College football color commentator Gary Danielson is retiring this season after 36 years in the broadcast booth. Danielson has been the lead CBS college football analyst since joining the network in 2006, and Saturday marked the 17th time he’s called an Army-Navy game.
After Navy won 17-16, Danielson was emotional during a conversation with CBS Sports HQ studio host Hakem Dermish.
After calling his 17th and final installment of the Army-Navy Game, Gary Danielson was emotional as he reflected on what being able to call this rivalry has meant to him.
He’ll call his final game for CBS on New Year’s Eve at the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. pic.twitter.com/QCR7hCRrOr
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) December 14, 2025
“This was your 17th and final Army-Navy game,” Dermish began. “No other analyst has more appearances in the booth for this storied rivalry, other than our guy Gary. What has this game meant to you? What does it mean to you now as you step away and go into retirement?”
Danielson had a delayed response as he fought back tears.
“I don’t know. It’s just opportunity, it’s gratitude, it’s looking around at people that I respect,” Danielson said. “Even the people that watch the game, how much the game means to them. A bit of nervousness when you’re doing the game. You want to make sure you do justice that everybody plays in the game.”
Danielson proceeded to credit former broadcast partner Verne Lundquist, current broadcast partner Brad Nessler, and the entire CBS crew for playing a big part in the journey.
“But I guess the overall part of it, being able to last as long as I had in the business- I had great people around me,” Danielson explained. “Verne, when I came t0 CBS. Now my old partner back at ABC in Nessler coming with me here for the last what, nine years now, so 10 years. It’s been great. But also, the people in the background. As much as I care about it and the millions of games that I’ve done, almost all of our CBS crew- the cameramen that showed up here for the march on, our producer Craig Silver, our director [Steve Milton]. I mean, they’ve actually done more games than I have. So, everybody that on our crew cherishes and takes seriously how much this game means to everyone who watches it, but also how much it means to CBS that we do a good job at it. We work very hard on it. And I’m just glad to be part of the team. I don’t want to say and be false modesty that I just rode along. But it really was good to have these great people around me.”
Danielson will do his final broadcast on Dec. 31, when Arizona State and Duke meet in the Sun Bowl on CBS.
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