Boy I miss Frank Herzog on the Skin's games...
Sonny, Sam & Frank Reunited
Sam Huff was asked on the radio what he misses most about Frank Herzog Monday morning.
"Nothing," Huff said.
"You had to ask a linebacker a serious question, didn't you?" Herzog cracked.
"He was The Voice," Huff said, turning serious and articulate. "Sonny and Sam, we were there to help him....You never over-talked the man with the microphone, and he was the man. It was always Frank....Frank Herzog and that group, the three of us, never walked on each other, so to speak, never over-talked each other. We were a team, and Frank was the leader of me and Sonny. And to be able to handle a quarterback and a linebacker all this time, you had to be somebody special. Frank Herzog is somebody special."
This was all part of WTOP's hour-long tribute to Herzog, who recently announced his retirement after a media career most famous for his stint as Voice of the Redskins. There were guest appearances galore, but the marquee segment featured Frank, Sonny and Sam together again, and it still worked. Those guys could split off to Mongolian villages and Alaskans fishing encampments and Texas rodeos, and reunite in 20 years for a middle school football game in Alabama, and it would still work.
"There were a lot of nights on the road that you would have liked to have been a part of; they were very special to us," Sonny said, adding with an audio twinkle.
"His wife [still] calls and wants to know where he is," Sam added.
"Would you get these two off before I get in any real trouble?" Frank requested.
"How about the time we were in California when Sonny and Rick Hunt didn't show up?" Sam said.
"Sam, I think you've been on long enough," Sonny insisted.
"How about the hurricane in Tampa?" Frank said, recalling how a hotel manager attempted to kick them out as the storm approached. "We said go to hell, we're sleeping here, and we slept on the floor."
"We also went to the kitchen and ate," Sam remembered.
"Ah," Frank sighed. "Those were the days."
Everyone can agree with that. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. If there was something else everyone agreed upon, it was that the Riggo touchdown run against the Dolphins was the iconic call of Herzog's career; "there was only one highlight," as Huff put it. Herzog said what made it even better was the foreshadowing, with both Sonny and Sam saying a few minutes earlier that a moment was approaching where Riggo would have to take over, probably on third down.
WTOP played the call again, and as with the assembled trio's repartee, it couldn't have been more perfect: "He's gone...He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. Touchdown, Washington Redskins."
"Once again, it plays, and I don't get a dime," Herzog cracked.
"I get goosebumps if nothing else," said Riggo, who was also in studio. "That's better than the dime."
Herzog was asked to explain his "Touchdown, Washington Redskins!" call. (That link is the audio of his call.) He said he realized that Riggins doesn't score without Joe Jacoby blocking, without Otis Wansley being in the right spot.
"That was kind of born out of necessity," Herzog said. "In getting to know players and talking to people like John and the offensive linemen who helped make him a star, you began to realize that it wasn't just John Riggins scoring a touchdown, that was a team effort....So I said it's kind of a collective thing, let's call it a Washington Redskins touchdown, and it caught on."
That it did. Most of you have experience turning down the TV sound to listen to that trio, and Herzog has heard from you, as well. He said he once met a Skins fan who didn't realize Frank, Sonny and Sam weren't actually the TV sound until he was in college. Not the brightest chap, perhaps, but it makes the point.
Herzog said he still has his health, and it's time for him to move on and do other things with his life. He wants to act in more movies, to play more golf, to spoil his grandchildren and take photographs. And as he calls it quits, people will go through their Frank, Sonny and Sam stories yet again.
"And I think that's why people were so upset when it was broken up a couple years ago for whatever reason," Riggins said. "That [trio] is emblemized in everybody's mind for the rest of their lives, and that's pretty cool."
"We made this guy," Huff joked. "He called every play, Sonny and I knew what was coming before he even had to call it. I mean, that's the experience the three of us had. I mean, no one could call it better than Frank Herzog. He put excitement in an old linebacker and an old quarterback....That's what it's all about. The game's on the field, but he made it exciting. That experience, with the quarterback and the linebacker was just unbelievable, and to have a great announcer like Frank Herzog, it was a great combination."
"Well, he got where he understood, when we'd go into our verbiage, he'd know what we were talking about," Sonny said. "I mean, at the beginning he didn't, but he picked that up very quickly, because anybody who knows Frank knows that he was a quick study.....We did a lot of things together and had a lot of fun, and I always knew you weren't gonna be hung out to dry with Frank at the mic."
And so, retirement?
"It's natural, ok?" Sam advised. "I understand, but you were one of the greatest. So hang in there."
"Have fun, Frank," Sonny said.
"Great to hear your guys' voices again," Frank said as the segment ended.
Ditto.
