Brian M Downing
Growing up in Washington – Redskin territory – it wasn’t easy to like Don Meredith. Far too often he hit Bob Hayes long or handed off to Dan Reeves, who then went on to win the game. It was Don Meredith versus Sonny Jurgensen back then and the two QB greats made the Redskin-Cowboy rivalry one of the greatest in the NFL.
I came to like Don Meredith when he became part of the Monday Night Football broadcast crew, where he and Gif and Cosell made the first day of the work week something to look forward to. He skillfully countered Cosell’s pretentious diction with rural witticisms. It was all natural to him. Not like the practiced Good Ol’ Boyisms of today’s broadcasters, who, whether they know it or not, are imitating Dandy Don. They might just be taking cues from producers and reading “spontaneous” remarks from sheets offered up by consultants. Seems every other football broadcast team has a designated Meredith now, but few if any come through the way he did.
Many will recall that when a camera accidentally showed a fan flipping the bird, Meredith joked that the guy was proclaiming his team number one. TV was pretty stodgy back then so the network suits must have liked his disarming humor that just might have staved off the FCC.
I remember one Monday night game – by sheer chance, a Redskin-Cowboy game – in which Craig Morton came to the sidelines to talk to Tom Landry just before a fourth-and-goal late in the fourth quarter. The camera caught Morton looking to Landry for the call and Meredith masterfully verbalized the look on Morton’s concerned face: “Coach, is there something you haven’t taught me yet that you’d like to teach me now?”
This play is legendary – more so in Washington than in Dallas, though. Not sure, but right after Houston stopped Garrison, Meredith might have launched into:
Turn out the lights, the party’s over
They say that all good things must end.
Yup, all good things must end. And I can’t sing near as well as Don Meredith could.
© 2010 Brian M Downing