By Rod Pedersen,
CFL.ca
After a 10-day vacation with his wife in France, veteran TSN football announcer Chris Cuthbert is ready to tackle another season in the Canadian Football League. For Canada’s pre-eminent and likely best-known sports announcer, a spring trip across the pond was the only time Cuthbert could sneak in a break.
“Between hockey and football season is really the only window I have to get a vacation and for four or five of the last six years we’ve been going to Europe,” explained Cuthbert. “But I was anxious to get back and start reading up on the league. My wife’s going nuts because I’ve spent the whole day on the phone, but you’re catching up and putting hockey to bed and getting ready for football.”
Cuthbert’s entering his third season as the lead play-caller of CFL broadcasts on TSN after parting ways with the CBC in 2004. The veteran voice of nine Grey Cups is excited to get back in the flow for another year of bringing the action to viewers from coast-to-coast in Canada.
“Our week during the season starts with a conference call Monday with the whole crew – producers, Schultz, Randorf, Climie, Dunigan, Suitor, Cuthbert and the gang. We hash out what we saw the week before and brainstorm on what the storylines are for the week coming up. It all starts that day.”
“Tuesday is spent watching tapes, but when you’re doing 35 games a year there isn’t as much of that anymore. I read everything and take notes from the daily CFL News. Usually we do two games a week so you start getting your depth charts ready which for me, takes two or three hours to do. That includes bios, stats and number-crunching.”
All of that work can be done from Cuthbert’s Mississauga home. However, once the weekend comes, it’s frequent-flyer time.
“Of course there’s travel, and we get to the city of the game the day before and that’s the big one for me. It’s the contact with the players, where I have five or six guys from each team that I talk to regularly. That’s the biggest day and sometimes we miss it when you are doing a game the night before someplace else. But we spend 30 minutes with each coach and that’s the best because they sometimes tell us what to look for in the game. The trust’s been built up over the years and they give you some context of why they’re doing what they do.”
With CFL training camps entering their second week across the country, excitement is building toward the 2007 season kickoff Thursday, June 28 with the Grey Cup champion B.C. Lions at Toronto. Cuthbert’s caught up in the hype as well.
“I love the league,” he gushed. “It’s the only all-Canadian league we have and I’ve lived and died with it like everybody else. The first Grey Cup I did was in ’96 in Hamilton and people said to enjoy it because it would likely be the last because the league was in such dire straits at the time. It’s been pretty rewarding to see how it’s grown in recent years.”
Cuthbert’s last assignment was broadcasting the Stanley Cup playoffs in the NHL’s Western Conference this spring which is a pretty invigorating task in its own right. Does he have a favourite sport between the CFL and NHL?
“It is amazing how much I get asked that question,” Cuthbert revealed. “It’s yin and yang, or asking if you’d rather have your left arm or your right arm. I’d be really disappointed if it was one and not the other. I value the opportunity to do both, and I’m looking forward to next year when TSN’s schedule expands and we get the playoff games because I’ve missed it. All our crew wants to do it, and TSN has paid its dues and deserves the opportunity to do a Grey Cup. Game 7 of a Stanley Cup playoff game, or a CFL division final, they’re the same.”
This year marks the last season of CBC carrying CFL playoff games and the Grey Cup. Next season, each and every game including playoffs and the championship will be carried on TSN. Cuthbert can’t wait, and it has made the move from CBC to TSN worthwhile.
“It has been great, and it has been better as a football guy because of the sheer volume of games. I was never comfortable, as a supporter of the league, starting our schedule at CBC on Labour Day. That’s been rectified over there, but with doing 35 to 40 games here is terrific. You’re better prepared because of the volume of games you do. I do enjoy how the crew handles the game and how the network has made it a big priority. Friday nights are special now, like Saturday’s are on Hockey Night in Canada. Fans across the country will watch the games even if their favourite isn’t playing because they love the league.”
And how does Canada’s Sports Leader plan on improving its coverage this year?
“We’ll have (former star CFL quarterback) Danny McManus as a major part of our broadcasts this year. There’ll be times when he’s in the booth, but also a lot of times he’ll be on the sidelines. He won’t be a reporter exactly, but more of a third analyst like Pierre McGuire between the benches on the NHL broadcasts. He’ll be on a crew with Rod Black, but once or twice a week he’ll be with Suitor and me.”
All in all, CBC’s loss has turned out to be TSN’s gain and things have worked out for all involved. Whether you were Joe Fan on the street or a broadcast insider, you knew Cuthbert would land on his feet. He has done that, and then some.
“Immediately you’re worried about where you’re going to work, but I knew right away I had to find a way to work for TSN if I could because they had the CFL opportunities,” he explained. “There’s a temptation to be the voice of a hockey team in the States or whatever, and that interests me, but when I looked at al my options, the only option I had was TSN because football was a high priority for me.”
“It’s been great and it beats working for a living.”
Rod Pedersen is the Voice of the Saskatchewaan Roughriders and Regina correspondent on The Score. Check out his daily blog at www.rodpedersen.com.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
