This week, The Post’s Andrew Marchand caught up with CBS’ Craig James. The 41-year-old James calls NFL and college games and leads offseason broadcasting seminars for ex-athletes.
Q: On Saturday, you are calling the Army-Navy game. Why will that be special for you?
A: It’s one of those games that I have always looked at as being above the traditional game. As a kid growing up in Texas, I always followed this game. I don’t know why. It just always caught my attention.
I never followed the teams during the year, but when it came to that day, I watched it.
Q: You worked on ESPN’s College GameDay for four seasons before leaving for CBS in 1996. Looking back, do you have any regrets?
A: I’m a big College GameDay fan. I think it is the best pregame, halftime, postgame show there is any business. The reason I say that is because people get to know them. They get to know who they are. I miss being a part of that. I remember, though, how it was for me at that time, when I made the decision to leave.
It was best thing for my family. I have four kids and I was gone all the time. They were young kids who needed my attention more at home [and] I needed to be gone five days a week. If I was a guy, like most of my industry, that placed my job above my family, then I would have never left.
Q: You and Eric Dickerson gained national fame as SMU’s Pony Express from ’79-82. Which of one you is a better broadcaster?
A: I’m going to straddle the fence on that one and say he and I have done different phases of this business, so we couldn’t compare each other.
Q: Who was a better running back?
A: Dickerson.
Q: You guys are still good friends. What happened with Monday Night Football?
A: He came from L.A. to Dallas with me about a year or two before he did Monday Night Football. Every week we did a 30-minute NFL preview show. It was a regional broadcast. He was excellent in studio because he was comfortable with me and he knew what was going on. He was really good.
They put him in a different role. Doing a sideline reporter role is a job for an experienced broadcaster. It is not where you learn to do business. That was just an unrealistic expectation.
