City To Country Magazine July/Aug 2016 July/Aug | Page 9

COVERSTORY

It’s to realize there is only one God,
and it’s not me.
The future is unlimited.
I have many more roads to travel.

communications. He knew Pat could hold a crowd with
a story. Pat traveled all over the world with Dr. Farber,
who encouraged and arranged many fascinating and lifechanging experiences for Pat, like speaking to NATO in
1969 about “youth unrest” and the world. Pat went on to
graduate school at the prestigious School for Advanced
Studies in Washington, DC. It was there he met Tom
Brokaw, who was also a former Dr. Farber student and
who helped Pat get a job at the local NBC station. On
his first day, Pat met the legendary David Brinkley, who
hired him as his assistant and researcher. After this, Pat
went to Chicago as a writer, then became an anchor on
air in Chicago, where he won multiple Emmy awards in
news. After Chicago, he was off to Los Angeles to report
and anchor the news at CBS in Los Angeles, where he
won even more Emmys!
Pat’s boss in LA became president of CBS Sports and
brought him to the network in 1980. It was in LA
where Pat started hosting NFL Today and all of college
basketball, which included tournaments and the Final
Four. The NBA is also where he invented meaningful
halftimes with At the Half, hosted several NBA Finals,
four Super Bowls, 25 US Open Tennis Championships,
as well as hosted and reported at eight Olympic games.
He also reported all of college football for CBS. In the
late ‘90s, NBC hired Pat to develop and host Access
Hollywood. From there, Pat went back to CBS for the
show Insider. Pat said, “Nobody has been more blessed
to have a more diverse and successful career, and I’m
grateful every day for that.”

Pat O’Brien is a man with many talents. In addition to
hosting and reporting, Pat recently wrote a book that
is a New York Times bestseller, I’ll Be Back Right After
This: My Memoir, which is currently available for sale
on Amazon. Pat wanted to clear-up the gossip and the
Internet chatter about what other people thought his life
was about. Not only was it a New York Times bestseller,
it was a tear-jerking and laugh-out-loud book about his
life. It is also almost a textbook on what it’s like to go
through alcoholism publicly and come out the other side.
Pat’s motto was from Churchill, who said, “When you
are walking through Hell, keep walking.” Pat told City
to Country Magazine, “I’m proud of everything I have
done, and it’s in that book. It’s a little Forrest Gumpish.”
Pat O’Brien has lived a blessed life, but not without a
few stumbles. He’s been very public about his battle
with alcohol. He overcame his struggle and now follows
a spiritual path, helping hundreds of people in the
addiction community. Once he found his spiritual path,
Pat became more free, happy, and joyous every day. Pat
is also a loving father to his son, Sean. He loves spending
time with his son, and fortunately, Sean, being the loving
son he is, still loves spending time with dad. Pat strives to
spend as much time with him as he can.
Something Pat’s fans may not be aware of is he still
loves to tap dance! Remember, his mom enrolled him
at age three. It’s one of the things, besides being a
great dad, that he feels he’s really good at. He used
to dance with some of the greats like Gregory Hines

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