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ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcaster Dave Pasch had his ESPN teammate Chris Fowler on his podcast, The Dave Pasch Podcast, which airs through the team’s channels. Fowler has the Arizona Cardinals game against the San Diego Chargers coming up which will be one of two games on Monday Night Football. Fowler and his partners Dan Orlovsky and Louis Riddick will call the streaming-only game on ESPN+.
Fowler will also be on the call with Kirk Herbstreit the day before when the SEC on ABC game Saturday night features Georgia at Texas. Pasch knows what it is like trying to prepare for multiple games at a time but asked Fowler about how he handles the preparation.
“What’s a week in the life of Chris Fowler like?” Pasch asked as he laid out what Fowler has coming up. “Not much extra time for stuff,” Fowler said. “I try to keep my mental health intact by getting a workout in or a nice walk in, but as you know, there’s not much time for the fringes.”
Fowler said he doesn’t mind the schedule though, given the games and atmospheres he gets to be a part of. Whether that is at a college game working with Herbstreit or doing an NFL game as part of the three-man booth.
“I love being able to straddle both the biggest college games and NFL games,” Fowler said. “I’m glad it’s not every week. I don’t know how I’d do it every week, but I’ve learned over a couple of years how to manage the time better. [What] works better for me is to do the second game first. I’m looking at the Cardinals and the Chargers early in the week…kind of get a foothold, put it away, focus on the college, and then the minute the game is over on Saturday night, there’s a plane ride to Phoenix. There’s that time, there’s all day Sunday and all day on Monday to focus exclusively on the NFL game. That’s how it works for me, second game first, first game second.”
Pasch talked about his upcoming schedule and then asked Fowler about the differences between working in a solo booth with Herbstreit and working in a three-man booth with Orlovsky and Reddick as well as what is different about working a college game and an NFL game.
“It almost feels like a different job,” he said. “I love Lewis and Dan. And those guys are so plugged into the NFL. The part of the fun for me, Dave, is I learn a lot about the league through them. I know football, but I don’t know the inner workings of the NFL and how teams are assembled. And I don’t know teams like the Cardinals and the Chargers that well, living on the East Coast, in Miami, in New York…So, a week like this, I’ll lean on them a lot. I’ll spend extra time on that.”
As for his college assignment this week, Georgia at Texas, Fowler and Herbstreit have already seen both teams this season, so he said it will be more about fine-tuning. He said when they arrive in Austin, “we’ll lock in and talk to those teams, and I’ll be ready for that game.”
As for the three-man booth along with Laura Rutledge on the sidelines, Fowler said, “It feels really different working with those guys. I think that a three-man booth is something different for me. I haven’t done it that much. I think that the rhythm is different because Lewis and Dan, when you have a three-man booth, I don’t know if you’ve experienced this in the same way, but those guys, one being an offensive guy, one being a defensive guy, see the game through a very different lens.”
Fowler explained how the calls are different when he does NFL games as he will give it just a little more time while the analysts decide who is going to talk first based on what happened on the play.
As for college play-by-play he said, “I give a very economical call with Kirk. I try to be very generous. I’ll make a call…stop, let him get in, let him get in quickly. I like to do a replay or two because I want it back before the snap.”
As for what he enjoys about getting to do the NFL games when the schedule calls for two games and the crew he works with, he said, “Those guys are so easy to work with. I have a blast, and I’ll tell you what’s different about the NFL games and college is that we actually have a lot of time to hang together as a crew. And that means, if possible, watch a practice. It’s not always easy with the college schedule, but be on the zoom calls, have a dinner…and be able to hang together on the field pregame. And I love the experience of an NFL pregame. It’s so different than college.”
