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RE: KEITH JACKSON

My game-dazed post yesterday about Keith Jackson drew some pretty sharp rebukes. Mildest were the ones from several picky FBers pointing out that Jackson has been out of retirement for four years. Well. The sterner FBers who exposed Jackson's gaffes during the game (and I remembered every one of them, once they reminded me) did sort of sting. So why do I still like Jackson's work?

A law-practicing FrontBurnervian put it this way in criticizing Keith:

Dan Fouts (yes, Dan Fouts) had to set him straight in the fourth quarter that any extra point play—even one for two points—would not run time off the clock. Also, he sounded to be confused at times (indicating a time out had been called when in fact the time in a quarter had expired) and downright deluded at others (indicating in the second quarter that Carroll had just told the second string quarterback to warm up because Leinart was struggling).
At least he preferred Jackson to Musburger et.al. "for his voice and intonation alone."

But another FBer says that Jackson completely blew it:

The fact is that Keith was just awful. No energy, mistakes throughout the game. When David Pino missed a crucial extra point, Keith called it good. Huh? He called Pino's fourth-quarter field goal wide right well before the kick got there. Then, when it went through the uprights, he said, "it looked like it was going right down the middle until it tailed off at the end." Huh? When Texas stopped Southern California on fourth-and-2 with just 2 minutes left in the game, Jackson, amazingly, had nothing to say. No voice raising. No excitement, even though Texas had just been handed a final shot at victory. Finally, when Vince Young found his way to the corner of the end zone, giving the Longhorns the lead with a mere 19 seconds left, Jackson's comment was a perfunctory, "Vince Young scores." Good God. Either he was half asleep or he was depressed at who was winning.

I'm from Dallas, and I remember the great Frank Glieber calling Cowboys games, and then the great Lundquist after Frank. Today Brad Sham is the best in the business.

I hate announcer / screamers, I certainly don't expect an announcer to be a "homer" and I know college ball announcers are too much that way, but a little energy in a national championship game shouldn't be too much to ask for (especially when the game's a nail biter), not to mention a reasonably accurate account of what's taking place on the field. Keith failed across the board.

So what did I like about Jackson, gaffes and all? Exactly that he let the excitement of the game speak for itself. The importance of Texas stopping USC on fourth and two did not need comment — not with half the stadium roaring and the Texas players leaping and Vince Young trotting back onto the field with plenty of time. Maybe the ultimate counter-parallel is Russ Hodges screaming "The Giants win the pennant!" eight times after Bobby Thomson's homer. But that was radio, when dozens of cameras couldn't show you the emotion of the crowd (and no, I don't remember it — I'm reading Don Delillo's Underworld).

I like the effect of understatement. When Jackson said, in that final 19 seconds, "I'm getting too old for this," it was true. Yes, he's too old, just like Joe Paterno's too old. But that statement was also the indicator of his real emotion, which a certain kind of man in Jackson's Southern tradition feels that he should contain, but which his audience infers.


Glenn Arbery · January 6, 2006 09:37 AM