Paul Maguire
Encyclopedia
Paul Leo Maguire is a former American football
player and current television
sportscaster
.
Los Angeles Chargers
, 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. 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 TD. 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.
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 joined NBC in 1988 as a color commentator and 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.
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 is now broadcasting games for the new United Football League on HDNet
, a cable network.
{[reflist}]
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and current television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
sportscaster
Sportscaster
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
.
Early sports career
Maguire attended Ursuline High School in Youngstown,Ohio and was recruited to play at The Citadel by the late Al Davis who was then an assistant coach and chief recruiter. He led the nation in touchdown receptions in 1959.Professional football career
In 1960, he was selected as an original American Football LeagueAmerican Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
Los Angeles Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National 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
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. Maguire was an ace at the "coffin corner" punt. He contributed to three Bills' Eastern Division titles, and their AFL
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
championships in 1964 and 1965. 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
Butch Byrd
George Edward "Butch" Byrd was a professional American football defensive back. He started his career playing college football at Boston University. He joined the Buffalo Bills in 1964 and immediately made an impact in the defensive backfield, with seven interceptions. Byrd was also a solid...
took a John Hadl
John Hadl
John Willard Hadl is a former collegiate and professional football player.Hadl was born in Lawrence, Kansas. After playing halfback on both offense and defense at the University of Kansas as a sophomore, Hadl played quarterback for his last two years at Kansas, and was selected as the school's...
punt and with outstanding blocking, took it 74 yards for a TD. The last two blocks were by Maguire, crushing two Chargers.
Maguire played in six of the ten American Football League Championship Games
Professional American football championship games
Below is a list of professional football championship games in the United States, involving:* the informal Pittsburgh circuit of professional football teams ;...
— 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.
Media career
Beginning in the 1970s, Maguire worked as a color commentatorColor commentator
A color commentator is a sports commentator who assists the play-by-play announcer, often by filling in any time when play is not in progress. The color analyst and main commentator will often exchange comments freely throughout the broadcast, when the play-by-play announcer is not describing the...
on network NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
telecasts, first with NBC
NFL on NBC
NFL on NBC is the brand given to NBC Sports coverage of National Football League games until 1998, when NBC lost the NFL American Football Conference rights to CBS...
and then ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
. He also called ESPN's telecasts of college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
, the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
and the now-defunct USFL
United States Football League
The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
. Maguire joined NBC in 1988 as a color commentator and most often worked with Marv Albert
Marv Albert
Marv Albert is an American television and radio sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball." From 1967–2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks."Including Super Bowl XLII, Marv has called...
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
Phil Simms
Phillip Martin "Phil" Simms is a former American football quarterback, and currently a television sportscaster for the CBS network. After a standout career at Morehead State University, Simms was drafted in the first round by the New York Giants of the National Football League with the number...
joined Dick Enberg
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan "Dick" Enberg is an American sportscaster. He currently provides play-by-play for telecasts of San Diego Padres baseball on 4SD, following a long career calling various sports for such networks as NBC, CBS, and ESPN...
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
ESPN Sunday Night Football
ESPN Sunday Night Football is the ESPN cable network's weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8, 1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006....
. 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
Brent Musburger
Brent Woody Musburger is an American sportscaster for the ESPN and ABC television networks. Formerly with CBS Sports and one of the original members of their legendary program The NFL Today, Musburger has covered NASCAR, NBA, MLB, NCAA football and basketball games. Musburger has also served as a...
and Gary Danielson
Gary Danielson
Gary Danielson is a former professional football player, a quarterback in the National Football League . He played for the Detroit Lions from 1976 to 1984 and for the Cleveland Browns in 1985, 1987, and 1988...
, its lead college football broadcast team, on Wild Card Saturday.
Maguire, who had a residence in Buffalo after his playing days, hosted a locally produced call-in show called the "Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser is a German adjective describing something or someone from the city of České Budějovice in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic.Beer brewing in České Budějovice dates back to the 13th century...
Sportsline". Later the program was broadcast on the Empire Sports Network
Empire Sports Network
Empire Sports Network was a regional sports network on cable television which served upstate New York from Buffalo to Albany, parts of northern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio...
.
Maguire worked his last regular season NFL game on January 1, 2006, as the St. Louis Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
and Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
played on ESPN's final Sunday night broadcast. His final NFL game altogether came on January 7, 2006, as he worked the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
-Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
opening round playoff game. However, Maguire was retained by ESPN to serve as a commentator for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
with Brad Nessler
Brad Nessler
Bradley "Brad" Nessler is an American sportscaster, who currently calls college basketball and college football games for ESPN with occasional appearances on ESPN on ABC. He will also call Thursday Night Football on NFL Network beginning in 2011, and appears annually as a commentator in EA Sports'...
, former Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
quarterback Bob Griese
Bob Griese
Robert Allen "Bob" Griese is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins...
, and field reporter Bonnie Bernstein.
In March 2007, Maguire began to serve as an in-studio analyst for ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's NFL Live
NFL Live
NFL Live is a National Football League studio show, currently airing Monday through Friday at 4:00 p.m and 12:30 a.m ET on the ESPN cable network. Formerly known as NFL 2Night, the program is the only NFL-related studio program to air during the week...
.
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
Todd Blackledge
Todd Alan Blackledge was an American football quarterback in both the NCAA and National Football League. In college, he led the Penn State Nittany Lions to a national championship; and, as a pro, he played for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers...
and Griese moving to Noon games on ESPN alongside Dave Pasch
Dave Pasch
Dave Pasch is an American sportscaster. Pasch works for ESPN, for which he calls play-by-play of college football, college basketball, NBA, WNBA, and Arena football games. He has also been the radio voice for the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL since 2002, teaming with Ron Wolfley. In 2007, Pasch...
and Chris Spielman
Chris Spielman
Charles Christopher "Chris" Spielman is a former American football player and is currently an analyst for ESPN's coverage of college football games.-Football career:...
. He is now broadcasting games for the new United Football League on HDNet
HDNet
HDNet is a men's interest television channel in the United States, broadcasting exclusively in high-definition format and available via cable and satellite television...
, a cable network.
External links
{[reflist}]