Chris Berman gets honest about Brent Musburger

Every aspiring broadcaster of a certain generation wanted to be Brent Musburger — including Chris Berman.

The longtime Sunday NFL Countdown host has joined Dan Patrick’s push for the 85-year-old Musburger to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The legendary radio host has previously stumped for Musburger, but he got Berman to join his crusade during a recent appearance on his The Dan Patrick Show .

The Pro Football HOF bestowed Berman with the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award earlier this century for “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”

But Berman feels like Musburger’s been left out in a way that makes no sense.

For everything Musburger’s accomplished in the industry, the 69-year-old Berman can’t understand why his role model hasn’t gotten the nod yet. It’s not just overdue respect — rather a genuine sense of injustice — that Musburger, who set the gold standard for football broadcasting, is still waiting for a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“He should’ve been in there long before me — I mean, that’s for sure,” said Berman. “I wanted to be him, to be honest with you. One of the goals I had, boy, if I could be be Brent, that’d be pretty cool — wherever it was that I could be Brent. I don’t think I ever became Brent. I had his ‘job.’

“That’s crazy. I don’t know why… We’re not on any committee, Dan, the former winners of the past  ‘What do you think?’ We’re not asked; I’m not saying we should be. I’m not sure how that selection goes; they obviously let a lot of things slide when I got in…I know he’s not, but I always assume, of course, he is. He invented the job — the NFL Today — for us growing up.

“You know what’s amazing? That was a half an hour. When we went on gameday at the time, your guy’s going to do an hour and then an hour and a half. ‘Oh my god, the sky is falling!’ That’s a good comment. I mean, I’m sure you’ve debated on your show Pete Rose, baseball, let alone (Barry) Bonds and (Roger Clemens), but Brent — he is at the same level in our business, an all-time giant.”

Musburger’s absence from the Hall feels like a glaring omission in the story of sports broadcasting, even if Musburger himself has often downplayed the importance of his Hall of Fame candidacy . Still, for many like Berman, he didn’t just narrate the games — he became the voice that defined football Sundays. And for a generation of broadcasters like Berman, Musburger wasn’t just a role model — he was the model.

[ The Dan Patrick Show ]

The post Chris Berman wanted to be Brent Musburger appeared first on Awful Announcing .