Fall, Winter and Spring, is the time for eagles to soar high in the skies across the United States. Okay, I’m not a bird expert, but the point I’m trying to make, is a guy that shares a last name with the emblem of America, is a busy guy during those seasons.
Ian Eagle calls NFL, NBA and NCAA College Basketball for CBS and Turner Sports. Eagle is also one of the voices on Brooklyn Nets’ telecasts on the YES Network.
He’s been a familiar voice for quite some time and handles each assignment with professionalism and preparedness. Whether it be a national radio broadcast of a Thursday Night Football game on Westwood One, or a Sunday afternoon telecast of the NFL on CBS, the results are the same, a high-quality entertaining broadcast.
The story of his start is like many of us in the business. He told sportshistoryweekly.com, his fascination with the industry started at age 8. Eagle would be watching and playing sports like any other normal kid, but would take particular interest in the announcers.
Growing up in Forest Hills, New York in the 1980’s, he would watch and listen to Marv Albert call Knicks and Rangers games. Albert played a large role Eagle’s early dream and most certainly in the style he developed initially. Eagle says his parents were very encouraging, urging him to do what he wanted to do.
“That is very empowering as a child when you believe something that most consider an ‘out of the box’ objective is actually attainable. They were also quite concerned when I was constantly doing a Marv Albert impression around the house even for non-sports related activities. Eventually, I stopped when they considered bringing in professional help,” he recalled to sportshistoryweekly.com.
THE ROAD TO CBS
Eagle began his career by announcing football, basketball, and lacrosse for the Syracuse Orange on WAER, the student run radio station. Following his graduation in 1990, Eagle began working for WFAN Radio in New York City as a producer. In 1992, WFAN gave him his own show (Bagels and Baseball). In 1993, Eagle was given pregame and postgame duties for the Jets. 1994 saw Eagle’s first year as a Nets play-by-play radio announcer. In 1997, WFAN made Eagle play-by-play announcer for Jets games.
He joined CBS Sports in March 1998 as a play-by-play announcer for the CBS Television Network’s coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. He has called play-by-play for the Network’s coverage of the National Football League since 1998, and served as pregame and postgame host contributor during the Network’s coverage of Super Bowl LV, Super Bowl LIII and Super Bowl 50.
He continues to serve these roles today. In 2010, he joined Dan Fouts to make up the number three broadcast team for CBS’ NFL coverage. The pair was elevated to the number two team in the 2014 season. After Fouts parted ways with CBS, and with the NFL’s playoff expansion, which included CBS gaining rights to an extra playoff game, during the 2020 offseason, the network paired him with former Fox analyst Charles Davis, and the duo now call one of CBS’s Wild Card games every year, and a Divisional Game in even years. Other CBS work includes boxing The Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, the US Open and the NCAA Track and Field Championships.
Prior to joining the YES Network as Nets announcer in 2002, Eagle served the same role for the Nets on the MSG Network and Fox Sports Net New York. When Marv Albert joined the YES Network prior to the 2005-06 NBA season, the games were split between the two broadcasters, before Eagle again became the primary announcer for the Nets in the 2011-12 season when Albert left the network.
WHY IS HE SO GOOD?
No matter the sport, or the partner, Eagle makes it all work. As a play-by-play broadcaster, he’s one of the best. He delivers a consistent broadcast that has everything the viewer needs for that particular game. While Eagle may not be flashy, he more than makes up for it in personality and performance. The ability to have fun in a broadcast is so important. The ability not to take yourself too seriously is also a must when you are performing at the network level.
There was the moment I wrote about last month, when Eagle and Charles Davis called the “Super Wild Card” game in Buffalo. The air temperature at kickoff was 7 degrees. The two were coming on camera to set up the second half, and Eagle was wearing an extremely puffy jacket. It was one like Kurt Warner donned a week before on an NFL Network playoff telecast. The two had a great exchange, with Eagle saying, “I feel like, I want Jiffy Pop Popcorn. This thing is very warm. This is the same jacket. Kurt sent this to me. Let me tell you, not all heroes wear capes, they wear Silver Bullet Puffers.”
It was great, because it illustrated the temperature and it wasn’t so over the top that it felt out of place. This is also a demonstration of Eagle’s ability to put some humor into a broadcast at the perfect time.
His pairing with Davis on the #2 broadcast on CBS really works. The two play well off each other and you would get the sense they’ve been working together their whole careers. That is the ultimate testament to Eagle’s ability as the game caller. The camaraderie is natural and that has a lot to do with the way Eagle handles the relationship. Knowing your analyst’s strengths, and playing to them, is so important in the overall picture. Eagle consistently rises to the occasion in key moments and Davis does the same to create great calls. The chemistry seems very natural.
Eagle was asked recently in a piece on sportshistoryweekly.com, what he thought, made a great announcer these days.
“I see myself as a storyteller. Every game that I broadcast has a story behind it and it’s my job to help tell that story to viewers and listeners. The goal is to convey the drama of the event that I’m covering and humanize the athletes,” said Eagle. “My objective is to inform and entertain the audience and I bring that mentality to the microphone for every assignment I’m given. The methodology from broadcaster to broadcaster can vary, but ultimately you have to ask yourself during the game ‘are you serving the viewer?’. Voice quality, vocabulary, instincts, a sense of humor, etc. all play a role in what makes a great announcer.”
Mission accomplished.
DID YOU KNOW?
Since Eagle pronounces his first name “EYE-un” (instead of the more common “EE-an”), he has often admitted that life was easier prior to the 1986 release of the movie Iron Eagle. In fact, many callers (including prominent sports figures) continue to call him “Iron Eagle”—much to his chagrin.
Eagle also had a funny encounter with Tom Brady. He told the SI Media Podcast in August of last year about Brady shaming him for some food choices.
Eagle says he got into New England for meetings with Patriots players one morning after not getting a lot of sleep because of work and travel. Eagle is not a coffee drinker, so he decided, at 9 a.m. to have some Pepsi for a jolt of energy. There were also some donuts on the premises, so Eagle figured he’d partake in a chocolate-frosted sweet treat, as well. As Eagle was chasing his donut with a soda, Brady entered.
“So, Tom walks in,” Eagle said on the SI Media Podcast. “I have a large Pepsi in front of me and a half-eaten chocolate frosted donut and he walks in and he says, ‘Having a good morning, Ian? How’s that all working out for you?’
“I said, ‘No, no, no. Normally I wouldn’t have a Pepsi at 9 a.m.’ He doesn’t want to hear it. ‘You’re having a Pepsi at 9 a.m. and you’ve eaten a donut. You know, I go to a healthy donut shop which is only a half mile away.’
“I was like, ‘Well, that’s kind of an oxymoron. Why would you have a healthy donut?’
“And I said, ‘Well, have you ever had a Pepsi?’
He goes, ‘No, never had a soda.’
“So, he crushed me at that point and I believe he fat-shamed me.
“Three week later, we have [the Patriots] again. Road game. First thing he says when he steps up, ‘Where’s your donut? Where’s your Pepsi?’ He knows to keep going back to it. A year later he’ll go back to it. He doesn’t forget (stuff). Ever.”
CONCLUSION
Eagle is the consummate professional. I am not sure how he continues to sort of fly under the radar with the amount of talent he has. His broadcasts are not hung up on catchphrases or a ‘look at me’ kind of feel. He’s a team player in the broadcast booth which is really what makes the telecasts work. That’s the goal, or should be the goal, for all play-by-play announcers and Eagle gets it done.
