Hirdt enjoying long run as stats guru
Steve Hirdt, executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau and a New Yorker, visits MetLife Stadium Monday night for Giants game as he begins his 30th year as "Monday Night Football's" traveling stats guru, making him the longest-running part of the show in its 40-year history, including anyone in front of or behind the cameras. Frank Gifford is second at 27 years (Sept. 15, 2011) Credit: Craig Ruttle
Tony Dorsett hadn't yet crossed the goal line before Steve Hirdt crossed over to director Chet Forte.
"I said, 'Tell Howard that is the longest run in the history of the league,' '' Hirdt said, recalling a seminal moment in his "Monday Night Football'' career.
Sure enough, 10 seconds after Dorsett scored against the Vikings on Jan. 3, 1983, Howard Cosell was telling a national TV audience, "That's a 99 1/2-yard run, I think the longest run in the history of the NFL.''
Frank Gifford chimed in, "It is. It is.''
Hirdt said Thursday what he thought at the time: "That worked pretty well.''
So it has gone over a run that has survived changes in executives, production teams, announcers -- from Cosell to O.J. Simpson to Dennis Miller to Jon Gruden, to name a few -- and even networks, from ABC to ESPN.
Through it all, Hirdt, 60, has endured and is in his 30th season as the in-game statistics maven, three more years than Gifford's famously long stay.
Monday will bring a rare treat for the native of Queens, alumnus of Fordham and lifelong New Yorker: a short trip to MetLife Stadium when the Giants host the Rams.
Whether or not it turns into a statistical feast such as the Patriots-Dolphins game in Week 1, Hirdt will try to do what he did when Dorsett broke free: Come up with a nugget that is relevant, often on the fly.
The Dorsett play is a favorite, in part because he was a football rookie. But his first moment in the statistical spotlight came as a 26-year-old working the 1977 World Series for ABC.
You might know now that Reggie Jackson's three home runs in Game 6 tied Babe Ruth's single-game Series record, but most people did not in 1977 before Hirdt relayed the information.
Computers have revolutionized sports information since Hirdt joined the Elias Sports Bureau out of college -- where he majored in journalism -- making it ever more accessible and creative.
The 21st century challenge for Elias, where Hirdt is executive vice president, is to mine ever deeper, where most Internet users cannot go. On Mondays Hirdt must do so in real time, using Elias as his resource. (His son, Ken, has a similar position on NBC's "Sunday Night Football.")
Hirdt has come a long way from the early days, when he told a college classmate what he did for a living and was asked, "That's a job?''
Along the way he has helped create or popularize now-common statistics such as performance inside the 20-yard line.
Hirdt, who grew up a Jets and Mets fan, recalls watching the Jets in the first Monday game in 1970, "never dreaming at any point I'd be a part of it.'' Now he's become such a part of it he is a living reference book.
Mention the Giants' 35-32 loss to the Cowboys in 2003 and Hirdt recalls every detail, including a stat he cited that night about Bill Parcells' record when holding a late lead. (Dallas led by 15 in the fourth quarter, fell behind by three, then tied it and won in overtime.)
Three weeks later, the Colts scored 21 in the final four minutes to tie the Buccaneers, then beat them in overtime, 38-35. Hirdt and his colleagues quickly found no team had come back from that far down with so little time left to win. "I was proud of that one,'' he said.
The excitement of unearthing such details keeps him going. He compared the feeling to an old clip in which Parcells exhorts his team, saying, "This is why you lift all them weights!''
Said Hirdt: "Being on the air on a big telecast in front of millions of people, it's why we have all these historical statistics, so we can call them up and retrieve them and make a point at a moment's notice.''
