the league this year in covering kicks, and it’s fielded by Devin Hester at the 7.” I’m thinking Jack Whitaker, and I’m thinking Jack Whitaker as Hester gallops 93 yards for the touchdown, the first-ever opening kickoff return touchdown in Super Bowl history. I’m not into calls, but that might be my favorite call of my career, because Jack Whitaker foreshadowed this two weeks in advance.
Q: Describe Pat Summerall.
A: Commanding voice. Presence about him that signified that the moment was big. And, he honored the game. He was fair, he never tried to make it about him. And he was arguably the best to ever tee up his analysts.
Q: Chris Schenkel.
A: Had an enthusiasm for the moment. I can still hear him saying on a college football game: “Is there a better way to spend an autumn afternoon?” You’d wait for him to be in awe of what was unfolding at the event and it was just like a gee-whiz kind of a line that would leave his lips. He had a kindness about him that I really think came out on the air.
Q: Enberg.
A: Gifted wordsmith. Versatile broadcasters. He too carried that boyish enthusiasm for sport. He was a farm kid out of Michigan, and he had a little bit of that disbelief that I’m sitting here presenting the Super Bowl to you, or the Rose Bowl, or Wimbledon, and the Final Four.
Q: Keith Jackson.
A: That community of college football — I’m talking coaches, fans — they trusted him. He was their voice. But I do think that his career was so much broader and bigger than that.
Q: Jim McKay.
A: I used to write letters to Jim McKay in college. “Wide World of Sports” was this travelogue, really, that introduced us to sports and it introduced us to parts of the world that we had never seen
before. And no one was a bigger tour guide than Mr. McKay.
Q: Brent Musburger.
A: His style and command and presence of a studio was such an incredible sight to see. There was an energy about him and a nose n for the storyline. He did play-by-play with a studio mentality, knowing what the bigger picture was. He could go beyond the game, which I think a lot of people need to learn. He’s one of the all-timers in being able to frame a moment.
Q: Billy Packer.
A: I’m having the time of my life with this crew. I had 18 years with Billy — I just miss him being in my life on a regular basis ... as a friend. I feel like I’ve been given a second life now having Grant, Raf [Bill Raftery], Tracy [Wolfson], our whole team together.
Q: How do you think your broadcasting style has evolved over the years?
A: Hopefully it’s a more confident presentation, but hopefully it’s still rooted in what I have circulating around in my head, these voices of my youth, that we’re my heroes, they still are. I hope I’m a composite of some of these men we talked about. And please do note for me there were many others that I didn’t get a chance to comment on. I hope that I am representing them in a way that would make them proud. I feel their presence, I do. I feel them peering over my shoulder figuratively. I feel them watching. And hoping that I’m framing a moment the way they would have. It’s really important to me that I do them justice because I am a product of their world. They shaped me. They shaped me as a young kid, since I was 11 years old. That was the desire was to be one of them. And I love them all.