DALLAS -- Most area television viewers stopping by to watch Saturday night's Dallas Cowboys-Arizona Cardinals game might have been surprised to hear a familiar Grinch providing the analysis.
Joe Theismann, who ranks as an all-time Cowboys antagonist, now works in NFL Network's broadcast booth. The former Washington Redskins quarterback and ESPN Sunday Night and Monday Night Football-ex made his debut Nov. 11 at the Baltimore Ravens-Atlanta Falcons game. You may be excused if you haven't noticed. Thanks to ongoing differences between NFL Network and Time Warner, the area's leading cable provider, Theismann may as well be in witness protection.
But because of the Cowboys' presence, league rules dictated Saturday night's NFL Network game be simulcast over-the-air in Dallas-Fort Worth. So welcome back, Joe.
It's been a quarter of a century since Theismann threw his last pass against the Cowboys. But memories linger. Theismann thinks he knows how many of you may remember him.
"As a cocky little [expletive] who didn't like the Dallas Cowboys," he guessed over the telephone earlier this week.
Theismann would like you to know you may not be 100 percent correct. He grew up in New Jersey with a deep respect for everything Cowboys. It was because he put the Cowboys on a pedestal that he gave his all against them. If he said or did some things that annoyed the Cowboys and their fans, it was only the product of a burning desire to beat the best.
But if it is any consolation, Theismann said the lowest moment in his 12-year NFL career came in Texas Stadium on Sept. 9, 1985, the opener of what would prove to be his final season. Coincidentally, it was his 35th birthday. As the final seconds ticked down in the Cowboys' 44-14 victory, the crowd serenaded him with a special "Happy Birthday."
"There was not a lot of affection in the voices," he recalled.
Theismann's next NFL stop was in the ESPN broadcast booth. He lasted two decades before the network decided it would rather have Tony Kornheiser and his shtick in the booth than Theismann and his uncompromising lightning-rod opinions. ESPN wanted to re-assign Theismann to college football.
"I respectfully declined," Theismann said.
That might have been the end of Theismann's NFL work, had NFL Network not decided that Bob Papa and Matt Millen needed some spice in their booth after their rookie season together in 2009.
When NFL Network asked Theismann if he might like to stage a booth comeback this season, he offered a one-word response. "Absolutely," he said. There aren't a lot of broadcast second chances for 61-year-olds.
"I have opinions, and I do not apologize for them," he said. "I have said things from time to time and later realized it might not have been well thought out. But I always try to explain. That's me."
