Ronald Dwayne Pitts (born October 14, 1962) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and current sportscaster. He played

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

in the National Football League for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

, and played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. Pitts has worked as a sportscaster and entertainment reporter, and currently works for

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

on its college football coverage as a fill-in play-by-play announcer, and as a co-host for the syndicated news magazine '' OK!TV''.

Early life and education

Born in

Sterling Heights Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Sterling Heights is located roughly north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had ...

and raised in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Pitts is the son of Elijah Pitts, a running back with

Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas Lombardi ( ; June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American professional football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be among the greatest coaches and leaders in Ame ...

and later a longtime assistant coach in the NFL. The family lived in southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the mid-1970s and moved to the Buffalo area in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

, where he played

Orchard Park High School Orchard Park High School is a secondary school in Orchard Park, New York. The school has approximately 1725 children in grades 9–12. The students are divided among three houses with a principal for each house and a principal who oversees the ...

and graduated in 1981. Pitts played college football back in southern California at

under head coach

Terry Donahue Terrence Michael Donahue (June 24, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American football coach and executive. He served as the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1976 to 1995, compiling a record of 151–74–8. His 15 ...

. Following his senior season in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, he played in the Japan Bowl in January, where he intercepted a Mike Tomczak pass late in the game and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown to seal the win for the West team.

Playing career

Pitts was selected in the seventh round of the

1985 NFL draft The 1985 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The NFL draft, draft was held April 30 and May 1, 1985 NFL season, 1985, at the Omni Park Central Hotel in New York City, New ...

and had a brief playing career in which he played for the

and the

. Injured in his first mini-camp, he missed the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

season. From

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, Pitts played 66 games at

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, starting six times. He had seven career

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team bu ...

. One of Pitts's interceptions came off of

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

hall of famer

Jerry Rice Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played for 20 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He won three Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers before two shorter ...

. In December 1988, he returned a punt for a touchdown against the Phoenix Cardinals.

Broadcasting career

After retiring as a player, Pitts pursued a career in broadcasting. Pitts first joined the newly-formed Fox Sports in 1994. Pitts served as an analyst alongside Kenny Albert (1994), Thom Brennaman (1995–1997) and Ray Bentley (1998–2000). Then, in 2001, Pitts was promoted to lead sideline reporter for the final season of the

Pat Summerall George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American professional American football, football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS Sports, CBS, Fox Sports (USA), Fox, and ESPN Sunday Night Football, ESP ...

and John Madden pairing. Pitts was then placed back into the booth calling play-by-play of games working alongside Dwight Clark(2002), Marv Levy (2002),

John Jurkovic Ivan "John" Jurkovic (born August 18, 1967) is a former American football player currently employed as a broadcaster. He grew up in Calumet City, Illinois. Jurkovic played professionally as a defensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers, Ja ...

(2002), Dave Krieg (2002), Tim Ryan (2003–2005),

(2006), J.C. Pearson (2006),

Jesse Palmer Jesse James Palmer (born October 5, 1978) is a Canadian television personality, sports commentator, and former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons in the early 2000s. Palmer played ...

(2006),

Tony Boselli Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. (born April 17, 1972) is an American professional football executive and former player who is the executive vice president of football operations for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). ...

(2007–2008), John Lynch (2009–2010), Jim Mora (2011) &

Mike Martz Michael Martz (born May 13, 1951) is an American American football, football coach. Best known for his coaching tenure with the History of the St. Louis Rams, St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL), he served as the offensive coor ...

(2012). Following 19 years calling games as analyst, sideline reporter & play-by-play announcer, Pitts left Fox Sports following the 2012 NFL season and was later replaced by Kevin Burkhardt. He also co-hosted ''Under the Helmet'' (a weekly E/I program full of NFL-related segments for younger viewers) and former

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

programs ''Total Access'' (whose name was later adopted by

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League NTP and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and N ...

for its own newscast) and ''Hardcore Football''. Earlier in his broadcasting career, Pitts worked as a

analyst for

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial America ...

and a correspondent for

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

. In 2014, Pitts joined CBS Sports Network as a play-by-play announcer doing a limited number of games

Acting career

Pitts also had a cameo as a sports commentator in the film '' Hot Shots! Part Deux''. He also appears as an alternate version of himself during the " Eggheads" episode of the American TV series '' Sliders''. He is also mentioned in the 1984

Alex Cox Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954) is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with ''Repo Man (film), Repo Man'' (1984) and ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986 ...

movie '' Repo Man'', in a college football radio broadcast heard in the background as the robbers bungle their way out of a store and just before the main characters walk in. He played a TV Reporter in a speaking role in the 1996 film ''

The Birdcage ''The Birdcage'' is a 1996 American comedy film produced and directed by Mike Nichols. Elaine May's screenplay adapted the 1978 French film ''La Cage aux Folles (film), La Cage aux Folles'', itself an adaptation of a La Cage aux Folles (play), 1 ...

''. Pitts' voice was featured as an announcer in Microsoft's ''NFL Fever'', a football video game for the original Xbox. In 2008, Pitts was hired to host a new show on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

named '' Destroyed In Seconds''. The show features video clips of disasters, accidents, and other destructive events, both natural and man-made.

Personal life

His father, Elijah Pitts (1938–1998), was a running back for the Packers and was part of all five

NFL championship Throughout its history, the National Football league (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national ...

teams under Lombardi, including the first two

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

s. Ron Pitts is mentioned briefly as one of several players' children who visited the Packers' locker room in

Jerry Kramer Gerald Louis Kramer (born January 23, 1936) is an American former professional football player, author and sports commentator. He played 11 years as a guard and placekicker with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He w ...

's diary of the

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

season, ''

Instant Replay Instant replay or action replay is a video reproduction of something that recently occurred, both shot and broadcast live TV, live. After being shown live, the video is replayed so viewers can see it again and analyze what just happened. Spo ...

''. He has two sons named Lee and Shea, who both currently play college football. His older son, Lee Pitts, is a defensive back at Azusa Pacific University, while his younger son, Shea Pitts, is a defensive back at his father's alma mater UCLA. Shea wears #47, as his Father did, at UCLA. His sister, Kimberly R. Pitts, DO, is a former power lifter and a physician in Southeast Texas.

References

*''The

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Pro Football Encyclopedia''. New York: Sterling, 2006

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitts, Ron 1962 births Living people American football defensive backs Buffalo Bills players College football announcers Green Bay Packers players NFL announcers Players of American football from Detroit UCLA Bruins football players People from Orchard Park, New York Players of American football from Erie County, New York College basketball announcers in the United States