Harris: You have heard the voice of Trevor Matich on this show several times over the past couple of years. Trevor has been the long snapper for the Redskins and our reporter during the season and the off-season. He was nice enough to fill us in on what it was like to play football in New England during the playoffs and he went to the Super Bowl this year and called us from down there. And now he is an ex-Redskin and a member of the Fox Television broadcast team. We're so proud of him and happy to have him on the line now. Hi, Trevor!

 Matich: How you doing?

 Harris: Hey, congratulations! Every time you were on our show, you asked us to send you a tape of your appearance, and we told you to go play these tapes for those Fox guys because you're so good on the air, somebody's got to give you the job. And finally, they come through and you made the deal. We're real happy for you.

 Matich: You know what? That's very gracious of you to say and thank you. I'd love to say that I got the offer because I was so good. But no, I got lucky lucky lucky, that's what happened.

 Predictor: What happened?

 Matich: During training camp this year, the Redskins PR department came and asked me if I would co-host a half-hour weekly television show on Home Team Sports along with Richie Owens called, Inside The Redskins. I said, okay, I'll do that. Richie and I did that all year. Little did I know, but the guy whose baby or whose brainchild Inside The Redskins was at HTS went off in September to be one of the top guys with Fox Sports in LA. But, since it was his show, he monitored it all season long, and I guess he thought I did a good job. Segue now to November of this last year. James Brown of Fox -- JB, their studio host -- came out to Redskin Park to do interviews for a feature on Terry Allen. Bill Brown, formerly of HTS, told him to interview me. Well, the interview went really well and I made sure to give him my Freddy Krueger story and the Jello-In-The-Bathtub story, and it all went well. So the next thing I know, James Brown is out in LA pitching me to Fox and who's in the room when he's pitching me but Bill Brown, formerly of HTS. So both of them ganged up and the next thing I know, I'm on a first class flight to LA to do an audition.

 Harris: Wow, that's fantastic!

 Predictor: So, your work on our show did get you the job!

 Matich: [laughs] Yeah, I will pay you guys 27% of everything I make for the rest of my life.

 Predictor: Good deal!

 Harris: Yeah, fantastic. Now, you get to the audition process, and what happens there?

 Matich: We did a Dallas-Philly game from last season. They had the game on video, they had a producer in my ear just like it would be in a live game, telling me what replays were coming up and things like that, and then JB did the play-by-play and I did color.

 Harris: It's not like you're working with some rookie play-by-play guy who's also nervous. JB, who's Mr. Smooth, is there to help you along.

 Matich: And Mr. Smooth JB was smoother than he's ever been. I mean, he did a really great job and made it easy for me. At one point, though, I did get myself in a little trouble. You guys know I like to have fun, and sometimes I may like to have more fun than other people want me to have. I learned the difference between DC radio and national television. Let me set this up. As a backdrop to this, there was a player -- I won't say which player -- from a team -- I won't say which team -- who allegedly did something. Does that satisfy your legal department?

 Harris: Yes. It was Michael Irvin?

 Matich: This is the way this was reported. This particular player, a couple of years ago, met an underage dancer at a gentlemen's establishment. He brought her home. He and his buddies were getting, I guess, a little too forward with her. She locked herself in a bedroom and called 911.

 Harris: Oh, it's definitely Michael Irvin.

 Predictor: No, it's Eric Williams!

 Matich: The cops show up and this particular player sent the cops away saying that there was no problem and that there must have been a mistake. They went back down the driveway towards their cruiser and they looked upstairs at a window to see an underage scantily-clad dancer from a gentlemen's club banging on the window saying, "Come back! Come back!" So they came back and there was a big to-do about it. Eventually charges were dropped and who knows what was true? It was just reported in the papers.

 Harris: You thought it would be smart to bring this up during your audition?

 Matich: No, I didn't bring that up. That was just backdrop. So we're in the audition. There is a replay featuring this particular player beating up on an opposing player after the whistle. So I said, "JB, that guy is a vicious football player. And I have it on good authority that you may not want to let your daughter go to one of his parties."

 Harris: Uh-oh.

 Matich: [imitating producer] "Cut! Cut! Stop the tape and rewind!" [himself reacting] "Why? Why? That's funny!" [producer] "No, you can't say that." [himself] "Why? That's funny!" So, anyway, I learned then that you can't say that. So I promise I won't make any more comments on the air with Fox. But with you guys, hey, bar the door buddy, because we're going to town.

 Harris: Do you know who you're going to be teamed with for the games?

 Matich: I don't know. They haven't set it up yet. As a matter of fact, there's a big seminar coming up the second week of July in San Diego with Fox's whole broadcast team - Madden, Summerall, and all their rest - for about four days. And a lot of things will be resolved at that point.

 Predictor: What I would do is get the Jack Buck family tree.

 Harris: Jimmy Buck, Jeff Buck, Joe won't be there yet. Yeah, you'd better hope it's not Kenny Albert because you can't joke about any scandal stuff around him either.

 Matich: I'm not saying anything. I'm going to wear a football mouthpiece and just listen while I'm there for that time.

 Harris: How many games will you be doing next year?

 Matich: It'll be a minimum of two and a maximum of five.

 Harris: Well, I know for a fact it's going to be Tampa Bay-Seattle and those kinds of games. The beginner games.

 Matich: No, it's not going to be Dallas-Redskins on Monday night, let's put it that way. That's the way they always start with a guy that's got no name. Really, this is really a huge blessing to come down the way it did because I have no name and I've haven't been to a Pro Bowl, and really I shouldn't get a phone call returned from these people. My agent represents more broadcasters than he does athletes, and he's just ecstatic with this whole thing. Even though the Redskins wanted me back, he was the first one to tell me that I needed to go and take this offer because it might never come back.

 Harris: You're the Susan Molinari of football!

 Matich: No, no, no, no, no! She's much too liberal for my tastes, but that's a whole other conversation. But you know what's funny? I've been agonizing over this thing and for three weeks I haven't slept because how do you walk away from a year in the NFL that's essentially assured that you'll always be around? Not all the way, but pretty close. You look at the emotion of playing in the new Redskins stadium and playing Dallas on Monday Night Football and all those things. Emotionally, it's a no-brainer to stay. But at the same time...

 Harris: You've got to set yourself up for life here.

 Matich: Well, that's how I looked at it. The way I looked at it was I've got one year left in the NFL, maybe a spectacular year. I think the Redskins will be excellent this year. But if the Fox thing pans out well -- and it may not, there are no guarantees there either -- but if it does, then I'll be working 25 weeks a year, making six figures, and I'll be an NFL insider for the rest of my life. Now, do I jeopardize that for one year in the NFL? That was the quandary and that's what was so difficult about it.

 Harris: I'm sure that the surgery also had something in the back of your mind, too. How did that work out and how are you feeling?

 Matich: I had eight hours of surgery. I had four hours on my right elbow, and I can straighten my arm out for the first time in three years.

 Harris: Good for you!

 Matich: Take your right arm and put it at 45 degrees and then straighten it out about six inches. That's 40 degrees. That's how straight I could get my arm for three years. Now, for the first time in three years, I can actually follow through. Then I tore a rotator cuff in my left shoulder in September. The doctor said there was two inches torn off the bone and it took him about three and a half hours to repair that.

 Predictor: You don't need that crap anymore.

 Matich: But I'm fixed now and I'm healthy. Either way, there's something to be said about doing a job where they're not trying to pound you into submission physically.

 Harris: I'm listening to you talk, and I've said this to you off the air and on the air several times before: Matt Millen was called the Junior John Madden. You are the Junior Matt Millen. You have got the gift of gab, you've got the vocabulary, you've got it all. You're going to be a hit at Fox and we're really proud of you.

 Matich: Thanks! Call them up and tell them that! I appreciate you saying that. What this amounts to is a big tryout. If it goes well, then we do more.

 Harris: And if not you can always crawl back to us.

 Matich: Crawl, yes, and crawl I would. I'd always crawl to you. It's a lifestyle.

 Harris: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Trevor, thanks for calling in this afternoon. It means a lot to us that we can stay in touch. Now that you're going to be on TV, you're going to forget about us but it was nice knowing you!

 Matich: I'll remember you when I'm up there doing the games. "Oh, yeah, I think I know those guys."

 Predictor: You won't be the first person to step on us, that's for sure.

 Matich: No, I look forward to talking to you more in the future. I'll keep you up to date because I'll be living in this area anyway. So we'll just take it from there!

 Harris: Thanks, Trevor!

 Matich: Okay, talk to you later.

 Harris: Trevor Matich, leaving the Redskins to go be a Fox broadcaster.

 Predictor: He's a sure thing. I wish he was a stock because I'd put money on him.

Copyright 1997, Paul Harris.
Transcript by Danny Guzman.