Before “Fox NFL Sunday” goes live on air, Howie Long is seen writing. Ask the colleagues around him on the set, and they’ll say he’s always writing.
Michael Strahan teases Long about it. Jimmy Johnson laughs at what he calls “volumes” of notes. Terry Bradshaw lovingly calls the often-serious Long “boring” when he doesn’t chime in on jokes — primarily because he’s focused on his notes. Jay Glazer said Long’s handwriting is so small that he has no idea how Long reads his notes.
No matter the situation, Long makes sure to jot down detailed notes—even if he admits to using less than 10 percent of those.
“It’s the way I’ve always done things. Everybody’s got their little quirks, and those are mine,” Long said.
It’s hard to argue with Long’s approach. Attention to detail helped him become a 1981 second-round NFL Draft pick from Villanova and carve out a Pro Football Hall of Fame career as a defensive lineman with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Attention to detail also is a reason for his standout career in broadcasting, as he’s put together a résumé highlighted by 30-plus years with Fox.
That focus and detail carry over into the rest of his life, as well. The meticulous approach to being a father and husband is similar to how he aspired for greatness playing for the Raiders and how he has honed his craft as a broadcaster.
He can be the target of a joke with his colleagues and peers, but because of Long’s preparation with everything he does, so many of them will be the first to say they admire and respect him as a person.
“Everything that Howie does, he is extremely thorough, and he’s as prepared as any individual I’ve ever known,” Johnson said. “Doesn’t make any difference what endeavor it is — whether it’s getting ready for ‘Fox NFL Sunday,’ whether it’s getting ready for a football game, whether it’s talking to his sons in their preparation for a game or for television — he is as thoroughly prepared as anybody I’ve ever known.”
Long away from football television is a story in itself. He is a happily married man and a dedicated father and grandfather. He is the person Glazer consults with regarding fatherhood, as well as the blueprint for a successful marriage. Rob Gronkowski said Long is a helpful work colleague and an even stronger role model.
And Bradshaw has so much trust in him that it was Long he first confided in after finding out he had cancer in 2021.
The Fox crew once had programming meetings in California scheduled on Saturdays. Long asked if meetings could instead be moved to Sunday mornings to have traveling time after watching Chris play high school football in Virginia on Friday nights. The network agreed to Sundays with one major caveat: The first time Bradshaw was late, meetings would go back to Saturdays.
Long made himself responsible for picking up Bradshaw to make sure he would be on time.
“Howie might be the best human being I know,” said Bill Richards, executive producer of “Fox NFL Sunday.” “It’s just who he is, 24/7, and he’s not 1 percent fake.”
Raiders legend Howie Long in attendance tonight. pic.twitter.com/gvtS04VsqW
— Vegas Sports Today (@VegasSportsTD) December 17, 2024
Long’s pattern of devotion starts with his late grandmother, Elizabeth Hilton Mullan, who raised him and helped instill core values. Long, who turns 65 in January, grew up in the 1970s during desegregation in Boston, and Mullan instilled in him to treat all people the same.
A stellar high school athletic career allowed him to find a home in the Philadelphia area, where he played college football at Villanova. A four-year letter winner, Long was the MVP of the 1980 Blue-Gray Football Classic — despite the fact he made the team only as an injury replacement. Long said he was chosen because he played in high school with the son of one of the coaches on the selection committee, Harvard’s Joe Restic.
Long’s coach in the game? Jimmy Johnson.
“He got the MVP award not only by being a good player but, from what I recall, he blocked a kick,” Johnson said of Long. “We weren’t supposed to block kicks in that game, but he ended up being the MVP because of it.”
Long’s always chosen to be overprepared rather than underprepared, so his no-nonsense approach isn’t for show.
A football play lasts only a few seconds, and on television, Long might speak for 20-25 seconds at a time. But he would rather be ready to discuss a backup right guard than enter a conversation unprepared. It’s part of what his colleagues at Fox admire about Long — the preparation and dedication to the craft.
It’s also why they chuckle about Long. Because amid a Bradshaw joke, who really wants to talk about the right guard?
But Long’s approach works for him.
“You just fill your head with information. What’s the harm in being overprepared?” he said. “I don’t know any other way.”
Long’s regimented ways yielded results on the football field. He was an eight-time Pro Bowler and a three-time All-Pro, and he was a part of the Raiders team that won Super Bowl XVIII in Tampa, Fla. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
Howie Long earned his Pro Football Hall of Fame gold jacket in 2000. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Being a creature of habit was a big reason why. Long said for years he took the same route to Raiders practice. If the 1980s teams did not provide food in the facility like teams do now, he’d stop at the same restaurant for breakfast.
Long said he always took diligent notes as a Raider. When preparing for an opponent, he might be told a team runs a certain play out of a certain formation 14 out of 20 times. Hearing that was only part of the planning and processing for Long.
“I would write it out 14 times under the formation so that when the (offensive) huddle broke in that formation, I could divide the field in half with the percentages,” he said. “And so, I’d cheat my stance 3 inches.
“I’ve always been that kind of a person that wants to see everything. I want to hear everything. I want to see everything that might pop up. Here’s the thing: I think a lot of people are probably like this to a certain extent. By the end of the day, really, you use about 8 percent of what’s in your bucket. I’d rather be overprepared by 92 percent than underprepared by 20 percent.”
When Long first auditioned for a position at Fox, then-producer David Hill was looking for a coach, an offensive player and a defensive player for an hour-long pregame show. He wanted a host who would serve as a point guard but would allow the others to express themselves.
Being too prepared almost cost Long an opportunity. Hill was looking more for a laid-back analyst to where the show would be viewed as conversational and less traditional, almost as if friends were sitting in a backyard and talking football.
“I came in with, like, 100 pages of notes, and I’d watched every game there was to watch,” Long said. “I literally spoke to the commissioner, spoke to coaches. … I was stiff, buttoned up, and tried to just be the classic broadcaster kind of guy.”
Bradshaw still laughs when recalling the “6-inch stack of notes” Long brought to the tryout. “Information overload” is what Bradshaw called it. But Bradshaw knew what he could eventually have in a broadcast partner, and he asked Hill if he and Long could audition again together.
Before the second audition, Bradshaw gave Long a pep talk.
“I told Howie as best I could, ‘Put the notes down; it’s just me and you covering this,’” Bradshaw said. “Just give me your opinions and be a little more relaxed and not quite as intense.”
The second chance resulted in Fox hiring Long. Thirty-plus years later, Long is still a mainstay on one of Fox’s most popular sports shows.
Long still prepares with intensity, almost like someone calling a game rather than as an analyst for pregame and postgame shows. But Strahan said Long’s analytical football mind is a bonus on the set.
Long’s serious mindset sometimes can miss the messages of the playful side of his colleagues, and most of the time, Long is a good sport if he’s the butt of a joke.
Teasing Long’s family, however, is the line that most of the Fox crew members refuse to cross. He met his wife, Diane, while at Villanova, and the two were married in 1982. Two of their three sons, Chris and Kyle, had solid careers in the NFL. Chris won a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots and another with the Philadelphia Eagles. Kyle played seven seasons with the Chicago Bears. Long’s third son, Howie Jr., works in premium sales for the Raiders.
Long is a Pro Football Hall of Famer, but he’s a proud husband, father and grandfather before all. (Andy Lewis / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Strahan said Long is always talking about his wife, sons and grandchildren. He’ll FaceTime from the set with the grandchildren and is always showing off photos.
Anything negative about them — in jest or not — is a bad idea.
“You know how people say, ‘Don’t you talk about my family,’ and they’re kind of joking?” Strahan said. “With Howie, you talk about his family, you’re on your own. I can’t help you.”
And sometimes, jokes become uncomfortable situations in Long’s presence. Glazer, considered the prankster of the Fox group, once gave Long a card with a fake lottery ticket for the holidays. The fake was a winning ticket for $25,000.
What happened next was in typical Long fashion.
“‘I think I won $25,000,’” Glazer recalled Long saying. “He turns to the assistant who gave him the card and says, ‘Here you go. Merry Christmas.’ I’m saying, ‘No!’
“But that’s Howie. He was literally like, wow, I just got $25,000 … I’m going to give it to somebody else. That sums him.”
Long as a straight shooter has been vital for the growth of Gronkowski as an analyst and the newest member of the crew. Gronkowski, who arrived as a contributor to Fox in 2019, said Long isn’t selfish with his knowledge and is someone anyone can lean on.
“If I’m struggling to come up with a fact or talking point, he’ll share that fact that he has,” Gronkowski said. “He’ll give me a talking point, and I’ll use that talking point. He won’t even ask for any of the credit. That just shows what type of guy he is, how humble he is. He knows the game of football like no one else and loves to talk X’s and O’s.”
To Long, the Fox crew is like family. Most of the members have seen his three sons grow up and have successful careers. Long calls Bradshaw the older brother he never knew he needed. Long’s children know Bradshaw as “Uncle Terry.”
Long (right) was one of the few people Terry Bradshaw confided as he dealt with cancer in 2021 and 2022. (Lily Hernandez / Fox Sports)
Bradshaw recalls the September 2022 incident when he lost his breath and needed Long’s assistance. Long was compassionate well before Bradshaw shared his diagnosis to the public the following month.
“Athletes, we’re really macho people,” Bradshaw said. “We talk smack all the time, but we don’t live our lives like that. When I had cancer, I didn’t tell the other people, but I told Howie because of our friendship. He cares about me, and I needed to talk to somebody.”
When Long retired from the Raiders following the 1993 season, he found a second brotherhood with his Fox colleagues. He still loves the Raiders. He’s measured when he has to discuss or criticize them. It would be easy to take shots at the team, but he doesn’t.
Long said he has one year left on his Fox contract after this season. He said he’ll continue to work “as long as they want me to.” He jokes about ditching his trademark flattop haircut if he does retire.
In the meanwhile, Long will continue to enjoy himself and all the moments and friendships created at Fox. Even if that means writing more notes, hearing more jokes and maintaining a meticulous approach to what’s been a very successful broadcasting career among a group of talented individuals.
“Howie is the grown-up in the room that makes sure we have respectability,” Richards said. “Not that the other people aren’t, but Howie is never gonna let us cross the line in a bad way. And that’s really important to me.”
(Top photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
