“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek’s death Sunday at the age of 80 has saddened many viewers. He died peacefully at home with his family and friends around him.
Trebek had been fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Forbes reports. He had hosted “Jeopardy!” since 1984 and remained on the show through his cancer treatments.
NFL ‘Jeopardy!’ Moments
The National Football League is honoring Trebek’s memory by recalling all the times football players referenced “Jeopardy!,” and all the times “Jeopardy!” questions referenced football.
“We are saddened by the passing of Alex Trebek, one of the absolute greats,” @NFLFilms tweeted Sunday. “A true icon who will be missed beyond measure.”
NFL Films also tweeted a video clip compiling “Jeopardy!” football moments.
The video clip amusingly flashes back to a show in September of 2017 in which the category “Talkin’ Football” drew blanks from all the contestants.
“I can tell you guys are big football fans,” Trebek quipped at the time.
The contestants failed to answer a single football question, a feat that astounded Trebek. His facial expressions on that show caused a video of it to go viral online.
Alex Trebek’s View of Football
“This category would rank up there as a ‘Jeopardy!’ moment,” Trebek later told an interviewer, saying it would be in his top five “Jeopardy!” moments.
But then NFL Films turned the tables and looked at whether NFL coaches could answer the winning “Jeopardy!” question on that show. They got blank stares and way-off-the-mark answers.
Still, NFL players who have appeared as “Jeopardy!” contestants have not done too poorly.
“Because I admire him so much as the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, it made me feel good to watch him succeed,” Trebek said of Aaron Rodgers, who won the show on which he appeared.
Trebek earned six Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show Host for his tenure on “Jeopardy!” The Canadian-born host came to appreciate what is arguably the national sport of his adopted country, just as Americans ultimately accepted him as one of their own.
“Football represents something special in America,” Trebek said. “Like ‘Jeopardy!’”
