Revisiting Vin Scully's classic NFL career

From the Masters to game shows to narrating weird sitcoms, Vin Scully's legendary broadcasting resume contains a lot more than just 67 years of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.

His most famous non-baseball work, of course, came on the gridiron, where he spent seven years calling the National Football League for CBS.

Though his NFL career was brief, his voice is the soundtrack to some of the greatest games in NFL history - and, just like in baseball, football let him leave on a very high note.

Scully began calling NFL games for CBS in 1975, but it almost began five years earlier when he was offered the Monday Night Football job but declined, in part due to the Dodgers' schedule. The football job he did take was mostly regional games with a number of famous partners, including Sonny Jurgensen.

Scully never called a Super Bowl but his football resume includes 10 playoff games and three NFC Championships. He was at the microphone for several classics, including the Los Angeles Rams' stunning divisional-round victory at Texas Stadium in 1980, and the 1981 "Duel in Dixie" between the Falcons and Cowboys.

In 1981, he worked four games with John Madden as an audition of sorts, and nearly beat out Pat Summerall for the permanent No. 1 job alongside the Hall of Fame coach. CBS ultimately paired Madden and Summerall to form a legendary broadcasting duo, but their choice ultimately led to the end of Scully's NFL career.

"It was a question of the pacing, the timing," former CBS producer Terry O'Neil told Rob Weintraub of the New York Times earlier this year when asked to explain the network's choice.

But the football gods gave Scully one last magical football moment on his way out the door. The final NFL game he ever called was the 1982 NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Cowboys at San Francisco's Candlestick Park - ironically in the same city where his career will end this Sunday. And of course, Scully's call of "The Catch" remains one of the most famous in both his career and in NFL history.

"This was a hell of a game to quit doing football," Scully told the Times.

As usual, Vin couldn't have put it any better.