Paul Maguire

Last updated

Paul Maguire
Paul Maguire 1961.jpg
Maguire as a San Diego Charger in 1961
No. 84, 55
Position: Punter
Linebacker
Personal information
Born: (1938-08-22) August 22, 1938 (age 85)
Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.
Height:6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight:228 lb (103 kg)
Career information
College: The Citadel
AFL draft: 1960  / Round: 1
Pick: First Selections
(by the Los Angeles Chargers)
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
Interceptions:9
Punts:795
Punt yards:33,137
Average punt:41.7
Longest punt:82
Player stats at NFL.com  ·  PFR

Paul Leo Maguire (born August 22, 1938) is an American former professional football player and television sportscaster. [1] He played as a punter and linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).

Contents

Early sports career

Maguire attended Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Ohio where he was an All State wide receiver and punter; he also played basketball and ran track. He played tight end at The Citadel where he led the nation in touchdown receptions his senior season in 1959 and was named a 3rd Team Associated Press All American; he was recruited by Assistant Coach Al Davis, the future Oakland Raiders owner. [2]

Professional football career

In 1960, Maguire was selected by the Los Angeles Chargers of the American Football League, where he served as both a punter and linebacker. He moved with the team to San Diego in 1961, and stayed there until 1964 when he joined the Buffalo Bills. Maguire was an ace at the "coffin corner" punt. He contributed to three Bills' Eastern Division titles, and their AFL championships in 1964 and 1965.In the 1964 AFL Championship game he kicked a 78 yard punt that went out of bounds at the San Diego 2 yard line with 2 minutes left in the game that sealed the victory for the Bills. In the 1965 championship game he was involved in one of the most spectacular plays in Bills' history in the 1965 American Football League Championship game against the Chargers. Butch Byrd took a John Hadl punt and with outstanding blocking, took it 74 yards for a touchdown. The last two blocks were by Maguire, crushing two Chargers.

Maguire played in six of the ten American Football League Championship Games three with the Chargers and three with the Bills, winning three AFL Championship rings, and he was the league's all-time punter in punts and yardage. He was one of only twenty players who were in the AFL for its entire ten-year existence. After his retirement he was inducted into the Youngstown, Ohio Sports Hall of Fame, and the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. [3]

Media career

Beginning in the 1970s, Maguire worked as a color commentator on network NFL telecasts, first with NBC and then ESPN. He also called ESPN's telecasts of college football, the Canadian Football League and the now-defunct USFL. Maguire re-joined NBC in 1986 as an analyst on their pregame show, then becoming a color commentator in 1988. Maguire most often worked with Marv Albert on the network's #2 broadcast team for his first seven seasons working for the network. In 1995, Maguire and then-ESPN reporter Phil Simms joined Dick Enberg as the #1 broadcast team for NBC, and remained paired until the end of the 1997 season, when NBC lost the rights to the NFL.

Maguire rejoined ESPN for the 1998 season and became a second color commentator for Sunday Night Football . While there he also served as a color commentator for ABC's Wild Card Saturday games, as the Sunday Night Football team would (usually) broadcast the early game of the day. During the time he was at ESPN, Maguire called playoff games for ABC every year except for 2002, when the network elected to use Brent Musburger and Gary Danielson, its lead college football broadcast team, on Wild Card Saturday.

In 1991, Maguire participated in the WrestleMania VII event.

Maguire, who had a residence in Buffalo after his playing days, hosted a locally produced call-in show called the "Budweiser Sportsline". Later the program was broadcast on the Empire Sports Network.

Maguire worked his last regular season NFL game on January 1, 2006, as the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys played on ESPN's final Sunday night broadcast. His final NFL game altogether came on January 7, 2006, as he worked the Washington Redskins-Tampa Bay Buccaneers opening round playoff game. However, Maguire was retained by ESPN to serve as a commentator for ABC's college football with Brad Nessler, former Miami Dolphins quarterback Bob Griese, and field reporter Bonnie Bernstein.

In March 2007, Maguire began to serve as an in-studio analyst for ESPN's NFL Live .

Maguire did not return to broadcasting for the 2009 college football season as his broadcast team was split up, with Nessler moving to Saturday night games on ESPN with Todd Blackledge and Griese moving to noon games on ESPN alongside Dave Pasch and Chris Spielman. He later (2009 2010) broadcast games for the then-new United Football League on HDNet, a cable network and streaming service. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Griese</span> American football player (born 1945)

Robert Allen Griese is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Miami Dolphins of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He earned All-American honors playing college football with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the Dolphins of the AFL.

For its first nine seasons, 1960 through 1968, the American Football League determined its champion via a single playoff game between the winners of its two divisions.

The AFL on NBC is the branding used for broadcasts of Arena Football League (AFL) games produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States, that aired from the 2003 to 2006 seasons.

<i>NFL on NBC</i> National Football League telecasts in the United States by NBC

The NFL on NBC is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by NBC Sports, and televised on the NBC television network and the Peacock streaming service in the United States.

The 1992 NFL season was the 73rd regular season of the National Football League (NFL). Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, the New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins game that was scheduled for September 6 at Joe Robbie Stadium was rescheduled to October 18. Both teams originally had that weekend off. This marked the first time since the 1966 NFL season and the AFL seasons of 1966 and 1967 that there were byes in week 1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 NFL season</span> 1987 National Football League season

The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). This season featured games predominantly played by replacement players, as the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) players were on strike from weeks four to six with week three being cancelled in its entirety. This remains the last NFL season in which regular-season games were impacted by a labor conflict.

The 2006 NFL season was the 87th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). Regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31, 2006.

The NFL on Westwood One Sports is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League. These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada. The broadcasts were previously branded with the CBS Radio and Dial Global marques; CBS Radio was the original Westwood One's parent company and Dial Global purchased the company in 2011. Dial Global has since reverted its name to Westwood One after merging with Cumulus Media Networks.

Bradley Ray Nessler is an American sportscaster, who currently calls college football and college basketball games for CBS Sports.

<i>Thursday Night Football</i> Branding for NFL games usually broadcast on Thursdays

Thursday Night Football is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time.

The 1968 New York Jets season was the ninth season for the team in the American Football League (AFL). The team had the most successful season in franchise history. Trying to improve upon their 8–5–1 record of 1967, they won the AFL Eastern Division with an 11–3 record. They defeated the defending champion Oakland Raiders in the AFL championship game, and earned the right to play in Super Bowl III against the NFL champion Baltimore Colts. In a stunning upset, marked by fourth-year quarterback Joe Namath's famous "guarantee" of victory, the Jets defeated the heavily favored Colts 16–7. The Jets have yet to return to the Super Bowl, making them and the New Orleans Saints the only teams to have won their only championship game, also holding the longest appearance drought in NFL history, having not appeared in the 53 complete seasons since this game; they did not appear in a semifinal playoff round again until 1983.

National television broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games first aired on ABC from 1948 to 1951. Between 1970 and 2005, Monday Night Football aired exclusively on ABC. In 2006, ESPN took over as the exclusive rights holder to Monday Night Football, and the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney. Afterward, ABC did not broadcast any game from the NFL, whether exclusive or a simulcast from ESPN, until they simulcasted an NFL Wild Card playoff game in 2016. ABC would then return to Monday Night Football in 2020, when they aired three games as simulcasts from ESPN.

The 1965 AFL Championship Game was the American Football League's sixth championship game, played on December 26 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, California.

The 1964 AFL Championship Game was the American Football League's fifth championship game, played at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, December 26.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 Miami Dolphins season</span> 19th season in franchise history; third Super Bowl loss

The 1984 Miami Dolphins season was the team's 19th season, and 15th in the National Football League (NFL). It was also the 15th season with the team for head coach Don Shula. The Dolphins sought to build on a spectacular 1983 season where they went 12–4 with rookie quarterback Dan Marino.

The 1980 Miami Dolphins season was the 15th year of existence for the Miami Dolphins franchise. Quarterback Bob Griese retired after the season, following a 14-year career with the Dolphins. However, in Griese's final season the Dolphins would only play mediocre football finishing in third place with an 8-8 record. This was also the first season since 1969 that the Dolphins lost to the Buffalo Bills. For the season, the Dolphins switched the color of the facemasks on their helmets from gray to teal.

Since the 1960s, all regular season and playoff games broadcast in the United States have been aired by national television networks. When the rival American Football League (AFL) began in 1960, it signed a 5-year television contract with ABC. This became the first ever cooperative television plan for professional football, through which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs. ABC and the AFL also introduced moving, on-field cameras, and were the first to have players "miked" during broadcast games. As the AFL also had players' names stitched on their jerseys, it was easier for both TV viewers and people at the games to tell who was who.

NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.

On March 12, 1990, at the NFL's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, the league new ratified four-year television agreements for the 1990 to 1993 seasons involving ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and TNT. The contracts totaled US$3.6 billion, the largest package in television history. This contract saw each network having rights to one Super Bowl telecast as part of the package. The fourth Super Bowl (XXVIII) was up for a separate sealed bid. NBC won the bid, and since they were last in the rotation for Super Bowl coverage in the regular contract, ended up with two straight Super Bowls. CBS is the only other network to televise two Super Bowls in a row. NBC, which had held XXVII, was the only network to bid on XXVIII. Previously, the league alternated the Super Bowl broadcast among its broadcast network partners, except for Super Bowl I; CBS broadcast Super Bowl II, then the league rotated the broadcast between CBS and NBC until 1985 when ABC entered the rotation when that network broadcast Super Bowl XIX.

Arena Football League on ABC was the de facto title for broadcasts of Arena Football League (AFL) games on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network. ABC was the first major television network in the United States to give exposure to the Arena Football League. Prior to 1998, when ABC televised ArenaBowl XII, the most exposure that the league would receive was on ESPN, which would air tape-delayed games, often well after midnight.

References

  1. "CAA Admin Tool".
  2. "Nearing 80, Paul Maguire talks Bills, broadcasting and the time he hung up on Lou Saban". July 7, 2018.
  3. "Paul Maguire – Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame".
  4. "HDNet Announces Broadcast Team for UFL Game Coverage". Archived from the original on June 12, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
Preceded by NFL on NBC lead analyst (with Phil Simms)
1995-1997
Succeeded by
Preceded by Super Bowl television color commentator
(AFC package carrier)

1995-1997 (with Phil Simms)
Succeeded by