‘You are looking live’ at Brent Musburger’s broadcasting odyssey

Musburger, who moved to Las Vegas in 2017 to launch VSiN, the first sports betting network, rose to fame and set the standard for studio hosts on the “The NFL Today” during a 15-season run (1975-1989) that began nearly 50 years ago.

One of the most iconic voices in the history of sports television, Musburger covered the Super Bowl, World Series, March Madness and much more, helping to introduce sports betting to a national audience long before it became legal across the country.

He can still be heard on VSiN programming, including a Sunday NFL pregame show.

“My advice to every person getting old is don’t even think about retirement. Find something to do to keep you busy,” he said recently from his home in Montana. “Let’s be honest. I was just dealing with the love of my life. I fell in with something I do every day naturally, follow sports and watch sports. I never had to grow up.”

Sports fans from the past half-century would instantly recognize Musburger’s voice. But they might not know that his signature catchphrase to open broadcasts — “You are looking live” — was born because of sports betting.

The prototype for all NFL studio shows that followed, “The NFL Today” broke ground as the first live pregame show and featured the first female co-host in Phyllis George, the first Black co-host in Irv Cross, the first Black female co-host in Jayne Kennedy and the first sports betting analyst in Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder.

It also innovated with live shots of NFL stadiums to open the show after a friend of the father of “The NFL Today” director Bob Fishman wanted a weather report to better inform his over-under bets.

“I said, ‘We don’t have time to do a weather report. We barely have enough time to get the Greek’s picks up,’” Musburger said. “But I said, ‘Bob, can you give me live shots of the stadiums?’ We taped the pictures for the opening, and I said, ‘Can we make that live?’

“We used Soldier Field as the first one. It was November in Chicago, so the weather was turning a little bit foul. The only thing we insisted on is that they had to be live shots, and that’s how we came up with ‘You are looking live.’

“It’s all because of an older gentleman that loved to bet over-unders back in the day.”

Musburger went on to open countless major sporting events with the line.

“Brent’s presence and delivery have come to symbolize big-time sports for multiple generations of fans,” former ESPN president John Skipper said after Musburger announced his retirement from ESPN and ABC in 2017. “When he opens with his signature ‘You are looking live,’ you sit up straight in your chair because you know something important is about to happen.”

It’s all Greek to me

It was still taboo to discuss point spreads on TV broadcasts when Jimmy “The Greek” joined “The NFL Today” in 1976.

During a meeting with Pete Rozelle, Musburger said the then-NFL commissioner asked them not to use actual spreads on the show. So they came up with a checklist of each team’s strengths and weaknesses that would subtly disclose the Greek’s pick for each game without using a number.

“That’s how the Greek’s board was developed. We had offense, defense and intangibles,” Musburger said. “If there was a 7-point spread on a game and the Greek had all the checkmarks on the other side, you knew to take the points.”

The show, which eventually displayed final scores forecast by Snyder, embarked on an 18-year streak as the highest-rated program in its time slot, the longest consecutive run for a TV show.

“It became must-see TV,” Musburger said.

Let’s make a deal

It certainly was for Circa owner Derek Stevens, who was restricted by his mother to 30 minutes of TV per day as a kid growing up near Detroit.

“When I was in third grade, I asked my mom, ‘Would I be able to not watch TV all week except for the 30-minute ‘NFL Today’ and three-hour Lions game?’ It still came out to 3½ hours,” Stevens said. “My mom was a sports fan, so she was enamored that I’d be watching sports rather than cartoons. We negotiated and my mom said, ‘Yeah.’”

Stevens told Musburger the story the first time they met in Las Vegas.

“He said, ‘That’s pretty amazing. You cut your first deal when you were in third grade,’” Stevens said.

The show was also must-see TV for CBS Sports lead voice Jim Nantz.

“‘The NFL Today’ with Brent was my favorite television show of all time, just edging out ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’” he said while promoting a documentary on “The NFL Today” called “You Are Looking Live! The Show That Changed Sports Television Forever” that aired on Super Bowl Sunday.

“Brent, thanks for being the Sheriff Andy Taylor in my life — the man who ran the town.”

Nantz added that “everyone who has hosted a studio show since Brent set the standard owes a great deal of gratitude to him.”

VSiN host Mitch Moss was a huge fan as well.

“I remember wanting to get home immediately from Sunday school and church so I could turn on ‘The NFL Today’ and watch the pregame show,” he said. “I still can’t believe that other mainstream network shows have never embraced gambling like they did back then. He was so far ahead of his time, it’s incredible.

“It’s the best pregame show of all time for football. There is no close second.”

‘You’ve got to be kidding me’

Born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Billings, Montana, Musburger graduated from Northwestern’s prestigious journalism program and started his career as a sportswriter for the now-defunct Chicago American newspaper.

He began a 22-year association with CBS in 1968, working as an anchor for the CBS affiliate (WBBM-TV) in Chicago under Bob Wussler, who took over CBS Sports in the mid-1970s and made Musburger host of “The NFL Today.”

Musburger is credited with coining the phrase “March Madness” to describe the NCAA Tournament while covering the Final Four for CBS. He also covered the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series and Masters for the network before he was abruptly fired by new management on April 1, 1990.

He called his final game for the network the next day, when UNLV whipped Duke 103-73 in the NCAA men’s basketball championship game.

Musburger worked for ESPN and ABC from 1990 to 2017, calling seven college football national title games along the way while continuing to make veiled references to the betting line.

“When he was doing play-by-play in the ESPN booth, he was never afraid to make a reference to the point spread or the total, and people across the country loved it,” Moss said. “They wanted more of it. That’s why people are still watching these games in blowouts.”

His call of an infamous bad beat on the final play of Ohio State’s win over Northwestern in 2013 is a longtime staple of the opening montage of Scott Van Pelt’s “Bad Beats” segment on “SportsCenter.”

The Wildcats, 5½-point underdogs, trailed 34-30 and had the ball at their own 7-yard line with five seconds left when they attempted a few desperation laterals. The Buckeyes dove on the loose ball in the end zone with no time remaining for a touchdown and miracle cover in a 40-30 victory that dealt a crushing blow to Northwestern bettors.

“There are some folks who are celebrating and others who are saying, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Musburger said on the broadcast.

‘My guys in the desert’

He also would reference “my guys in the desert,” which was the title of his first VSiN show in its original studio at the South Point with longtime Las Vegas oddsmakers Jimmy Vaccaro, Vinny Magliulo and Chris Andrews.

Musburger said he got out of his contract at ESPN and ABC to start VSiN, which was the brainchild of his nephew, Brian Musburger. The other co-founders were Todd Musburger, a prominent sports agent and Brent’s brother, and former Chicago Tribune sports editor Bill Adee.

“Everybody calls him ‘Uncle Brent,’ and for me, that was the case. You couldn’t have a cooler uncle,” Brian Musburger said. “I love the guy, and I’m eternally grateful for what he’s done for me to come along with this crazy idea and let me talk him out of a great gig at ESPN to come out to Vegas and get this thing going.

“He’s really been at the forefront of sports betting content in his career, whether it was at ‘The NFL Today’ with Jimmy ‘The Greek’ or with VSiN. He’s always been a risk taker and someone who could see a few moves ahead.”

Having the beloved broadcaster on board gave the company instant credibility.

“To have his name behind it was as big as it gets,” Moss said.

The sports betting industry exploded in 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports gambling.

“They changed everything when they legalized it. The impact was obviously dramatic,” Musburger said. “Now you turn on ESPN and you look at the bottom line, and they put the spread up and they put the over-unders up. Even on the MLB Network, it’s up there.

“We have flipped completely from an age when it was outlawed to where now you’re oversaturated with the information up on the screen.”

DraftKings bought VSiN from Musburger Media in 2021 for a reported $70 million. In July, Musburger Media bought VSiN back from DraftKings for an undisclosed amount. Moving forward, Brian Musburger and Adee will lead the company, which now operates out of a studio at the Circa sportsbook.

‘Luckiest guy alive’

Musburger didn’t stay retired from play-by-play long, as he returned to work as the Raiders’ radio voice from 2018 to 2021.

He also has hosted shows the last seven years on VSiN, including a “Countdown to Kickoff” NFL pregame show that aired live from the studio at Circa, where he opened with his signature catchphrase.

“I loved to say, ‘You are looking live at the Circa odds board,’” he said in that warm, familiar, folksy voice.

Musburger, who splits time between Las Vegas and Montana, said he’ll mostly make appearances this season via Zoom from his Hamilton, Montana, home because his wife of 61 years, Arlene, is battling an illness.

“I was so blessed and met so many great people,” he said. “I’ve just loved what I’ve done. I’m the luckiest guy alive.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.