Olbermann: Collinsworth is "gracious, generous, ultra-informed"

A quick note on this:

The only fly in the ointment might be Cris Collinsworth. The NFL Network's color man has given every indication of being an arch-traditionalist, from his towel-snapping demeanor with other jocks on sports talk programs to his tone-deaf defense of Rush Limbaugh on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" ("Is he really the worst person in the world? The whole world?"). (From "How NFL Network could make history")

Nobody - but nobody - was more supportive of me during Football Night In America than Cris -- just as he was when we worked together at Fox. The Limbaugh thing was a mix-it-up moment (he tweaks me like that; I tweak him like this: we do green night and turn the lights out in the studio and I shout "Collinsworth stole my WALLET," and afterwards he says that was the funniest line of the night). He's gracious, generous, ultra-informed, and the non-cliched version of the phrase "team player."

And as to "arch-tradition." In 2000 at Fox he told me if the NFL didn't alter the rules it would get one of its quarterbacks killed on the field. And last season, he was the first guy to point out the ludicrousness of the NFL destroying the evidence in Tape-Gate. I would actually place him on that very short list of Sportscasters You Can Believe.

-- Keith Olbermann