In his book, Bearing the Cross: My Inspiring Journey From Poverty to the NFL and Sports Television, former Eagles Pro Bowl cornerback and co-host of The NFL Today, Irv Cross, said he never imagined that he would be a pioneer in sports similar to that of his hero, Jackie Robinson, whom he met as a teenager.
"I didn't have a crystal ball to see my future, when I would be interviewing athletes in their living rooms, covering Super Bowls, or playing in NFL games myself on Sunday afternoons. Who would have imagined all that back then? Certainly not me," Cross said in his book, co-authored by Clifton Brown, a member of the Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame.
Growing up in a family with 14 brothers and sisters in Hammond, Indiana, Cross knew as the first person in his family to attend to college, it would take hard work and preparation – whether it was surviving the academic rigors of Northwestern, making the Eagles' roster as a seventh-round draft-pick, or becoming the first African American co-host of a nationally televised NFL pregame show.
"That meant I had to be disciplined. That meant I couldn't give up when the odds were stacked against me," Cross explained in his book. "I was going to work harder than anybody else. I was going to know more about pro football than anybody. If things didn't work out, it wouldn't be because I wasn't prepared."
As it turned out, Cross' work ethic opened even more doors than he had imagined. Not only did he graduate from Northwestern, but he also had a nine-year career in the NFL with both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams that ultimately led to his storied career in sports broadcasting, which landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In 1975, CBS rebranded its NFL Today pregame to include veteran journalist and broadcaster Brent Musburger, Phyllis George, the first woman to co-host a sports broadcast, and Cross, the first Black broadcaster and color analyst on a major network sports show. One year later, renowned oddsmaker Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was added to the show.
"The NFL Today was a new concept, and they really made a bold move," Brown said. "They were going to have a different flavor. They never had a woman or a Black guy like Irv Cross, and then after a couple of years, Jimmy the Greek. It was cutting edge."
It became the most-watched pro football pregame show on network television thanks to the chemistry between Musburger, Cross, George, Snyder, and, later, Jayne Kennedy, who became the first Black woman on network sports television.
"As a broadcaster, Irv was amazing, and he did know his job," Kennedy said. "As a matter of fact, he could not have been on that desk if he did not, because they weren't hiring Blacks to do positions of that kind. I was very impressed with him, and as soon as I met him, we had a really good relationship."
Brown said Cross, who began his career at CBS as a color analyst for NFL broadcasts in 1971, found his niche on The NFL Today from the start because of his knowledge of the game, his hard work, and because he was a likeable guy who developed a good rapport with those he interviewed.
"(Cross) was a student of the game as a player; it translated to when he went into broadcasting. He could bring the nuts and bolts of his knowledge to the show … People enjoyed talking to him," Brown said. "He fit what they were looking for, and he was good enough to do it.'
In Bearing the Cross, Musburger said one of the reasons he enjoyed hosting the NFL Today was because of Cross's knowledge of the game.
"The NFL Today was demanding, but I absolutely loved doing it, and Irv was part of the reason," Musburger said. "It was comforting to have someone like him alongside, because if there was a highlight I was uncertain about, or if there was a player I wasn't sure about, I could turn quickly to Irv and he'd pick it up. That was security for me when I had to do all the highlights."
In the first chapter of his book, Cross explained the importance of reaching back and helping others as something he learned from Jackie Robinson, who not only broke the color barrier in baseball but arguably all of sports.
"I believe in the idea of giving back, of using your blessings to help others," Cross wrote in his book. "That's what Jackie was about until the day he died."
When Kennedy auditioned for The NFL Today, she made a very strong impression on Musburger, who urged the show's producers to hire her immediately. The only barrier to Kennedy's hiring was how the network's Southern affiliates would react to having two Black people on the set with Musburger. Kennedy said she was hired when CBS made Snyder a studio host so that there would be two Blacks and two whites on the set.
Kennedy said she was in a situation with The NFL Today where she didn't get any media training from CBS, and the only person who was supportive of her was Cross. Kennedy said she was thrown into the fire right away with an interview with then-Cleveland Browns Head Coach Sam Rutigliano.
"After the interview," Kennedy continued. "Irv told me, 'You handled that like a pro, and said if you ever need anything, just let me know, and he was always there for me no matter what."
Cross' success was so groundbreaking that it would eventually open doors and pave the way for African American sports broadcasters like CBS' James Brown, ESPN's Tom Jackson, and FOX's Curt Menefee to co-host network sports studio shows.
"An excellent role model is an impactful one who motivates with core qualities of integrity, humility, authenticity, and preparedness. Irv Cross represented that for me," James Brown said.
Cross left The NFL Today in 1990. In 2009, he received the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. He was the first African American broadcaster to receive that honor. He passed away in 2021 at the age of 81.
"Irv Cross set footprints so big, that individuals like me could walk in," said former NFL wide receiver and NFL Today studio analyst Nate Burleson.
Award-winning journalist Chris Murray has more than 40 years of experience in print and broadcast journalism. For the last 16 years he has been a regular freelance sportswriter with the Philadelphia Sunday Sun and is the host of the Chris Murray Report, a weekly sports radio talk-show on WURD Radio in Philadelphia. He is the author of the book, First Draft: A Chronicle of Race, Sports and Social Justice in the 21st Century.
