Who says you can’t go home again? In the case of former Eagles defensive lineman Hugh Douglas, he’s heading home to Philadelphia to be a part of the new 94WIP lineup that will go into effect the week after the Eagles season ends. Douglas will team up with Joe Giglio to host the new midday show from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and he is pumped up to be back where it all began for him in radio.
“It’s exciting,” said Douglas, who returns to Philadelphia after a stint hosting the morning show on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta.
“I cut my teeth in Philadelphia radio working with Angelo Cataldi and Howard Eskin. Howard was the guy who actually made the phone call and told me if I wanted to do radio then I would have a job working at WIP. Working with two radio greats and being taught by two radio greats and then being able to go back to the station where I actually started working in the city that I love…very exciting.”
Douglas joins a revamped lineup at WIP in which there will be a former Eagle hosting shows for 12 straight hours from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. A first-round pick of the New York Jets in 1995, Douglas was traded to the Eagles where he blossomed into a Pro Bowl player. With the Eagles, Douglas was a three-time Pro Bowler from 2000 to 2002 and was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2000.
A member of the Eagles’ Hall of Fame, Douglas is looking forward to being part of the station’s new look and sound following the retirement of the legendary Angelo Cataldi.
“It’s exciting because it’s going to be different,” said Douglas. “But I think some of the things that Angelo did was one of the reasons why he lasted as long as he did in the business and why he is as loved or hated, whichever way you look at it, he always had something to say and he said it in a way where it was humorous and people remembered him for the things that he did.”
Douglas learned a lot about the business from Cataldi. It was during his first tour of duty at WIP where he was taught by the Philadelphia radio legend not to take himself too seriously and that relying on talking solely about sports would be “boring”.
He learned that the key to being a good sports talk show host is being able to relate to the listeners.
“The one thing that I do remember that he taught me was people want to feel like they know you and people want to feel like they connect to you and that’s one thing that I think that I bring to the table,” said Douglas.
“Nobody likes somebody who knows it all. They like somebody that you feel like you could cozy up to at a bar and have a conversation about sports and that’s kind of the way that I view it. I think people warm up to you when they feel like they can connect with you and that they can come up to you and speak to you.”
Like a sponge, Douglas soaked up everything that Cataldi taught him and also has absorbed everything that he learned from Howard Eskin.
Those lessons included giving your take on a sports topic and sticking to it.
“You have to have an opinion and whether it’s right or wrong, it’s yours,” said Douglas. “You gotta have thick skin in this business because everybody is not going to like you but I guarantee that the people who don’t like you are the ones that are probably listening to you the most.”
And there’s no question that in a sports-crazed town like Philadelphia, there are going to be people that tune in to hear Douglas because they love him and there will be those that will still tune in to hear what he has to say even if they are not so fond of him.
That’s what hosting a sports talk show in Philadelphia is all about… engaging with the passionate fan bases of all of the pro teams. And that’s a big reason why Douglas is happy to be back.
“You walk around the city and you see Phillies t-shirts, you see Sixers t-shirts…I mean this is a four for four town man,” said Douglas. “This town loves sports. They love talking sports. They love their Eagles. It’s going to be exciting to actually be in a city where everybody is passionate about their sports.”
Now that comment could be construed as a knock against Atlanta, the city where Douglas has been working. But it’s not.
“Not saying they aren’t passionate in Atlanta…let me be clear… they’re very passionate in Atlanta,” said Douglas. “But in Philadelphia, it’s just different man. We don’t really talk that much college football. Down in Atlanta, it’s a big college football town. Up here, it’s all about the professional sports and all about the players.”
The exact start date of the new midday show is still to be determined and it will depend on how far of a run the Eagles make in the playoffs. Douglas and Giglio could be on the week after a wild-card of divisional round loss or they could be on the week after the Super Bowl and maybe even a championship parade.
Douglas doesn’t mind waiting, especially if it means that the Eagles would be hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“If I don’t start working until the middle of February or late February, I’m okay with that,” said Douglas. “I will hang out here in Philadelphia, I’ll get me a couple of cheesesteaks, I will run around the city and ingratiate myself to the fans, catch some Sixers games, catch some Flyers games and just hang out until then. I am not that pressed to start a show especially if it doesn’t turn out the way we want to turn out.”
However it turns out, Hugh Douglas is proof that you can go home again…home to Philadelphia, the city that he loves and home to WIP where his broadcasting career began.
If you have ever been on a job interview, the thought of having to field questions from a hiring manager or executive can be intimidating – especially if it is in your first search for a job, internship or some professional occupation. At the end of his interview for a broadcast position with the Los Angeles Clippers, Noah Eagle was given the opportunity to ask questions in return. He asked what qualities the team was looking for in a broadcaster. His interviewer looked him dead-on in the eyes and replied, “Someone who’s hardcore.”
His interviewer happened to be former Microsoft CEO, business mogul, and Clippers Owner and Chairman Steve Ballmer. Eagle had taken a business trip across the country to partake in this interview as one of the finalists to join the Clippers’ broadcast team out of college.
Eagle, 25, had prepared for this moment from the time he was young growing up around his father: sportscaster Ian Eagle. Whether it was through osmosis or inquisitiveness, Noah became infatuated with sports media at the age of 13 and knew he would find a way to work in the field. On top of that, he knew he had limited athletic ability and yearned to find a way to remain involved in the world of sports.
“I saw him every morning wake up and be excited to go to work; to be excited to do the prep; to be excited to interact with people,” Eagle said of his father. “That’s what drew me to it. It wasn’t necessarily the glitz and glamor. It was the relationships; it was the preparation; it was the craft.”
Eagle was ambitious and adopted a growth mindset, looking to parlay his early experience accompanying his father at games and knowledge regarding how to conduct himself in a professional environment to move ahead in the industry.
On top of that, he began to study his father and other broadcasters to try and determine what made them stand out from others. He would then identify unique parts of their styles and incorporate them into his own. Moreover, he asked his father to provide his opinion on certain aspects of his findings, accessibility to a professional that helped him immensely in his development.
“I was fortunate with him that then I had somebody to bounce that off to now share my findings with and say, ‘Is this how you see it? How do you think that this could work?,’ and he’s always there,” Eagle said of his father. “I know that’s not just for me. He’s that way with a lot of people; a lot of young broadcasters [and] he’s very gracious with his time. I was very fortunate for so many reasons and him being probably the number one reason on that list.”
As a high school student, Eagle recognized his abilities as a public speaker and sought to develop them by serving on the school’s student council and writing the sports column in its newspaper. Yet Eagle did not genuinely immerse himself in sports media until he reached college, but the process of selecting Syracuse University, a place where both of his parents matriculated, was not a foregone conclusion from the start of his college search.
After his first visit to Syracuse, on a day where it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit, he did not believe he could go there simply because it did not feel right to him. His parents were determined in helping him find a place where he would be comfortable and that had a robust sports media program; therefore, they traveled to several schools throughout the country including UCLA, Indiana, and Miami.
Yet Syracuse was always in the back of his mind as a potential landing spot and he gave the school a second chance by visiting before the start of his senior year of high school. During that visit though, his mother gave him an experience deviating from the standard recruitment proceedings during which she took him on a personalized tour of the school from her perspective as a former student.
“About 15 minutes into our drive home… she said, ‘Well, what do you think this time?,’” Eagle remembered. “I said I would apply early decision. It was just that extra viewing of some of the other spots…. [and] that feeling [that] you know it’s the right spot for you.”
From the moment he began at Syracuse University, Eagle’s goal was to join the campus radio station, WAER-FM, as soon as he possibly could. He arrived early to the information session, adding his name on a list with an indefatigable mindset of doing whatever it would take to quickly establish himself and gain experience. Syracuse University is well-known for its alumni network in sports media, attracting many students to its campus each year. As a result, it is a competitive environment in which students gain real-world experience and are required to go the extra mile to earn air time.
“I think the competitive nature pushes you to be the best version of yourself every day just because you know the man or woman next to you is doing the same thing,” Eagle said. “It is also very supportive. Everybody, at least in my experience, is supportive and wants to see everybody succeed. That’s a healthy competition; a healthy drive to be the best.”
Part of joining WAER-FM was having to wake up at the crack of dawn once per week to go to the station to record a sportscast that would not hit the airwaves. He knew from his father, who initially decided not to join the station because of it, that it was a necessary inconvenience to embrace and make the most of.
From there, he called Syracuse Orangemen basketball, football and lacrosse games on the station and became involved with other student media outlets such as CitrusTV and Z89 (WJPZ-FM). Eagle not only sought to develop his skills in sports broadcasting, but also in performing other types of roles in media – including anchoring news coverage and in-arena hosting for events ranging from new student welcomes to midnight madness.
“Every sport; every category; anything else in-between – I just said, ‘Give it to me. I’ll try the challenge. I’ll see if I can make it work,’” Eagle said. “That was the best thing I did because it allowed me to learn what I really like; what I really don’t like; what I want to do long term and then I went from there.”
During his early days at Syracuse University though, Eagle decided not to use his last name, introducing himself to colleagues and friends simply as ‘Noah.’ Once his father heard this, he had a conversation with his son that changed his perspective, saying he had nothing to be ashamed of and that he should embrace his roots. On top of that, it was and remains best practice to divulge your surname in professional environments.
“I should be very proud not just of him but of my mom and my sister and where I come from and the people [who] came before us and the generation before us,” Eagle said. “I shouldn’t run away from that. He’s well known as a really good person, first and foremost, and that’s what I care about more than anything else. I am proud to be attached to that and I am proud to continue that legacy the best I can.”
In his junior year, Eagle had the opportunity to host his own radio show on SiriusXM’s ESPNU and ACC channels. Moreover, he covered events for NBA Entertainment, such as the NBA Summer League, NBA Draft Lottery, and the G-League Winter Showcase – and worked at the U.S. Open for the Tennis Channel. Gaining this professional experience helped further enhance his portfolio and made him a multi-faceted, skilled broadcaster on the marketplace – although he did not remain there very long if at all.
Eagle became just the second Syracuse University graduate to start broadcasting in the NBA immediately after his graduation (Greg Papa joined the Indiana Pacers’ broadcast team out of college in 1984). Just how this all came together was a combination of extraordinary talent and timing, the latter which was simply out of his control.
As an undergraduate senior, Eagle was told to send his résumé and demo reel to Olivia Stomski, the director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center at Syracuse University. He was not aware that the opening was to broadcast games for the Clippers, but nonetheless provided the materials requested from him.
Approximately a month-and-a-half later, Eagle received a call from a Los Angeles area code on his cell phone. After some initial hesitation regarding answering the call, he decided to accept and heard Nick Davis, vice president of production for FOX Sports West and Prime Ticket, on the other end. He told him that the network was looking to compile a new broadcast team for the Clippers and that they were interested in flying him in to Los Angeles to audition for the television play-by-play job.
Following calling a pre-recorded Clippers game against the Boston Celtics, he flew back to Syracuse, unclear of how he had done – but if anything, had just gained invaluable real-world experience in landing a job. It turns out he did well enough to make it to the next round of interviews, which would be with team owner Steve Ballmer, and possessed the same mindset that even if he did not land the job, he at least was becoming familiar with the process of a job search.
“I went in with this mentality and I think it helped me because the nerves were just gone,” Eagle said. “I didn’t have any nerves. I walked in there and just said, ‘I’m going to be me and whatever happens happens.’ I got very fortunate in that point just because whatever I did worked. Once I realized that whatever I did worked, I just kept doing it.”
Once he concluded his interview with Ballmer, Eagle remembered calling his parents and saying that he was unsure if he would land the job, but at least he was completely honest rather than telling the team owner what he wanted to hear. Speaking with candor and probity kept Eagle grounded, refusing to abandon his moral principles throughout the process of trying to land a coveted role in the country’s second-largest media marketplace.
“Steve is probably the smartest guy in every room that he’s in, but you would never know it,” Eagle said. “He’s very normal [and] just down-to-earth. He wants knowledge; he’s naturally curious [and] genuine. He was asking me questions and actually wanted to know the answers, [such as,] ‘What do you think of the future of broadcasting? Where do you think this is going? Do you take classes on this? How do you feel about this?’”
In addition to his work with the Clippers, Noah Eagle has served as the preseason voice of the Los Angeles Chargers. (Photo provided by Eagle)
In the end, the organization decided to move radio play-by-play announcer Brian Sieman to the television broadcast, replacing Ralph Lawler. That created an opening on the radio side, distributed to multiple broadcast outlets on terrestrial and digital platforms, and one the organization decided Noah Eagle was best suited to fill. As soon as he received the formal job offer, Eagle emphatically accepted and prepared to make the move across the country to the “City of Angels.”
As is in the case in most new jobs, there is a lot to quickly grasp and learn to effectively perform your role. Having his father as a resource was especially helpful in determining how to best prepare, conduct himself and adjust to his new lifestyle. Whenever he did not know what to do, he fell back on Ballmer’s answer of being “hardcore,” and that state of being uncomfortable began from the onset – as Eagle was hired to do the games solo.
“It’s not just by yourself for a game or two; it’s 82 games plus preseason plus playoffs,” Eagle said. “That part was the most daunting where I looked at it and it’s like, ‘How am I going to fill an entire game alone?’ Now I look at it and laugh that I was even ever questioning it because it’s just become second nature.”
Keeping an audience interested and focused on the game throughout the duration of a radio broadcast can be difficult with the amount of external distractions and sources of entertainment available to consumers today.
For Eagle, broadcasting in a city with regular congestion and standstill traffic jams certainly works to his benefit. However, sports are far from the only format on terrestrial and satellite radio – plus there are audiobooks, podcasts and other forms of aural entertainment with which to compete. As a result, Eagle does his best to make the broadcast sound as if there are multiple voices behind the microphone telling the story of the game, almost maintaining different characters.
“Most people that talk to [themselves] get labeled as insane; I get paid to do it,” Eagle remarked. “It’s a pretty good gig [and] I’m lucky [that] I’ve got good people around me. I’ve got a lot of help from engineers and our host Adam Auslund does great work.”
When Eagle was broadcasting within the auspices of a college radio station, the broadcasters were often relegated to locations with vantage points that were not always the easiest to work with. A part of Eagle’s development, therefore, was to find other ways to see the game and depict what was going on to the audience.
Although the vantage points for NBA broadcasts are usually better than those at the college level, they do not all have an unimpeded view of the game. Oddly enough, it gives Eagle somewhat of an advantage over more seasoned broadcasters placed in a similar situation – as he is not too far removed from participating in college broadcasts.
“[In] my first year, I was still so conditioned in that it was like second nature,” Eagle said. “Now I’ve only gotten better with it because I know…. you have to rely on all those tricks that you had learned for yourself over the years.”
Attempting to humanize the game on the court is part of how Eagle has contributed to the rapid and sustained growth of the game of basketball, helping the sport dominate the conversation whether or not games are on the slate. He has also helped foster lifelong connections between the players and the fans both as a radio broadcaster and host of several events for the team.
“Basketball has been a passion of mine since I was a kid,” Eagle said. “Being around the NBA and my dad from a very young age helped spark that love for the game. I played it as long as I could through high school and I was around it as much as I could be.”
Social media permits the real-time transmission of the game through highlights, which generally get posted right away. It is the broadcasters, though, who provide the soundtrack to the moments on the screen mixed with the mellifluous tones of a zealous crowd. Eagle remembers the excitement of his first regular season broadcast with the Clippers in a matchup against the rival Los Angeles Lakers; in fact, he took his headset off to look around and take in the atmosphere at Crypto.com Arena, simultaneously adjusting to his new home court.
“The one good thing… of me starting when I was so young is they’re used to that in L.A. They’ve had a lot of people do that,” Eagle said. “….I think people were just looking forward to what my career was going to turn into – whether that was staying in one spot or doing all these other things. I think people just were there to root [for my] success.”
Now in his fourth season with the team, Eagle has had the chance to call various memorable moments both in the regular season and in the playoffs. With a robust roster including superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, along with a new arena in the Intuit Dome projected to be just a couple of years away from opening, Eagle will provide the dialogue and effectively write the words to all of the action surrounding the team.
It is crucial, though, that Eagle dictates the action rather than letting the action dictate him. Sure, Eagle cannot impact what happens on the court in real time – but what he can do is stay on top of each play, give the location of the ball and try to anticipate what may happen in advance to be ready to make an appropriate call. All of that occurs while being ready to adjust to unforeseen action at a moment’s notice and being authentic in his love of the game and the craft.
“You can sense when someone has control of the action or control or command of the broadcast,” Eagle said. “That’s crucial and it comes with just more and more reps. It comes with practicing and doing it and having a better understanding of, ‘Oh, I need to push it here. I need to pull it back here.’”
Those traits of a play-by-play announcer carry over to announcing gigs outside of the Clippers, although the preparation process differs by sport. Eagle closely follows the Clippers throughout the regular season, making it easier to stay informed about the latest going on with the team down to the minute details.
Conversely when he is broadcasting NFL on FOX games, Los Angeles Chargers preseason games, or college football matchups on FS1, he has to learn the players on the roster, read about the current events of the team, watch press conferences and speak to the coaches to get a broad picture of the team itself.
“I was around the Syracuse football team all the time,” Eagle said. “I knew those guys inside and out; I knew about those guys inside and out. Now you’re preparing for two teams altogether and you’ve got 100 kids essentially on a football roster in college. It’s a lot; there’s a lot more work and just a lot more to learn.”
NFL football, according to Eagle, is the sport most optimal for television broadcasts because of its regular cadence established from the opening kickoff. On the other hand, college football teams often play a hurry-up offense, requiring broadcasters to be set for a play to commence at any moment.
It is something Eagle will have to adjust to, as he is reportedly set to become the primary play-by-play announcer for Big Ten football on NBC, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, in which he will work with analyst Todd Blackledge. While Eagle declined comment regarding this news, he did elaborate on the nature of a typical college football broadcast.
“I worked with Mark Helfrich this year and when he was at Oregon…. They were getting right back to the line,” he said. “They were going to just keep going; they were as conditioned as they possibly could be, and they were going to score on you and they were going to go for two [points] and that was that. It can be really, really exciting but you have to be ready.”
Noah Eagle has called each of the NFL broadcasts that have aired on Nickelodeon. (Photo provided by Eagle)
Aside from standard football broadcasts, Eagle has been the voice of the NFL on Nickelodeon alternate broadcasts produced by CBS Sports. He recently broadcast the Christmas Day matchup between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. – and he was joined in the booth by Nate Burleson and various Nickelodeon sitcom stars.
By following the shrewd advice of Syracuse alumnus and sportscaster Marty Glickman regarding considering the audience, he prepares for this alternate broadcast and others like it by thinking about what a typical viewer may want to hear.
“I just think you can now create a different audience,” Eagle said. “Isn’t that we want at the end of the day for sports or any of the stuff that we cover? We want as large or as vast of an audience as possible. If that can create this at all, it’s all good. It’s fun; you just have to approach it [in] the right way.”
Broadcasting sports is considered a “dream job” for many sports fans; yet if you are afforded an opportunity to do that on a regular basis, the law of diminishing marginal utility may start to take effect. Keeping Eagle motivated, outside of loving sports, is finding ways to improve.
“My goal, and it remains the same from when I first got the job [to] today and all the way through the rest of my career, is ‘Can the next broadcast be better than the previous one?,’” Eagle shared. “As long as I’m doing that whether it be with the Clippers or other jobs that I have right now, then that’s all I care about.”
Being a well-rounded person with interests outside of sports and media help Eagle on these broadcasts as well, and it is sagacious advice for young broadcasters. While he had the chance to see broadcasting from a different perspective as the son of an accomplished sportscaster, Noah Eagle enjoys his work and is excited to embark on his career.
At the same time, he treats everyone with dignity and respect, modeling after his father and displaying professionalism in whatever job he may be working.
“If you’re going to do this, do this for the love of it,” Eagle expressed. “Don’t do this for the prestige or whatever else comes with it. Do it because you thoroughly enjoy it because that’s the only way you’re going to reach that height that you eventually want to…. If you’re excited about it and you’re ready to have fun with it, then a lot will take care of itself.”
One of my first columns for Barrett Sports Media questioned whether NBC Sports had a college football announcer problem after it secured a seven-year rights deal with the Big Ten. Five months later, we have our answer, and it’s a resounding no.
Last week, a report came out that claimed NBC would partner up-and-coming play-by-play man Noah Eagle with longtime ESPN analyst Todd Blackledge. I believe the newly created booth is nearly a best case scenario as NBC expands its college football coverage.
I haven’t been shy in my admiration of Eagle. He isn’t a great young broadcaster, he’s a great broadcaster. His handle of a broadcast, his understanding of pivotal moments, and the honing of his craft is evident. He has quickly risen through the ranks — with plenty of charges of nepotism — but I truly believe his quick ascent has been earned and not given.
Meanwhile, Blackledge departing ESPN to move to NBC will make the third network he’ll work at as a college football game analyst, and the second where he’ll be the lead analyst. Blackledge is as experienced of an analyst NBC could have hoped for, but it solves a long problem the peacock network has experienced with its college football broadcasts.
Todd Blackledge knows the Big Ten. Even though Penn State wasn’t a member of the conference as he played his storied collegiate career, Blackledge — an Ohio native — has decades of experience announcing conference games.
For years, NBC has brought analysts with no discernible ties to Notre Dame to the university’s nationwide broadcasts. It — frankly — was and is a head scratcher. There are no charges of impartiality in the broadcast booth. NBC is the home of Notre Dame football. You can’t pretend the broadcast crew needs to call the game down the middle as the Fighting Irish take on whoever is on the schedule, because the majority of the audience is watching because they’re Notre Dame fans. It’s as close to a local radio broadcast as you’ll find in network television, and yet, NBC never capitalized on that captive audience with analysts that were familiar to its fan base.
It completely avoided that — valid — criticism with Blackledge. He is a familiar voice and name to Big Ten football fans, and his partnership with Eagle, in my estimation, will be widely viewed as a fantastic crew by fans of the collegiate heartland when the network begins broadcasting the conference in 2023.
The next question — however — is how long will Eagle work as the primary play-by-play announcer for the Big Ten on NBC franchise before someone tries to gobble him up for a larger, more high-profile assignment.
As a fan of a Big Ten team, I had real question marks about who the network would feature in its first broadcast booth. Those questions no longer persist. NBC did a phenomenal job bringing together the best broadcast crew it could assemble.
On the flip side, Notre Dame fans may have questions why the network’s best broadcast crew is scheduled for primetime games of a newfound fling while it’s saddled with a second rate partnership of Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett, but that’s another story for another day.
Even before the game was halted and eventually cancelled, things were different for Buffalo Bills fans on Monday night. John Murphy was not on the radio call of the game. That day, a Bills spokesman explained the absence by saying Murphy was “under the weather.”
On Friday, the team put out a statement from the Murphy family revealing that John suffered a stroke last weekend. He is now recovering at home.
“John and the Murphy family are grateful for the excellent care by the staff and doctors at Buffalo General Medical Center,” the statement reads. “We appreciate everyone’s support.”
Chris Brown, the co-host of WGR 550’s One Bills Live, stepped in to call the game on Monday. He will be back on the network this Sunday as the Bills host the New England Patriots.
“We look forward to having John back in the booth as soon as possible,” the team tweeted on Friday. “Get well soon, John!”
John Murphy is 67 years old. He has been the voice of the Buffalo Bills since 2004.
Matt Taibbi revealed that Schiff demanded Twitter suspend several commentators for their “misinformation” and asked at minimum to “reduce their visibility”. Sperry wrote a story citing two sources that claimed to overhear White House employees discussing how they could remove then-President Donald Trump from office. One of the employees allegedly in the discussion was Sean Misko, who eventually joined Schiff’s Congressional staff.
Sperry joined The Howie Carr Show to discuss the revelation, and Carr asked if Sperry was removed from Twitter on “trumped up charges”, The New York Post columnist agreed saying Schiff wanted all of Sperry’s interactions removed. When told that wasn’t logistically possible by a Twitter employee, Schiff reportedly asked that the account be removed.
“When it came to his demand that I be banned, they promised him they would ‘review my account’ for suspension, and I think this would prove why Twitter could never give me a reason for my suspension,” Sperry said.
Carr then asked if Sperry had been reinstated, he confirmed he had.
“Elon Musk the other night — after this broke — he broke me out of Twitter jail after two years.”
It has been a busy few months for Kirk Herbstreit with his new role as the analyst on Thursday Night Footballon Amazon Prime in addition to being on College GameDay and being the lead analyst for college football on ESPN/ABC. It has led to a lot of travel and not a lot of sleep most weeks. However, one addition to College Gameday this year has provided Herbstreit with an extra boost.
Herbstreit was a guest on Pardon My Takethis week and he mentioned that the timing couldn’t have been better for Pat McAfee to join College GameDay this season.
“The timing for me personally could not have come at a better time than having Pat McAfee join the show this year. His energy for me personally on the show and even more importantly off the show was huge for me this year as far as kind of keeping my juice going when you are sleeping 2 hours a night or flying wherever you are flying. You know how he has that infectious personality and energy. That was a big win for me this year personally.”
For some who are not normal viewers of college football, Herbstreit was a new voice for people watching the NFL. With that being said, Herbstreit did not feel that he had any growing pains this year and he felt comfortable from the very first game that him and Al Michaels did between the Chiefs and Chargers.
“We started with Mahomes vs. Herbert. I felt like Al and I hit the ground running. Probably the craziest thing when we were done with that game was I think people that communicated with me were like ‘You guys sound like you have been working together for 10-15 years’ just because it was a good game number one and there was comfort there.
“I didn’t feel like there were growing pains for me personally. Maybe the audience had growing pains…I do think that’s very apparent to me.”
When Herbstreit would go to a bigger city to do a TNF football game, he could feel that the audience was not yet used to hearing his voice on an NFL game.
“You get it in New York and a lot of the bigger cities where it’s just NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB. They look at college football the way we might look at middle school football, not even high school football. Until the draft comes around, they don’t know anything about it. I don’t know how people live not watching both personally. I don’t know how my life would exist if I didn’t watch both. I can’t imagine having a black hole towards the NFL. There are people that do that.”
Herbstreit will wrap up his busy schedule when he is on the call along with Chris Fowler for the CFP National Championship Game between TCU and Georgia on Monday (7:30 PM ET, ESPN). Holly Rowe and Molly McGrath will be on the sidelines for the game.
The Bay Area is not North Carolina, Kentucky or Indiana. It has never been accused of being a college basketball hot bed. That is why Joe Shasky had to put a stop to the conversation his partner Bona Hill and John Gambadoro were having Friday morning on 95.7 The Game.
Gambadoro, who can be heard in afternoon drive on Arizona Sports 98.7 in Phoenix, joined the San Francisco station to discuss the season finale between the 49ers and Arizona Cardinals. In introducing Gambo, Hill noted that given the state of sports in Arizona, Gambo would likely be looking for a reason to talk about Arizona Wildcat basketball.
That prospect excited Gambadoro, who could not resist declaring his love for the fifth-ranked team in the country.
“They’re loaded with Tubelis and Kriisa and Ballo,” the Arizona Sports host said. “They lost three kids to the NBA Draft last year. Three first rounders and they are still one of the top teams in the country.”
Hill responded by recapping some of the Wildcats’ most impressive wins of the season. It was enough for Joe Shasky. He had to step in.
“John, John, John. You’re tanking our ratings right now talking PAC-12 basketball.”
While the San Francisco 49ers will head into the playoffs as one of the favorites in the NFC despite losing two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries, things have not gone so well in Arizona. Bona Hill noted that maybe Gambodoro needed a relief from the NFL season.
“Listen, I started it. It’s better than talking Arizona Cardinals football.”
Taylor Twellman has announced he will depart ESPN after a 13 year stint with the company.
The 42-year-old joined ESPN after a storied MLS career with the New England Revolution that saw him score more goals than any other player in the league during his tenure.
“I have learned from the best and enjoyed every second of our soccer coverage: World Cup, UEFA, MLS, US Soccer, FA, Cups, Open Cups, you name it,” Twellman tweeted. “Hosting @SportsCenter and other programs as a former pro athlete has been a dream come true. The constructive criticism was vital and so important. I’ve met so many people that are great at their craft in front and behind the camera. However, the best part is I’ve met friends for life and for that I’m grateful. We will see each other again down the road but for now, thank you.”
Twellman contributed to ESPN studio shows like Get Up and SportsNation in addition to his work as the network’s lead soccer analyst. His work as the lead game analyst during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil received acclaim, as did his analysis after the United States failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He did not cover the 2022 World Cup from Qatar, noting that Disney Security advised him against travelling to the nation due to its record on human rights.
Comments made in 2021 surrounding the collapse of Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen brought shouts of criticism towards Twellman. After Eriksen collapsed, Twellman asserted — correctly — that his collapse was due to a cardiac event. Many observers were critical of Twellman’s speculation about the event, and were angered by his criticism of medical personnel’s lackadaisical approach to the situation. He defended himself from those critics by pointing out urgency is one of the biggest factors in preventing further damage during a cardiac arrest.
FOX Sports Radio has a new home in the Tidewater. The network can now be heard on Max Media’s 1310 AM signal. It is a sister station on ESPN Radio 94.1.
“Max Media is proud to bring the two biggest brands in sports broadcasting together with the addition of Fox Sports Radio to the existing powerhouse ESPN Radio 94.1,” VP/GM Keith Barton said in a press release.
Sinclair Media Group’s WTAR previously held the affiliation in the market. FOX Sports programming was heard on 850 AM and its corresponding translators. The signal dropped sports and rebranded as Lucy FM in September.
The 1310 signal had previously carried a business news format and was branded as Money Talk 1310. Now, it will carry the entire FOX Sports Radio national lineup. Dino Franza will serve as the new station’s brand manager.
According to a report from Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, NBC has added Todd Blackledge to pair with Noah Eagle for its upcoming Big Ten on NBC broadcast booth.
Blackledge has worked as a college football game analyst for ESPN since 2006, ascending to become the company’s defacto number two game analyst behind Kirk Herbstreit. Before working for ESPN, Blackledge served as the lead analyst for CBS Sports’ coverage of college football. The former Penn State and NFL quarterback will work as the color commentator for ESPN Radio’s coverage of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game as his final assignment for the network on Monday.
Eagle is the 26-year-old son of broadcasting legend Ian Eagle. He currently serves as the radio play-by-play announcer of the Los Angeles Clippers. He also has worked as the announcer for NFL games airing on Nickelodeon, and worked as a play-by-play announcer for college football games airing on FOX Sports and FS1.
The Big Ten on NBC will air in primetime, with the network opting to broaden its college football horizons outside of its traditional offerings of strictly Notre Dame broadcasts. 2023 will begin the first of a seven-year deal for the Big Ten that sees its television rights move away from ESPN for the first time in the network’s history.
