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Todd Christensen: Raider in the Booth
by Kelly L. Martinez
In the mid-60s,
a 9-year-old boy hoisted a shot put and hurled a discus farther
than any of his peers at a youth track and field event. He set world
records for his age group that have stood to this day. Surely, this
boy was destined for the Olympics; certainly his name would eventually
be etched in the record books of the all-time great shot putters
and discus throwers. Indeed, his name became a name that was well-known
in the sporting world; he even went on to be a part of a Summer
Olympiad. However, neither of those accomplishments came in the
way you might imagine.
Fast
Forward
During the 70s, a star running back on the BYU football team saw
Elder Gordon B. Hinckley remove his tie and settle in for a nap
on a long team trip to Japan. With the bravado of youth, the running
back made an off-handed comment: “Hey, that’s the first
time I’ve ever seen a General Authority without a tie!”
Elder Hinckley gave a good-natured laugh and a smile.
Wise-cracking an apostle
may not seem too offensive to some, but to Todd Christensen, ESPN
football analyst and former NFL All-Pro, it is an experience recalled
with a sense of embarrassment. “I can’t believe I said
that to him,” said Christensen. “I’m glad we won’t
be judged solely on the actions of the first 20 years of our lives.”
Comparative
Assessment
According to Christensen, preparing to play a football game is more
difficult than preparing to broadcast one. “Years ago, when
I was in college,” he recalled, “a scout from New England
contacted me and I told him about my bench press and I told him
about all that was going well with my game. He told me, ‘That’s
all great, but the films don’t lie.’ I’ve never
forgotten that. In television, they can lie. You can put people
there that aren’t necessarily good at it and they can fake
their way through. You cannot fake your way through the playing
of a football game.”
Christensen, who lives
in Alpine, Utah, has “faked” his way to his 13th year
of broadcasting – two longer than his storied pro football
career. He began broadcasting with NBC in 1990 and joined ESPN in
1995. During his broadcasting career, he has been a field reporter
for Super Bowls XXVII (1993) and XXVIII (1994) and was a weightlifting
analyst for NBC at the Barcelona Summer Games in 1992.
Full
Circle Beginnings
Christensen was born in Pennsylvania while his father was working
on a doctorate degree at Penn State University. After teaching in
West Virginia, his father was offered a professorship in Eugene,
Ore., when Todd was 5 and the family relocated.
Athletically, Christensen’s
early desire was to continue excelling in track and field as he
had when he set the world records as a 9-year-old boy. “Puberty
and adolescence helped me realize that I was not as fast as I had
thought,” he recalled. “My body went a different direction
and that was when I started leaning towards football.”
Football has been the
conduit to most of Christensen’s athletic accomplishments,
but like a wayward son returning home, he has made a full circle
and, at 46, has returned to competitive track and field. In 2001,
he began competing on the adult track and field circuit. In March
2002, he captured the 45-49 age group indoor pentathlon in Chicago,
setting a world age group record in the process. In July 2002, he
competed, and won, the National Masters Decathlon Championships
in Trenton, N.J. Though he didn’t set a world record at the
event, he did nab the title easily.
Gridiron
Accomplishments
Christensen’s pro football career spanned 11 seasons. His
rookie season in 1978 was spent on the injured reserve list of the
Dallas Cowboys. He found himself on the roster of the New York Giants
in 1979 and played in one regular season game before joining the
Oakland Raiders for the duration of that season and the following
nine. Before his retirement after the 1988 season, Christensen compiled
some of the most impressive statistics ever posted by a tight end.
He led the NFL in total receptions twice (1983, 1986), tallied 5,872
career yards in receiving, caught 52 touchdowns and was a part of
Super Bowl teams in 1981 and 1984. Additionally, he was a five-time
All-Pro selection. In 461 career receptions, he averaged 12.7 yards
per catch.
At BYU, Christensen was
a four-year starter (1974-77) at running back, led the team for
three consecutive seasons in receiving and was a All-Western Athletic
Conference selection in 1977. His career numbers while at BYU: 152
receptions, 1,586 yards and 15 touchdowns. He graduated with a degree
in social work in 1978 before embarking on his pro career.
Dinner
Table Tennis Impressions
“Like most youngsters steeped in the gospel,” Christensen
said, “it is vital to have people in your own home that you
respect. My parents, Ned and June, were those people for me. I never
needed to look further than across the dinner table for a role model.”
The elder Christensens
not only set examples of how to cherish the gospel, but they seem
to have passed on the athletic gene to Todd. His father was a competitive
athlete, but Todd claims it was his mom that he inherited his athletic
prowess from. “Mom was a champion table tennis player when
she attended BYU.”
We Are
Family
Todd met his wife, the former Kathleen Simmons, briefly at BYU before
she went on a semester abroad to Israel. Platonic letters while
she was away evolved into more when she returned. “Our first
kiss was on July 4, 1976,” he recalled. “Literally,
there were fireworks going off in the background that day.”
Bicentennial smooching eventually led to marital commitments and
four sons.
Toby, a returned missionary
(Barcelona, Spain), is currently on the football team at BYU, is
scheduled to graduate with a degree in communications in December
and will begin a master’s program in public administration
soon thereafter.
Tory is also a returned
missionary (Portugal) and will graduate from BYU in April 2003.
He is taking the Law School Admissions Test next month and is looking
into applying to law school at either Duke or Stanford. “Tory
is a very smart young man,” said dad. “He’s maintaining
a 3.78 GPA. I’m not sure that he’s not adopted.”
Trevor, or T.J., is a
freshman at BYU and is contemplating a mission sometime next year.
Teren is a freshman in
high school and lifts weights with his dad. “He lifts weights
partly because he has the malady spina bifida,” explained
Todd. “Part of his regimen is to have his personal trainer
father see what he can do. He’s so much stronger than I was
at that age. I feel a bit embarrassed by the fact that he is in
a wheelchair and can still outlift his dad!”
Raider
Recollection
While Todd was a member of the Raiders, he and his wife invited
a teammate and his wife, Burgess and Josie Owens, to Thanksgiving
dinner. “My wife has this tradition of putting kernels of
corn on everyone’s plate prior to eating,” he said.
“We have to pick them up and say something that we are grateful
for. Also dining with us that night were a couple of elders who
asked Burgess and Josie some questions. The Owens were impressed
with the experience and the way that we lived our lives. They were
baptized on New Year’s Day in 1983.”
Coach
Christensen?
Todd has coached many of the teams his sons have been a part of
over the years. He has even coached a youngster by the name of Taylor
Murphy, son of baseball legend Dale, who, according to Todd, can
really smack the ball.
As far as coaching
at a higher level, Todd is hesitant to begin a football coaching
career so late in life. “I’ve been blessed with a certain
loquaciousness which affords me the opportunity to work on television,”
he said. “To be honest, working on television is not difficult.
Coaching would require a lot more. Coaching is definitely something
I think I’m capable of. Quite frankly, after 25 years of playing
organized football and broadcasting it for another 12, I should
know something about the game. I just don’t know about starting
a coaching career at my age. But who knows? I never say never.”
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