Home >  Sports >  Columnists

Monday, October 22, 2001

Dick Enberg wasn't on his game yesterday, and his game was Steelers-Buccaneers. It is painful to write that, because Enberg remains one of the exemplary broadcasters of all time. A first-ballot Hall of Famer. A pro's pro. Any cliche you could muster but he would correctly refuse to utter, it befits Enberg.

He was the voice of the Final Four until CBS threw millions at the college poobahs and wrested the whole basketball deal from NBC. He spun gold with his words on tennis and golf and football, until CBS finally wrested the AFC television rights and him, too. Enberg still works big events, still waxes eloquent, still ranks as the No. 2 play-by-play announcer on his network, but yesterday he sounded more old than gold.

Everybody has an occasional off game, right?

In the second quarter, Enberg called a fumble when all Hines Ward did was spin away successfully from a gaggle of Buccaneers defenders. He called Jerome Bettis' halfback pass thusly: "It's complete to Toomey." He wasn't talking about Pat Toomey, the Dallas defensive tackle of a quarter-century ago, but Steelers tight end Jerame Tuman. He just wasn't talking clearly -- evidenced by a later reference to Bettis as a fullback.

At the start of the second half, he said "rain is only, oh, a half-mile away. Perhaps it will sail around Raymond James Stadium." Twenty-five seconds later, Bonnie Bernstein flashed onto your screen underneath a humongous CBS Sports umbrella. "Dick, the rain is a little less than a half-mile way," she said. "It's here."

Quite possibly, Enberg wasn't misstating something but merely making a Freudian pun after the Bus' third-quarter scoring romp: "Look at that chin. That's a Bill Cowher chin to salivate Bettis' touchdown." Maybe he meant celebrate. Maybe he didn't, knowing the coach's propensity to rain on his players.

To a longtime Enberg watcher, the dim and unpolished moment -- the opposite of a bright and shining moment -- came later in the third quarter when he tried to spit out Fu's name. He got out Chris Fuamatu- without any problem, being the Hall of Famer, the pro's pro, that he is. Then he started fumbling and stumbling and bumbling ...

Ma.....af....fa.....fala

You know he practiced it. You know he had it rolling trippingly off his tongue earlier. But not this time. You just wanted to reach through the screen, pat him on the back and give him some advice: Once you stop mid-Fu, man, you're cooked.

Let's be fair, though. There were mishaps at several other points in the broadcast yesterday. Once each, Enberg and Dan Dierdorf referred to our hamlet as The Steel City, a moniker officially lost with the coke ovens and smokestack plumes long ago.

Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson had it bad, but the viewers at home had it worse -- CBS showed nearly as many Steelers sacks, replays included, as "Survivor" spots. Wasn't that Jason Gildon pushing the big, round rock through the savannah? Wasn't that Johnson lying on his back in the dirt screaming about the pain? Talk about sensory overload.

And raise your hand if you caught the misspelling in the promotion about a CBS SportsLine.com report on the "Steelers/Bucks" clash? Milwaukee, Tampa Bay. NFL, NBA. Such an easy mistake, right? Methinks George Karl could outcoach Cowher with that new zone defense, though.

Let's also be fair enough to give praise. Enberg and Dierdorf were on top of game situations, action, trends and officiating, for the most part. Enberg's chin comment and his line about Bettis tying Kordell Stewart for the team lead in touchdown passes were humorous. Dierdorf showed stand-up qualities when he watched a Stewart-eyeing-script clip and intoned, "Kordell is looking at his wristband, 'I'm not sure I've got a play on here for 12 guys.' "

Still, here's hoping for better Enberg games ahead.

In addition to The Big Picture, Chuck Finder writes a general-sports column exclusive to the http://www.post-gazette.com/ every Tuesday. He can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com