Billy Packer influence at this week's British Open? Sort of

0 Comments | USA TODAY, July, 2006 | by Michael Hiestand

Brandt Packer has a standard reply when people bring up his father: "Yes, I am his son. But I had nothing to do with fill-in-the-blank.''

He's filled plenty such blanks, given his father is longtime CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer, who's able to incite viewers without really trying. Like this spring, when Billy's innocuous comments on whether enough power conference teams got in the NCAA tournament made him the bete noire of fans of long shots.

Off-air, Billy was an interesting parental role model. When he lived alongside a golf course, he regularly played holes backwards. He hired a psychic to look for clues in the O.J. Simpson murder. And going to work, he'd drop Brandt in TV production trucks outside arenas -- starting when Brandt was just 5.

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