The late Greg Gumbel once sparked panic in broadcasting colleague Terry Bradshaw when he phoned him at 4.30am.
Gumbel, the legendary CBS broadcaster who covered a wide variety of sporting occasions, including the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, has died aged 78 after a battle with cancer, his family confirmed on Friday.
Gumbel was close to NFL Hall of Famer Bradshaw and didn’t hesitate to send his friend a worrying early-morning message after discovering that CBS had lost football. Bradshaw has vivid memories of hearing the news when Gumbel called him in December 1993 and said: “Did you hear the news? We lost football.”
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The bombshell sent Bradshaw into a tailspin – but the call summed up their relationship with Gumbel ringing his studio partner as soon as he found out despite it being in the early hours. Bradshaw said via Yahoo! Sports in 2020: “When CBS lost football, there was a certain amount of panic and shock like, ‘Oh my God, this is over’. That Sunday morning was chaotic, stressful and very, very scary.”
While Bradshaw is now a mainstay on FOX NFL Sunday, he was in his mid-40s at the time and was still trying to cement himself in TV broadcasting. He recalled: “I had no idea what I was going to do. It never even crossed my mind that FOX would want me.”
Bradshaw and Gumbel shared a close relationship during their time working on ‘The NFL Today Show’ together. Bradshaw once said about his former colleague: “Greg doesn’t want to hog the camera. He feels uncomfortable if he does.”
Gumbel left CBS, which also lost baseball and the NBA, for NBC soon afterwards, only to return a few years left when the network regained NFL coverage in the late 1990s. He was touched by the reception he received when reunited with CBS workers.
Terry Bradshaw and Greg Gumbel were close during their days together at CBS (
Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
“In one sense, they had every right to say, ‘Where the hell have you been the last couple of years’, but they didn’t do that,” he recalled in 1998.
“The strongest and longest-lasting friendships that I have made in 25 years in this business have happened here at CBS, and I’m just really happy to be back here.”
Gumbel’s passing has been met with a wave of tributes. Sports host and former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms posted on X: “Greg Gumbel was an iconic voice – fiercely smart, warm, trustworthy. He was also my friend. Greg wasn’t just funny – he was REALLY funny. I will miss him.”
Greg Gumbel, pictured in 1990, was the first African-American to call the Super Bowl (
Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
Gumbel remains the only African-American to have called the Super Bowl. CBS Sports president David Berson said: “Greg broke barriers and set the standard for others to follow. It is an extremely sad day for all of us at CBS Sports and the entire sports community. We will miss Greg dearly, and send our deepest condolences to his wife Marcy, daughter Michelle, and his entire family.”
ESPN SportsCenter anchor, Michael Eaves, wrote on X: “A 50-year career in sports broadcasting is a rarity, and Greg Gumbel was a true professional throughout. RIP to a legend.”
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