Gary Dennis Danielson (born September 10, 1951) is an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

commentator and former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. Danielson was a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

from 1976 to 1984 and for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

in 1985, 1987, and 1988. Since 2006, he has worked for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

as a commentator for its

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

college football coverage and previously held the same position for

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

from 1997 through 2005 and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

from 1990 through 1996.

Playing career

Danielson played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

Divine Child High School Divine Child High School, commonly known as Divine Child (DC), is a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory, parish high school in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Divine Child is ranked among the top 15 percent of private high schools i ...

under Tony Versaci in Dearborn,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, and graduated from the school in 1969. In his junior and senior years, as starting quarterback, he helped Divine Child win two straight

Catholic High School League The Catholic High School League (CHSL) is a school athletic conference based in Detroit, Michigan, led by director Victor Michaels. Most member schools are also members of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), the governing body fo ...

championships. He played

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

and graduated in 1973 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

industrial management In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complications to the perfe ...

. He would later earn a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

in 1976. Danielson had succeeded

Mike Phipps Michael Elston Phipps (born January 19, 1947) is a former American college and professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. Phipps played college footbal ...

as the Boilermakers' starting quarterback in 1970 and had 14 touchdown passes and 30 interceptions with a 45.6 percent completion rate in three seasons as a starter. Danielson spent two years in the short-lived

World Football League The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest t ...

as a non-starter, with the New York Stars/Charlotte Hornets in 1974 and the

Chicago Winds The Chicago Winds was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was so named because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City." The Winds played at Soldier Field and the team was assigned to the WFL's Weste ...

in 1975. The Winds franchise folded a month before the league's collapse in October, and Danielson signed with the Lions for the 1976 season. He amassed 13,764 passing yards and 81

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s in 101 games in the NFL. He ranks fourth in Lions history in passing yards and touchdowns. His five touchdowns in a 1978 game against the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

is still tied for a Lions record.

Broadcasting career

Danielson got a start on his broadcasting career before his playing days were over. He was a part-time anchor/reporter at

WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio faciliti ...

during the off-season while a member of the Lions. In Cleveland, he co-hosted a

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

show while a member of the Browns. After retiring from the Browns, Danielson joined

as a

analyst. He continued to work in that capacity for ESPN/

until 2006 when he joined

as a

analyst, partnered with

Verne Lundquist Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. (born July 17, 1940) is an American sportscaster. Biography Early life and career Lundquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, before attending Texas Lutheran U ...

(and currently

Brad Nessler Bradley Ray Nessler (born June 3, 1956) is an American sportscaster, who currently calls college football and college basketball games for CBS Sports. Career Early assignments Nessler began his professional broadcasting career sharing play� ...

) on the network's primary broadcast team during

telecasts. He also serves as the college football radio analyst for

Paul Finebaum Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, former columnist, and television-radio personality. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. After many years as a reporter, columnist, and sports-talk radio host in the Birmin ...

where he appears weekly during the college football season. Starting in the 2011 college football season, Danielson became a weekly guest on '' Mike's On: Francesa on the FAN'' with

Mike Francesa Michael Patrick Francesa (born March 20, 1954) is an American sports-radio talk-show host. Together with Chris Russo, he launched ''Mike and the Mad Dog'' in 1989 on WFAN in New York City, which ran until 2008 and is one of the most successful s ...

. He has also become a regular guest on ''

The Dan Patrick Show ''The Dan Patrick Show'' is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show, hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by Patrick and is syndicated to radio stations by Premiere Radio Networks, within and indepen ...

''.

Personal life

Danielson is married to wife Kristy with whom he has four children. The two met in college at Purdue, where Kristy's father,

George King George King may refer to: Politics * George King (Australian politician) (1814–1894), New South Wales and Queensland politician * George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston (1771–1839), Irish nobleman and MP for County Roscommon * George Clift King (18 ...

, was the head basketball coach and athletic director. The Danielson family resided in

Rochester Hills, Michigan Rochester Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 76,300. It is the 14th-largest city in Michigan. The area was first occupied by settlers of European descent in 1 ...

and the children attended

Rochester Adams High School Rochester Adams High School (also known as Adams High School, Adams, or AHS) is a public high school located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and is part of the Rochester Community Schools district. Academics Rochester Adams High School has been ...

. His son, Matt, played college football at Northwestern. Danielson ran an importing and exporting business with former Lions teammate James Jones in the early 1990s. He has also invested in business ventures with former Browns teammate

Bernie Kosar Bernard Joseph Kosar Jr. (born November 25, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played collegiately at the University of Miami where he led the team to a national championship in 1983. He subsequently played professionally in ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Danielson, Gary 1951 births Living people Alliance of American Football announcers American football quarterbacks ArenaBowl broadcasters Arena football announcers Cleveland Browns players College football announcers Detroit Lions players National Football League announcers National Football League replacement players New York Stars players Players of American football from Detroit Purdue Boilermakers football players Sportspeople from Dearborn, Michigan