Role of a Lifetime

by James Brown

  “JB, how are you?!” Jay’s voice boomed through the line.

  “I’m doing great. Hey, I was just calling like a little kid excited with his new toy, to let you know that my ZR1 arrived, and I just know that you are going to love yours—when it arrives.”

  “I got mine—it’s cyber gray, too. Isn’t it great the way it drives, JB?”

  “Well, I haven’t actually driven mine yet. I was calling to tell you that I was number seventeen—how do you already have yours?”

  “I got number one!” So much for relying on the gossip around the garage.

  Things were still going very smoothly at FOX, and I really enjoyed the people who were there. I also enjoyed spending time with many of the people in the NFL who I had the opportunity to get to know on a more personal level. For instance, I have always admired New England Patriots team owner Bob Kraft. His team-oriented approach in his highly successful businesses and, of course, his football team has led to a modern-day dynasty. His head coach, Bill Belichick, has a way of getting everyone to buy into his system and play a specific role, much the way I have tried to approach my position as the studio host, as well as other roles I have played throughout my life. The Coach Wootten way. Bill Belichick has taken a number of players who’ve been starters on other teams and inspired them to be valuable role players with the Patriots way of football. A tribute to teamwork.

  Brett Favre is another that I have admired for years for a number of reasons. Brett is an intense competitor who was remarkably durable in a brutally physical sport. He confronted his demons of addiction with candor, openness, and directness and worked his way through them. I love watching the kidlike enthusiasm with which he played the game, but even more than that, I like watching him, knowing what he has overcome and left behind in his wake.

  Of course, then there is Tony Dungy. I think one of the reasons that I was immediately drawn to Tony Dungy was because he reminded me so much of Coach Wootten. Coach Wootten believed that he was a teacher and it was counterproductive in that role for him to belittle players. Of course, the first time that I heard Tony say that his parents were teachers, and by their example he viewed his primary function as a coach to be that of a teacher, I saw the similarity. Coach Wootten used to say, “Whoever makes basketball work will make life work.”

  When Tony went on then to say that he believed that players want to be successful and that he was just trying to give them the tools to get there, that clinched it for me. And I can honestly say that I have never heard—or heard of—Tony cursing to get his players to perform to a higher level, a championship level. Just like Coach Wootten. It seems to me that we have come to expect that the best and the most effective way to “motivate” players is for coaches to engage in profanity-laced tirades. Oh, I know it is the style of many coaches, but I’ve been most impressed by the likes of Tony Dungy, UCLA great John Wooden, and my high school coach Morgan Wootten, among others, who showed that they can be excellent teachers, getting championship results without filthy language.

  While I was staying busy with life at FOX and in and around the NFL, I received a call at home in February 2005. Mom had been taken to the hospital in a “code blue” status, and the doctors were very guarded about her condition. Dorothy, on her way to the hospital, began praying and pleading fervently with God, “It’s not her time.” God obviously agreed, because we were able to keep my mom for a while longer—and she ultimately went back home. In the meantime, we wanted to somehow tell her as a family, after that close call, just how much she meant to us. And so we decided to throw her a seventieth birthday party—the one at which I found myself emotionally choked up and unable to speak for several seconds—the theme of which was drawn from Proverbs 31:28a, “Her children arise up, and call her blessed” (KJV).

  The birthday celebration was wonderful. Both the family and friends had a chance to tell Mom how special she was in each of their lives and to take a moment to pray over her, and they allowed me the chance, and privilege, to speak last to conclude the event.

  “As everyone before me has noted, the common thread through all of what you had to say is that my mother is not a phony or one who puts on airs. With her, black is black and white is white and there is no gray. There is right and wrong. There is a right way and a wrong way. The road she has traveled has been marked by examples of the right way.

  “I guess the best thing you could say about me, and the natural thing, is that I’m a ‘Mama’s Boy.’ As far as I’m concerned, that is the highest compliment with which you could bestow me, because I do love her.” It was the highest compliment because of the incredible example she’s been, sacrificing for her family in every way possible. Placing her children above her personal desires.

  Mom closed things with her comments. “I am grateful for all of you, for your being here and spending time with me. I love each one of you. And I thank God for the precious gift that each of you are, and I pray for all of you every day. But while I am glad to hear all of these things, I want you to remember that this is a celebration and not a funeral, so enjoy yourselves today. Also, I must say that to God be the glory, not me. For the Bible says to give honor where honor is due, and He deserves that honor.”

  In part because of the urging of Mom and others around me, I am trying to get better with the allocation of my time. I really am. Dorothy will tell you that I still stay too busy, but I think she would acknowledge that I have been getting better over time to try and carve out moments just to spend with her. One of those occasions came a couple of years ago when we went to a black tie affair at Congressional Country Club in Maryland. It was a wonderful occasion, not the least of which was because Dorothy and I were together unrelated to any business obligations of mine. Dorothy made it clear that evening that she enjoyed being with me and doing more things as a couple—and she was right.

  As the evening was winding down, we said our good-byes and went outside to get our car. I still remember as we walked outside standing under the porte cochere, waiting for our car to be pulled around, thinking how nice it all had been. I hardly noticed the rain, or that I had stepped out from under the protective cover into it. It was just one of those perfect evenings, I reflected.

  My thoughts were interrupted by a commotion behind me. Other guests, who were also waiting for their cars to be brought around, had begun to laugh. I looked around. And then down. I was standing in a puddle of water that had gathered from the rain. There was black water pooling around my shoes—which were now turning lime green. The rain was washing the dye off my snakeskin shoes, leaving me standing there in a black tux, with lime green shoes. Those shoes didn’t make it through the door again before Dorothy had them in the trash. I didn’t have the heart to admit to Coach Rob when I saw him again that he’d gotten me yet again, years later, with the same pair of shoes.

  One of the questions most frequently asked of me is, “why did you leave FOX?” As I’ve stated earlier, I was not looking to leave. The FOX experience was excellent in every way—a wonderful twelve-year marriage with the number one pregame show. I expected to end my broadcasting career at FOX.

  However, I was not aware that I was about to enter a “new season” in my career.

  When CBS entered the picture and put an amazing offer on the table, it created a very tough decision, one that I anguished over. The only way to resolve this was for me to talk with my family, pray about the matter and to be patient in waiting for the answer.

  In the end, when my decision was made, I had a real peace in my heart and clarity in my mind, knowing that CBS was the answer.

  While leaving so many friends and colleagues at FOX was emotional, I was excited about working for Sean McManus, (President, CBS News and President, CBS Sports) and Tony Petitti, (Executive Vice President, CBS Sports and Executive Producer, CBS Sports), reuniting with colleagues I had started with in the business, and embracing the challenge of helping The NFL Today pregame show become the best it could be.

  It was the right wa
y to go.

  CHAPTER 12

  GOD ALWAYS WINS

  Heaven sent me a wonderful, very special, beautiful gift

  Heaven sent me a very wonderful, supernatural, special friend.

  Donnie McClurkin, “Special Gift”

  Although I was disappointed to be leaving FOX, I was glad to be back with CBS—especially given that Mom’s health issues worsened during the time I made the decision to switch. It also meant I would be closer on weekends when and if I was needed. This was such a time.

  It was December, 2005, when she had to be taken to the hospital, as she was struggling with various health complications that the doctors couldn’t monitor or control while she was at home. It was hard to see her that way in the hospital. She had always been so strong, such an encourager and example. But I was reminded, as I looked at her, of the times I had heard her encourage others so frequently with her knowledge of Scripture, especially the passage that tells us that death is not the end, but the beginning: to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (See 2 Cor. 5:8).

  And yet still, I couldn’t think of letting go. A mama’s boy through and through.

  She was in the hospital for six months and, in that process, showed me as much about how to live in how she handled her dying as I have seen even in many successful examples of people living today. Despite all of the pain and challenges of the ravages of diabetes, despite the three-inch needles searching for marrow, despite pulmonary hypertension and kidney dialysis, she never once complained. Never once.

  My siblings and I spent the nights with her, we watched over her, we gave care beyond the nursing staff, and yet through it all, she never complained. In fact, she took to heart the teaching of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (KJV).

  On the evening of December 28 I received a phone call from the hospital. Caroline, the night nurse on duty, told me that my mom was lucid and her vital signs were good but my mom had asked her to call and tell us that Jesus had visited her. Jesus did not want her struggling any longer and he was ready for her. They had prayed together and mom gave her instructions on final plans and preparations for her funeral.

  When we arrived at the hospital in the very early hours of the morning it was clear to all of us that a wonderful visitation had indeed occurred. My mom’s room was filled with an aura and fragrance of holy presence. She was calm and serene and, although she had never before discussed her funeral wishes in detail, she was completely in-charge, organized and clear about how everything was to be taken care of.

  Right up until the day that she died, her faith in Christ remained her clear focus. Her common mantra when people would mention me and my worldly success to her was, “The thing I’m most proud of James for is that he knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.” The room was filled with Scriptures—Alicia had printed them from her computer, eight and a half by eleven inch testimonies to Mom’s faith surrounded the otherwise spartan room. Mom was living out the truth of those verses to the very end. Truths such as that in Psalms 118:17, which states, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD” (KJV), an acknowledgement to her zest for life in all circumstances.

  She was a ray of sunshine on her hospital floor, growing close to her nurses and all those on staff who came into contact with her. She drew their attention because of her gift of encouragement, and the uncommon strength and determination she displayed through her painful ordeal. Bill Cosby and I had become closer friends when I was doing a syndicated issues-oriented TV show that discussed topics of the day through the lens of African-Americans. Bill, of course, has thought deeply and spoken widely about this topic, and we developed a friendship through that. When he heard my mom was in the hospital, he wanted to visit.

  The favor that God showed her through her afflictions drew many people to her, including Cosby. When he found out that Mom was in the hospital, he mentioned that he was going to be in DC performing at the Kennedy Center, and asked if he could go to visit her. It was a Sunday morning that he planned to visit with her. I offered to pick him up on my way to church, but I got a call from my mom saying he was already in her room, having caught a taxi cab to the hospital. While I had cautioned him that she was having breathing difficulties, when my sister and family got to her room, we heard her laughing heartily at the yarns only Bill Cosby could spin—that sight brought smiles to our faces. While Bill Cosby brought joy into her life that day, Mom shared wisdom and understanding with him.

  But once those nurses and staff members got to Mom’s room, they probably didn’t find what they were expecting—someone who needed to be encouraged and cared for—as she was always the one trying to lift others up and help them in their lives. She would pray for them, give them counsel, and look for any other way that she could edify them. Just what Paul told Titus and the other believers to do.

  Finally, in March of 2006, Mom was released from the hospital and she was able to be at the home she loved. But she developed an infection and it was only a matter of days until Mom was back in the hospital.

  She was treated for the infection and after two week was released again. Not forty-five minutes after Mom arrived home, I received a call from Alicia. “You need to come—Mom’s in pulmonary arrest. They are working on her at her house.”

  When I got to the house, the paramedics were feverishly working on Mom, trying to revive her. As I sat in the living room praying for her, a young man approached me and asked me if I wanted him to continue his efforts at reviving her as they took her to the hospital. As I looked up, I hadn’t recognized the young man as my neighbor, Michael Cardozo. He was a teenager working as an EMT, and he knew of my mom’s love through our family. I said yes, and he proceeded to work on her as they took her out of the house and put her on the gurney that was positioned next to her beloved bed of tulips, in their vibrant yellows and pinks.

  She spent six weeks after that in a coma. Mom lived six weeks after this incident, which was five weeks, five days longer than any of the doctors or nurses thought she would.

  We all took the opportunity in early June to whisper into her ear. “Mom, we’re going to be okay. If you’ve made the decision that you want to go home and be with the Lord, we understand, we love you. We’ll see you in heaven.”

  Sure enough, the Lord took her to her true home, her eternal home, not too long after that on June 5, 2006. While I was understandably very sad at my mom’s passing and I miss her greatly, as a believer the prevailing feeling is one of great joy, as she is now in Heaven. Her memorial service was wonderful, in no small part because she had planned it all out. It was as it should be and as she wanted it to be—a celebration. She had put all of her affairs in order, and we had an opportunity to enjoy each other and reminisce about her and the lessons that she taught us, through all those years around the dining room table.

  Shortly thereafter, I began my second stint with CBS, this time as host of the NFL on CBS. Weekends are both enthralling and exhausting during the season. Because CBS Sports is located in New York, I travel every Friday to the city, usually by train. It requires less travel time than flying does all told, and I can more easily work reviewing the clippings and press releases for the week that may provide pertinent talking points for our show. Each NFL club will release its own set of press notes for that weekend’s game, full of tidbits such as “the Colts are 6–1 when leading at halftime against teams located west of the Mississippi that are also north of Dallas” or something to that effect. They often are helpful by way of background preparation, though, so I do try to familiarize myself with all of those. Our football insider, Charley Casserly, the former general manager of the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans, usually travels with me. Shannon Sharpe has convinced me that the appropriate Saturday morning activity—to add to the preparation for our Sunday show—is to work out with him, or more accurately, try to work out with
him. Shannon retired from the NFL in 2003 as the all-time leading tight end in receiving yards, a record that stood until 2008. Shannon has, in recent years, decided to trade in his NFL–tight end type body for a bodybuilding body; he has, in short, gone from merely really big to impressively chiseled. He is about six-feet, three-inches tall and two hundred forty pounds—all muscle. I, on the other hand am, well, not.

  His workouts are grueling, making me use muscles which I previously doubted existed, at least in me. Worse yet, they take place at an incredibly rapid pace; he won’t allow more than thirty seconds to recover between exercises. This past year I invited our CBS colleague, Jennifer Sabatelle, to join the Saturday workouts. Like Shannon, she’s a workout fanatic, making my Saturday mornings doubly challenging.

  I can live with that, but it’s the fact that we then clean up and head over to an afternoon meeting at CBS, when every muscle starts to tighten up, that makes me rethink my commitment to Shannon and trying to keep pace with him once a week.

  We arrive Saturday in the afternoon at the studios for our production meeting, conducted by our producer, Eric Mann. Eric is a longtime industry veteran who has won twelve Emmys, directed three Super Bowl Today shows, produced shows for two winter Olympics, and has produced the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament studio show since 1991, and the NFL on CBS studio show since 1994.

  Eric, a graduate of Northwestern, is as bright as he is tireless. And he is truly untiring.

  We are seated in one of the only rooms I’ve seen at CBS that is of a size actually appropriate for its purpose. In the center of the room are two couches and three leather chairs. Those of us who are “on-air talent,” Shannon, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher, Charley Casserly, and myself, are seated in this area, along with Pat Kirwan. A former member of the personnel departments of the Buccaneers and the Jets, Pat provides research and behind the scenes support for our background research through his network of connections throughout the football world. In addition, seated in a row on one side of the room, are about ten others—writers and researchers—without whom our studio show could not occur. It is truly a team effort—each of the people in that room will be vitally necessary for the success of Sunday’s broadcast.