BUFFALO, N.Y. — On "RJ Night" at KeyBank Center, honoring legendary Sabres broadcaster Rick Jeanneret, the voice of the unforgettable "May Day" and "scary good" calls in Buffalo, delivered three more unforgettable words to a packed house of Sabres fans.
"I love you," he told a sold-out arena Friday night.
"I thought 'I love you' kind of summed it up. It means everything to me. I've been here for 51 years. ... It's just something that came to mind. I didn't know how to end it. I honestly didn't. I had to speak, and I had to say something, and I thought that was the best way to end it," Jeanneret said after the first intermission of "RJ Night."
"I can tell you, I almost lost it more than once. I had some difficulty. I expected the crowed to be a raucous, sold-out Buffalo crowd, there's no doubt about that whatsoever. But it overwhelmed me on a couple of occasions. I had to kind of sit back and think, in my mind anyway, that maybe I better get through this a little quicker, and I did some editing along the way. So my speech was not as I wrote it."
In an exclusive interview before the game with 2 On Your Side sports director Adam Benigni, Jeanneret talked about being the longest-tenured broadcaster with one team in NHL history.
“I don’t think it will ever happen again," he said. "In any sport, really, that you go half a century with a team. Same team. Not just the same sport, but the same team for all those years. Now you wonder why I get asked if I’m a homer or not. Yeah, so? What is it to you anyway? I’ve always admitted I was a homer. Of course I am, and proud of it.”