Sudden Finish, Proud Dad, Left Time For Tears

You really didn’t expect, or even want, complete neutrality, did you?

At least it took a highly charged personal experience to crack Bob Griese’s exterior objectivity.

When Griese - the analyst on ABC’s coverage of the Rose Bowl - dissolved into tears at the announcement that his quarterback son Brian was Most Valuable Player, it was TV at its immediate and intimate best.

ABC carried off the moment when a famous and usually stoic father expresses his deepest feelings for a son flush with triumph in the only way he can. Choked up, through apparent tears of happiness.

Kudos to Griese’s broadcast partner, Keith Jackson, for making room for the intimacy. (Imagine Al Michaels letting someone else carry the ball in the aftermath of such a big event.)

Jackson’s line (“I don’t blame you, you want to cry, go ahead. I’ll hold you up.”) showed the veteran announcer at his unpretentious best.

It was a grand climax to an uneven afternoon. On the whole, the coverage was as scattered as Carol Burnett’s ceremonial flip of the coin.

Lost in the tears and chaos, for example, and never explained from Pasadena, was what happened to the final second?

The Cougars stood stunned on the sidelines while officials galloped off the field and the Wolverines gathered at the 20 to receive the trophy, all after WSU quarterback Ryan Leaf appeared to have stopped the clock with a second left.

Washington State had taken over with 29 seconds left and no timeouts from its own 7. Leaf, on third down, threw 46 yards to Nian Taylor, who got away with a push off Michigan’s Charles Woodson. At that critical juncture, Jackson sounded like a man stuck with a bad seat.

Was it interference, he wondered.

No.

“Was it intercepted? Yes. Woodson inter …”

Having said that Jackson reversed his field after it was clear to most of the country that the play had been ruled a catch.

“Did Taylor catch it?” Jackson persisted.

“He caught it,” Griese confirmed.

“Did he?” Jackson said.

Not the most succinct exchange in Jackson’s distinguished career, and possibly his last Rose Bowl.

He offered a strange take on the final penalty, noting dramatically that “The game may rest right here, on this call.”

Hmmm. When was the last time a Rose Bowl went down to 5 yards for a false start?

Oh well, he’s just the messenger and the message in the end was mass confusion. Given that, Jackson and Griese did the best they could to sort out the flawed finish.

“He’s (Leaf) got one play left,” Jackson announced. “He’s under center, spikes it …”

And then? And then?

“Clock shows time has run out,” Jackson said.

“What does the referee say?” Griese threw in, as stumped as every fan in America.

“I’m waiting,” Jackson came back.

“I think it’s over Keith,” Griese said. “The referee’s leaving the field.”

It may have been the greatest makeup call in Rose Bowl history. Taylor did, after all, get away with offensive interference earlier in the series.

Anyway, Jackson could only report what he saw and heard and that was, “The man in the white hat (the referee) is headed for the tunnel. Michigan wins 21-16.”

Most of the country heard studio host John Saunders explain the lost second. We in the Inland Northwest saw KXLY’s postgame coverage - mostly interviews with Cougars as confused as we were.

With Jackson’s play-by-play and Griese’s analysis, ABC had an interesting dynamic with Jackson, a WSU alum, seated next to the father of the Michigan quarterback. The two worked hard at not offending the other side, maybe too hard.

Nobody, you would guess, knows Brian Griese quite as well as his pro football Hall of Fame father. By the time Brian had thrown his third TD pass, I wanted more from the old man on his kid, not objectivity in the booth.

Until the final moments, Jackson delivered his best lines early, hinting at the tight game that was to come.

“The group that has to hunker down and hold together to give Ryan Leaf time is the offensive front,” he said. “They’re facing one of the strongest rushes in college football. They are going to be outsized in some spots. Their receivers - five of them on the field sometimes, four all the time - are collectively something to see. But they are facing one of the best secondaries in the country.”

While Griese maintained his practiced objectivity, sideline announcer Lynn Swann filled in the informational gaps. Swann even ate a little crow, recanting his prior belief that young Griese couldn’t throw long.

It was a light moment in an afternoon when Bob Griese put up a semblance of professionalism. Another father might have turned into a basket case long before he let what’s left of his hair down.

, DataTimes