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.”