|
|
February 1, 2004
MOMENT: Rosinski won't force the call
By John Delong | JOURNAL REPORTER
Bill Rosinski has been the official voice of the Carolina Panthers since the team's inaugural season of 1995.
He'll be calling the play-by-play action on the Panthers' radio network today when the Panthers meet the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII - and if the Panthers win, there's nothing he would like better than to end his broadcast with a phrase for the ages.
A Carolina version of "Do you believe in miracles?" perhaps?
But Rosinski knows that the best lines are the ones that can't be prepared in advance.
So he promises that whatever comes out will be spontaneous, and from the heart.
"To me, in my business, if you're doing a good job, you just go with the moment," Rosinski said. "I know everyone wants to come up with that signature line that people remember forever, but you can't plan it. If you have some clich? line ready for a certain event, people know.
"Now, I'm going to have some thoughts collected when the game starts about how far we've come, and maybe Jerry's (owner Jerry Richardson) prediction of winning the Super Bowl within 10 years. But when the game's over, it all depends on how it plays out."
Rosinski, who had spent three seasons as the play-by-play voice of the Atlanta Falcons before joining the Panthers, will be doing Super Bowl play-by-play for the first time.
He has covered nine other Super Bowls in various roles for the Mutual Radio and Westwood One networks over the years, but obviously, this is quite different.
"This is going to be special," he said. "I left network radio in 1992 to go to Atlanta, and the big reason I left was I wanted to be involved with a team. With the network, you go into a city one weekend, and then you're gone, and nobody really knows you. And obviously, for a team play-by-play guy, calling the Super Bowl is the ultimate.
"It's even more special because of the way it has all happened. My three years in Atlanta, we weren't exactly sniffing the playoffs, you know? Then to come to Charlotte and get so close in the second season, and then to go through all the stuff we went through for the next seven years, and now this - I mean, I'm still having a hard time believing it. I'm watching TV the other night and I see a promo for the Super Bowl and I'm like, 'Hey, we're in it.'"
So what's his prediction?
The Panthers, in a squeaker.
"That's what I'm thinking - we win and it's close," he said. "That really would be something, wouldn't it? I mean, two years ago, who was thinking this? In July, who was thinking this? I guess some guys will tell you they sensed it in training camp, but not me. It would really be a tribute to a bunch of hard-working guys."