Posted by madcityradio.com on January 28, 2009 at 11:16:07:
Behind the Mike: Larrivee discusses his quick turnarounds, and predicts one for Packers
Mike Lucas — 1/28/2009 8:22 am
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For someone who's responsible for getting himself from Point A (a Big Ten football game on Saturday) to Point B (a Green Bay Packers game on Sunday), Wayne Larrivee had a startling confession.
"I'm very disorganized and it drives my wife nuts," Larrivee said.
As the radio play-by-play voice of the Packers and one of the lead announcers on the Big Ten Network, the indefatigable Larrivee has grown quite adept at juggling his work assignments despite some challenging travel schedules. It can be a logistical nightmare, especially when so many things are out of your control.
"About 25 years ago, I was supposed to do a DePaul basketball game against St. John's in New York City," Larrivee recalled. "I had a Michigan game the day before in Ann Arbor, and it snowed so hard in New York, I couldn't get in there. So, I had to turn around and go back to Chicago.
"There was a time where if I had a flight situation, there had to be at least three flights, so if I missed one, I could go to another, or go to another. You can't do that anymore because the airlines are so messed up and they've cut flights. You don't have those options anymore. That's really changed the way I do business."
For the first time in 18 years, Larrivee is not doing the television play-by-play of the Chicago Bulls. That has lessened his burden considerably, particularly since it was not unusual for Larrivee to do a college basketball game on a Saturday afternoon and an NBA game that night.
"People don't understand the differences in the two games or the level of play -- it's almost like two different sports," said Larrivee, distinguishing between pros and collegians. "The only thing the college game has in common with the pro game is the round ball.
"I love the juice and the enthusiasm of the college game. I love the athleticism and expertise of the pro game. I liked them both about the same. But when you're doing a pro game Tuesday, a college game Wednesday, a college game Saturday and a pro game Saturday, you feel like you're not connected to any of it."
Last Saturday night, Larrivee was in Ann Arbor, Mich., for the Big Ten Network telecast of the Wolverines and Northwestern from Crisler Arena. His color analyst was Shon Morris, a former Wildcat. The following day, Larrivee was in Columbus, Ohio, and doing the Westwood One radio play-by-play of the Michigan State-Ohio State game from Value City Arena. His analyst was Pete Gillen, the former Providence and Xavier coach.
"I've always liked the challenge of doing television one day and radio the next," Larrivee said. "When you hear yourself do a TV game, it's one level of description. But radio has to be totally different. I'm always reminding myself, 'You have to describe things a little bit more because people can't see it (the action).'
"TV is an analyst-driven medium. Radio is a play-by-play medium. Play-by-play on radio is actually easier because it's pretty clearly defined what your role is. It's much tougher on radio for the analyst because they have to say something salient in a much shorter period of time.
"TV play-by-play is all about punctuation. You just have to kind of frame the moment and say something that punctuates it. Basically, you're setting up the analyst and having a dialogue with him. It's more of discussion of things, whereas in radio you're locked into describing the 15-foot jumper from the left wing."
Larrivee is best known for his signature phrase, "There is the dagger."
Curtains.
Good night Irene.
Game over.
His earliest recollection of using the "dagger" line in football was from a 2001 game between the Baltimore Ravens, the defending Super Bowl champions, and the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field. With 6:59 left in the fourth quarter, Brett Favre threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Bubba Franks and the Packers increased their lead to 31-10 over the Ravens.
Enter the Daggermeister.
"I said, 'There's the dagger or that's the dagger' or something like that, and it caught on," Larrivee remembered. "Now when the Packers win and I don't say it, people spend all week asking me, 'Where was the dagger?' It's kind of fun.
"When do I think the game is over? It has everything to do with the feeling that I have from watching the game.
It can happen in the third quarter -- and it has at times, where I've said, 'There's the dagger, the game is over.' I've never said it and had the opposition come back and win. It never blew up in my face."
Larrivee laughed. When he debuted "The Dagger" in that 2001 game against Baltimore, the Ravens actually came back and scored two late touchdowns. The final was 31-23. "I've had several close calls," he conceded, "where people have come up to me afterward and said, 'You were a little early with that dagger there.'" Larrivee laughed again.
This past season was obviously no laughing matter for Packer Nation. Larrivee, though, believes Green Bay can get back to the playoffs next year and he used the Arizona Cardinals as the NFL model.
"They played in a horrible division, they got hammered by just about every good team that they played (during the regular season) and yet here they are in the Super Bowl," marveled Larrivee. "I think the Cardinals are the audacity of hope. In this league, not even the (Detroit) Lions are that far away.
"The Packers have to shore up special teams and they have to make the 3-4 defense work. And I honestly don't think they're looking at this (transition to a new defense) as a three- or four-year deal. They don't have that kind of time.
"They know they have to get back to the playoffs with this young team. And their offense is good enough. Their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, is excellent and going to get better. If they can make improvements on defense and start stopping people, they will jump right back in it."
Ring it up.
(The Capital Times)