Brent Musburger tells Rich Eisen the origin of “You are looking live!”

Brent Musburger is an American icon. He’s had a stellar career that has spanned from when sports television was a relatively young business to the cable sports explosion of now. Musburger hosted the NFL Today on CBS from 1975 until 1989, shaping the pregame show to what we know today. And he also was the halftime host of Monday Night Football on ABC between 1990 and 1995.

In addition, Musburger can tell great stories and that was in evidence last Friday when he called into the Rich Eisen Show on AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV and Fox Sports Radio. Eisen is certainly respectful of Musburger and even uses his famous catchphrase “you are looking live” during NFL GameDay Morning on NFL Network.

Eisen asked Musburger how he began on the NFL Today and he said a CBS Sports executive with whom he worked in Chicago brought him to New York for an audition. Back then, the NFL Today was taped ahead of time, but CBS wanted to air it live a half-hour show before the games in the NFC markets. In addition to Brent, CBS hired Irv Cross and Miss America 1971 Phyllis George to join him. Las Vegas prognosticator Jimmy “The Greek” was brought on board a year later.

Eisen then asked Brent the origin of “You are looking live,” which Musburger used to set scene of every game CBS was airing that Sunday afternoon and it’s quite an interesting story. Brent said a CBS director told him that “a lot of people who wagered on the games out in Nevada had said to him that it’s very important, especially late in the year, to know what the weather was like, so we threw out a couple of lines. I said, ‘you know we’re looking live, I can say you’re looking live and we can go from there.’ So we tried it and Rich, as I recall the first week, it was only at one stadium we did, probably Soldier Field in Chicago in December and then it worked so well, we just added it as they went from one stadium to the next so we would open with three or four stadiums, all being the NFC ballparks that of course we controlled during the time ….”

So it just seems right with Brent that gambling was the real aspect behind “You are looking live.” Fascinating. The entire interview with Brent can be seen below:

And if you never had a chance to watch Brent and Jimmy “The Greek” in action, here’s a segment from 1987:

All about the gambling when you get right to do it.