Scalzo: Secret to Jaworski’s success? Work

It’s 7:28 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 10, 2007 and Ron Jaworski is nervous for the first time in 56 years, a stretch that includes 17 years in the NFL, a Super Bowl appearance and a face-to-face meeting with a slightly more famous Pole: Pope John Paul II.

He’s two minutes away from making his debut as an analyst for Monday Night Football, a show he started watching in his dorm room when he was a sophomore quarterback living in Youngstown State’s Kilcawley Hall.

He’s at Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium for a game between the Bengals and the Ravens. Soon after Hank Williams starts singing, ‘ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL’” he hears the producer say, “One minute to air.”

Jaworski adjusts his jacket. Glances at his notes. Gets a little makeup.

10, 9 ...

“Holy cow,” he thinks. “I think I’m going to faint.”

8, 7 ...

“My heart starts pounding because you know when the light goes on, 22 million people are going to see your face.”

6, 5 ...

“Don’t blow this, Jaws.”

4, 3, 2, 1 ...

Mike Tirico looks at the camera, says, “Hello and welcome to Monday Night Football.” Before Jaworski can exhale, Tirico looks over at him and says, “Well, Jaws, what do you think of tonight’s matchup?”

“I’m just thinking, ‘Don’t go eeeeeeyyyyaaaawwwzzz,’” Jaworski said Friday morning, speaking to a class of about 50 YSU students about his broadcasting career. “Fortunately, I say, ‘Here’s what I look for from Carson Palmer and the Bengals. They’re going to work the outside ...”

It reminded him of something he learned while playing quarterback for the Rams, Eagles, Dolphins and Chiefs: If you spend six days working, you can spend the seventh day playing.

“When the light goes on, that’s the easy part,” he said. “If you’re totally prepared, you say, ‘Bring it on, baby! I’m going to knock this out!’”

Jaworski started working on his second career when he was still in the middle of his first. He served as the sports director for a morning show in Orange County while playing with the Rams in 1976. He called local high school games — for free — during the 57-day NFL players strike in 1982. After he retired in 1989, he made $50 doing a two-hour pregame show for the Philadelphia Eagles. He did a live call-in radio show in Philadelphia, learning how to deal with fans ready to rip him to shreds.

“I wanted to know how to react to every situation possible,” he said.

He’s spent the last quarter-century at ESPN, carving out a niche as a teacher, someone who goes blurry-eyed in the film room and calls it like he sees it on camera, whether it’s saying that San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick has a chance to be one of the greatest quarterbacks ever (which sounded ridiculous then and even moreso now) or that he wouldn’t draft Johnny Manziel in the first three rounds (which looks brilliant now).

“You have to be yourself,” he said. “I’ve spent 24 years telling stories at ESPN and in those 24 years, not one single time did I have a producer or a director, executive producer, executive in management say, ‘Jaws, you ought to comb your hair different. Maybe you ought to change your glasses. Maybe you shouldn’t quite say it this way.’ Never.

“I found out what I do best,” he said. “I do football best. I’m not a comedian. On the weekends, on all the shows I do, I give people something different.”

That takes work, of course. When Jaworski was doing Monday Night Football, he worked 90 hours a week. Even now, he works about 65 hours a week, spending most of it at his NFL Films office in Mt. Laurel, N.J.

“You have to work at it to be great,” he said. “If you want to be good, work 40 hours. If you want to be great, work more.”

Things don’t always work out perfectly. Jaworski lost the Super Bowl. He got dropped from Monday Night Football after five seasons. He once blurted out a four-letter word that rhymes with snit during a live broadcast of a Dolphins-Patriots game. (“[Shoot], you have to get rid of this ball just a split second quicker.”)

But he’s found his niche. Whether it’s Monday night or Thursday morning, Jaworski is always ready for some football. And so are his fans.

“People know if they watch Jaws,” he said, “they’re going to get something they haven’t gotten anywhere else.”

Joe Scalzo covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at scalzo@vindy.com or follow him on Twitter @JoeScalzo1.