That was your media savvy talking.

Right. Then NBC called, and I did four games, but one plane ticket was more than I got paid for a game. One game in Cleveland, the audience was so small we could’ve called ’em out by name — “Hey, John, what’d you think of that pass?” So the next year they hired me to do 16 games, and I said, “I want four grand a game, not two.” And the guy said, “Nope, that’s way too much for you,” and that’s the last I heard from him! Didn’t work the entire second year. But that’s why I can appreciate Aaron Rodgers. I broadcast games for years before anyone heard me and almost got fired a bunch of times for saying stupid things. And for me, that was a blessing; I grew into the role, whereas the latest, greatest star that walks into the booth — Joe Namath, Bill Walsh, that streak of guys they went through — has to do Monday Night Football because they’re paying him so much, and he’s not ready to do it.

So how did you find your voice?

What’s that Larry Bird line? He said he shot baskets six hours a day for fear that there was some kid shooting seven hours a day. We had a guy who did all our research at Inside the NFL, and one day I said, “Well, what if I was both the research and the on-air guy — wouldn’t that be better?” And so I just went to work: I have five DVRs taping everything ESPN and the NFL Network put on, I’ve got Short Cuts versions of every game played, and I’m breaking down film for next Sunday’s game on the plane home from this week’s game. But the hardest thing, honestly, is getting to a point where I know at least as much about the Pittsburgh Steelers as the local bellhops do. I used to talk to those guys when I got to town and then thought, Why wait till I fly in? And so I started a website [footballpros.com] where I can interact with those guys and thousands of other fans. Now when I interview Steelers players, I’ve got 20 issues ready to talk about.

What about during the game? How are you able to see two things at once, like the pulling guard and the ball?

Oh, I don’t follow the ball — never have. Al Michaels does that; that’s his job.

Really? So what are you watching?

I’m like a hitter at the plate, guessing run or pass, watching the secondary or linebacker play. It’s a little embarrassing when you don’t know who scored, and it’s happened before, trust me. I call myself an idiot 20 times per night for missing things or tripping over a line. That’s why I tell my wife, “Don’t anticipate I’ll be doing this again next year,” because I know how this business is. The most dangerous time is when you’re trying to say something funny. For instance, we’re doing the Philly-Atlanta game, and I’d asked John Abraham about tackling Mike Vick, and he said, “Impossible. It’s like trying to sneak up on a cat.” I thought, That’s pretty funny; I’m going to use that in the broadcast. Then Al says to me, “You can’t say that on air — Mike went to jail for killing dogs.” In a million years I wouldn’t have made that connection, the cat to the dog to Mike going to jail, but that’s the kind of linkage that’ll get you fired these days.

We live in an age of fake outrage. Not sure how we got here, but it’s bad.

Well, journalism is so reactive now. ESPN did a thing about Tim Tebow where all these people just vilify him on Facebook and Twitter. Here’s this sweet kid who lives a stand-up life, and he’s getting crushed for it. Man, if he’s getting crushed, we’re all getting crushed. I might have to use that law degree yet.

On the subject of Twitter, so many players use it to trash-talk and hog attention. You OK with all this look-at-me stuff?

I pay attention to the guys who don’t do that stuff, and make an effort to undersell the guys who draw attention to themselves. Ninety-five percent of the guys affiliated with this game are tremendous people, and yet we spend all our time talking about the other 5 percent. All of it!

After years of looking the other way on concussions, the league’s finally taking steps to protect players. Fines aside, though, what needs to be done to protect them from themselves?

I admire the commissioner for taking the heat — defensive players are really upset with him now — but are fines and flags enough to stop this? We have brain damage going on because of head-to-head collisions, and that can’t be debated any longer. It cuts to the heart of the game, and to whether Middle America will still want its kids to play. Helmet technology has to improve, but because of liability risks, there’s no race to the top. There are so few manufacturers left that you wonder if the only people who’ll be rich enough to make them will be in the NFL.

You speak as someone who’s had concussions.

Yeah, I had several, and in those days if you came out of the game, people would go, “What’s the matter with you?” It’s insane what happens on that field, but I don’t think the game is going away. In our parents’ generation, boys learned discipline from some sergeant standing over them. Today it’s high school coaches doing that; football’s become the military for a generation of kids, and that’s why it’s so important that we continue to play it, even if we have to change the rules. The greatest thing about it is, no matter where you’re from or how much money you have, you’re gonna get knocked on your ass. You’re gonna get embarrassed, you’ll lose, it’ll be awful — but you’ll learn how to handle it. There’s no substitute for a scoreboard — you either won or you lost — and I’ll forever miss that about playing.