RIP Jim Simpson

[silverscreenselect]

Veteran TV sportscaster who was NBC's game announcer for Super Bowl I (the game was televised by both NBC and CBS) and was ESPN's first play-by-play announcer. Simpson also covered numerous Olympics and other sporting events over half a century. Ironically, his death came only a couple of days before the NFL Network aired its broadcast of Super Bowl I that it reconstructed from various sources. The broadcast included some of Simpson's commentary.

Age 88.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/j ... story.html

[SportsFan68]

I don't remember this person, but he clearly had a distinguished and long career.

I tried to watch the NFL network's patched together version of the first Super Bowl, but we don't get the NFL Network. ESPN will probably air it someday.

Thursday night, I had insomnia and watched Super Bowl 32 again. It was way different, very enjoyable. They aired a bunch of ranting and raving from coaches and players that you never see during the game. I didn't know Shanahan had that tone of voice.

Plus they inserted commentary I'd never heard from players and coaches, especially Favre and Elway. Both recounted with 100% accuracy what they considered to be the key plays of the game -- Favre throwing behind Antonio Brown when there was nothing but air between him and the goal line, and Elway the interception which immediately followed the fumble which gave them the ball on the Packer 22. Both thought they had cost their teams the game, and I guess it's not too far a stretch to say that Favre was right. Anyway, he described it as one of the very few that got away.

[silverscreenselect]

A classic SImpson game call:

[Bob78164]

Apparently a tape does exist of most of the original broadcast (a chunk of the third quarter is missing), but it's trapped in limbo over a payment dispute. --Bob