Speaker 1: Today, my guests are the Eagles and Noah together and
Speaker 1: our first ever father son episode. Now, Iron Eagle has
Speaker 1: been at the top tier of sports play by play
Speaker 1: for the long run. Noah used to be the new
Speaker 1: kid in town. Now he's living life in the fast lane,
Speaker 1: not partying, of course, ascending the sportscasting ranks at warp speed. Okay,
Speaker 1: those will be my last Eagles references. I know, low
Speaker 1: hanging Fruit, but I am a fan of the band
Speaker 1: for about fifty years, and also, of course a fan
Speaker 1: of the broadcasting Eagles. I've admired iron superb work for decades.
Speaker 1: Who hasn't calling the NFL, the Masters, and college hoops
Speaker 1: for CBS. I will take over his play by play
Speaker 1: voice of the Final Four next season. He's also worked
Speaker 1: the NBA for TNT, he called Rolling Eras for Tennis Channel,
Speaker 1: and he's been the TV voice of the Nets Brooklyn
Speaker 1: and New Jersey since ninety five. Noah calls the LA
Speaker 1: Clippers games on Radio, a gig he earned fresh out
Speaker 1: of Syracuse, but is also called college football and NFL
Speaker 1: on Fox and Nickelodeon. He'll work Big Ten Football for
Speaker 1: NBC this fall, and also works for Tennis channel, and
Speaker 1: I'm probably forgetting a few things all by the age
Speaker 1: of twenty five. The gift for storytelling on and off
Speaker 1: the air runs deep in the Eagle family. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of laughs here and great behind the scenes stuff.
Speaker 1: Just three sports guys shooting the breeze well, Iron Eagle,
Speaker 1: Noah Eagle. Thank you guys for making time during busy
Speaker 1: periods in your seasons. I am fans of both of
Speaker 1: your work. Massive respect for you. I in no I
Speaker 1: have less time to build up that massive respect, but
Speaker 1: you're well on your way to being very high in
Speaker 1: my books too, so we appreciate. Let's have some fun
Speaker 1: with this. We will talk about the present in the past,
Speaker 1: which is compelling for both of you, but I want
Speaker 1: to just talk about the near future because you guys
Speaker 1: both have very exciting assignments. Within the next twelve months.
Speaker 1: You will take over as the game caller play by
Speaker 1: play in the Final four, following in the footeps of
Speaker 1: Jim Nantz so I believe called it. Since Adolph Rupp
Speaker 1: was winning Championship Kentucky, it's been a long time. You
Speaker 1: might be well deserved, and you've done obviously college hoops
Speaker 1: and probes for a long time, and Noah, you'll be
Speaker 1: diving into the fray in prime time college football with
Speaker 1: NBC calling Big ten games. So while I wish I
Speaker 1: in really close, compelling final fours, I wish you a
Speaker 1: season of blowouts and first round knockouts as you go
Speaker 1: head to head against our game on ABC. I hope
Speaker 1: you have a bunch of six to three games in
Speaker 1: West Lafayette, but you know.
Speaker 2: You'd be surprised. I mean, the first college football game
Speaker 2: I did this year on Fox, it was a seven
Speaker 2: to three final with no touchdown, So your parents for anything, considering,
Speaker 2: I got through that one and didn't cry myself to
Speaker 2: sleep after, I think I'm good to go.
Speaker 1: Well, it's awesome you're working with Todd Blackfatch, with whom
Speaker 1: I worked. He's a friend, and Catherine Tappan has been
Speaker 1: a neighbor of Jennifer of mine and two different New
Speaker 1: York buildings, so I close close connections to your booth.
Speaker 1: You'll have great fun. I seriously wish you the best.
Speaker 1: It's a It's a very cool thing to go to
Speaker 1: those big ten stadiums and call those games.
Speaker 2: So I appreciate it now I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: You guys. Both from doing my my prep and listening
Speaker 1: to numerous interviews, you both seem to be extremely comfortable
Speaker 1: and confident performing, whether it was on stage or in
Speaker 1: front of a camera a microphone at a really young age,
Speaker 1: which I'm incredibly envious because I certainly was not. It's
Speaker 1: took me a long time to get there. But but
Speaker 1: I your parents were in show business. Your mom was
Speaker 1: a singer, dad was a comedian, and you were thrust
Speaker 1: out on stage. You said at eight, at age four
Speaker 1: or five, to like entertain the crowd. But those crowds
Speaker 1: could be tough, with those borsch belt rooms, right, I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, child labor laws be damned. But basically I would
Speaker 3: get a bagel and a milkshake, form my troubles at
Speaker 3: the end of my shtick, and my mom would open
Speaker 3: and would do a solid forty minutes of music and
Speaker 3: a gifted singer. Really, I think because of the era
Speaker 3: no YouTube and no videotapes to show for it. I
Speaker 3: wish that I had the material to go back and listen.
Speaker 3: I just remember in my experience just how talented she was.
Speaker 3: And then my dad would come on. He would do
Speaker 3: forty to forty five minutes of comedy, and then at
Speaker 3: the end of it, they'd bring me out for about
Speaker 3: five minutes of impressions where I did Howard Kosel and
Speaker 3: Muhammad Ali and the always popular W. C. Fields, and
Speaker 3: I would kill you. They put me in a handsome suit,
Speaker 3: sometimes three piece suit, corduroy green, and they would just
Speaker 3: wind me up, and I'd go out there and do it.
Speaker 3: And I do think, Chris, you hit on something that
Speaker 3: was from a very young age. So I was injected
Speaker 3: with confidence before I even had an idea what confidence was.
Speaker 3: So school plays or any kind of performances seemed very
Speaker 3: much within the realm and within my sphere. So when
Speaker 3: I went to college and I wanted to break into
Speaker 3: TV and radio at Syracuse, it was not a big leap.
Speaker 3: The camera was not intimidating, the mic was not intimidating.
Speaker 3: Going in front of crowds or an audience not intimidating.
Speaker 3: And I think to some degree, Noah felt that through
Speaker 3: the generations and then just from watching me and being
Speaker 3: around me and recognizing that this is pretty normal.
Speaker 1: No you did the same thing, not Borschpelt comedy, but
Speaker 1: obviously you felt complied. You said you were that kid
Speaker 1: that would always be in front of the class, comfortable
Speaker 1: with oral reports and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, the one thing that you do need to
Speaker 2: ask my dad Chris, is how is it that he
Speaker 2: had more drip at seven.
Speaker 1: Than he does?
Speaker 2: Like, I've never seen him pack a handsome suit for
Speaker 2: a trip. Where where's handsome suit in modern day?
Speaker 3: Yes, it's the seventies. Noah, that's the that's the difference.
Speaker 3: The seventies that had drip from every pore because you
Speaker 3: were matching your your jacket to your tie. You were
Speaker 3: going same material shirt and jacket. There was no shame,
Speaker 3: so it all worked somehow. That's a great point.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for your mushroom shirt. That mushroom shirt, it'll
Speaker 2: be good. But now you're absolutely right, i'd say, young age,
Speaker 2: I think that you know. It wasn't that I got
Speaker 2: to push from the from them or anything, but it
Speaker 2: was this this nudge of hey, you're good at this, naturally,
Speaker 2: just keep doing it. It was encouragement. Every time I
Speaker 2: went in front of the class, it felt right. It
Speaker 2: just was easy God, And so yeah, I remember the
Speaker 2: big one was in fifth grade we got to sign
Speaker 2: biographies that we had to read. I got to sign
Speaker 2: Bill Gates, and most kids just went and delivered their
Speaker 2: speech and went on with their day. And my mom,
Speaker 2: I think, convinced me you should dress up as Bill
Speaker 2: Gates and go the whole nine yards. So sure enough,
Speaker 2: here's little Noah, who was already smaller than everybody in
Speaker 2: the class, in a suit that probably didn't fit them,
Speaker 2: wearing glasses, and bringing in a poster board that was
Speaker 2: a fake big check to the school that I gave.
Speaker 2: So I went all out, and at the end of speech,
Speaker 2: my teacher came up to me and said, whatever you
Speaker 2: do one day, you're going to have public speaking in
Speaker 2: your future. And I said to her, no, no, I'm
Speaker 2: going to play in the NBA, because that was my
Speaker 2: prerogative at the time. And I think I quickly realized
Speaker 2: that was very unrealistic and my vertically challengedness and my
Speaker 2: limited athletic ability would restrict that, and so I made
Speaker 2: the pivot. But yeah, it was. It was just something
Speaker 2: that it felt right every time I did it.
Speaker 1: For me, I for more common in your generation than mine,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of kids have been looking
Speaker 1: at a camera attached to their phone since they're toddlers,
Speaker 1: and so it seems very normal to look into glass
Speaker 1: and express yourself and kind of be yourself. Not so
Speaker 1: for me. I was terrified of public speaking. I didn't
Speaker 1: even like it in my early years of broadcasting. There
Speaker 1: were just many good reasons to overcome that. When you
Speaker 1: found out that the Talah Hassi Quarterback Club actually paid
Speaker 1: you to go down there and talk about football better
Speaker 1: damn well, get over your fear. But you know, I
Speaker 1: and I can't even imagine. I mean, I guess you
Speaker 1: don't know what you don't know at five years old,
Speaker 1: but I was. My dad was a theater director, different
Speaker 1: kind of show business in yours, but they were both theatrical.
Speaker 1: And I could have played I don't know mcduff's son
Speaker 1: on stage, and you know, I had a few cute lines,
Speaker 1: and then he gets murdered by making baths, so it's
Speaker 1: not a great part, but I would. I was just
Speaker 1: terrified of the notion of standing in front of people,
Speaker 1: looking into faces and doing anything. And it didn't translate
Speaker 1: to being scared of being on a mic or a camera,
Speaker 1: thank god. But I admire that you were calling nets
Speaker 1: games and when Noah was born, fortunate they weren't on
Speaker 1: the road. I guess that magical night back in ninety seven.
Speaker 3: Was it? It was ninety six. Very good research on
Speaker 3: your part. The Nets were indeed at home. They played
Speaker 3: the Seattle SuperSonics that night. My wife Elisa went into
Speaker 3: labor at the wee morning hours, so I was able
Speaker 3: to get her to the hospital, watch Noah being born,
Speaker 3: which was incredible, and then work the Net game. That
Speaker 3: night they beat the Seattle SuperSonics. They had Sean Camp
Speaker 3: Gary Payton. The Nets did not have Sean Camp and
Speaker 3: Gary Payton, and yet found a way to win the way.
Speaker 3: I remember we had just moved to New Jersey into
Speaker 3: a townhouse and my wife overnight said something's a little
Speaker 3: bit off, but I don't really think this is it.
Speaker 3: So there was trepidation, and then finally at like three something,
Speaker 3: she said, now this is it. It's happening. I said, okay,
Speaker 3: I'm going to shower, and that threw her off, like
Speaker 3: you what do you mean? I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 3: I want to be fresh for this, So I start
Speaker 3: plowing through lights because I want to get pulled over,
Speaker 3: like this is the dream that a cop pulls you over.
Speaker 3: And nobody pulled me over. I just kept plowing through
Speaker 3: reds and Elisa says, hey, you know what, just park
Speaker 3: in front in case this isn't it, in case it's
Speaker 3: it's a false alarm. I was like, what, you don't
Speaker 3: want me to pay for parking? What's what's your thought
Speaker 3: process here? So I placated her and we walk in
Speaker 3: and she explained what's going on in the nurse and
Speaker 3: the nurse said, no, no, no, it's it's happening. It's real.
Speaker 3: So Noah was born early in the morning. We were
Speaker 3: watching Regis and Kathy Lee. I recall that, and then
Speaker 3: I just assumed I was going to do the game.
Speaker 3: I said, are you good? She's like, yeah, no, go
Speaker 3: for it. So I ended up doing the game. And
Speaker 3: that's God Is.
Speaker 1: You have an amazing command of information and numbers, which
Speaker 1: is important in the job. Do you know Noah's weighted
Speaker 1: birth because I'm sure you know how many points Kendall
Speaker 1: Gill had in that game that she called so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Kendall had fifteen. I know that. Noah. Noah, I
Speaker 3: believe was was seven pounds three ounces somewhere.
Speaker 2: And guessing now, I would never know. You're just guessing, Noah,
Speaker 2: do you know do you know the number? How could
Speaker 2: you forget seven pounds?
Speaker 3: Five? Seven pounds?
Speaker 1: Do you know your own weight? Is that?
Speaker 3: Is that actually true?
Speaker 2: I had a revelation when he was telling the story
Speaker 2: because for all my life people always ask how are
Speaker 2: you just so chill all the time? And now it's
Speaker 2: maybe because my dad decided to shower when my mom
Speaker 2: was in labor and then just leave the car front.
Speaker 1: You're good?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that great point.
Speaker 1: That was a hero because when you get this question,
Speaker 1: are you good? I mean you just had a human
Speaker 1: come out of you. Are you good? Like no? Do
Speaker 1: you remember your first sports memory? I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you were a fan from from almost day one.
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 1: What was the first game you wouldall watching or or
Speaker 1: watching your dad work?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I would say it goes back probably to the preseason
Speaker 2: Jets times. You know when I was born. I was
Speaker 2: born ninety six, as he said, and Keishon Johnson just
Speaker 2: came to the league, was number one overall picked to
Speaker 2: the Jets. I had a jersey. And those are the
Speaker 2: photos all around the house of me in the in
Speaker 2: the bright green nineteen looks good, still looks good, and
Speaker 2: it's still I think hung up in my old room
Speaker 2: that has now been turned into everything. But my old room.
Speaker 2: It's funny.
Speaker 3: I know it's a it's a yoga studio. Chris his
Speaker 3: old group that's not existing. It's over.
Speaker 2: But I do think Mike Key, Shawn Johnson still still
Speaker 2: hung us. No, it's still there. Probably number one. But
Speaker 2: in terms of games that were seminal to me at
Speaker 2: that young age, there was a game I was early.
Speaker 2: I went to all those finals games the Nets made
Speaker 2: in two and three, and those stick with me. But
Speaker 2: there was a game in the playoffs that the Nets
Speaker 2: played the Pacers and Reggie Miller. You can go back,
Speaker 2: game five, best of five series, so winner to the
Speaker 2: ball at Continental Airlines Arena. Dad's doing the game. I
Speaker 2: went with my mom. Reggie Miller hits a half court
Speaker 2: heave to force overtime. Now, if you go back and
Speaker 2: watch it, technically was late, but the clocks were off,
Speaker 2: so they counted the bucket. He banked it in from
Speaker 2: half court, go to overtime, and then he had a
Speaker 2: dunk to force double overtime. The floor was shaking. It
Speaker 2: was one of those where, yeah, the first time I
Speaker 2: felt an arena actually, and it felt like an earthquake
Speaker 2: around me, and there was something that stuck with me
Speaker 2: of when the nets pulled away. Ron Mercer had a
Speaker 2: big double ot, Jason Kidd had a couple of huge
Speaker 2: rebounds and assists, and there was something that as always
Speaker 2: walking away. It was like, I don't know if I'll
Speaker 2: ever get this feeling again, this feeling of togetherness, this
Speaker 2: feeling of we just went through a life changing out
Speaker 2: of body experience with eighteen thousand of people that we
Speaker 2: don't even know. And I think that was the first
Speaker 2: time it shifted of Oh, this is awesome. I want
Speaker 2: more of this.
Speaker 1: I knew your answer would make me feel not quite young,
Speaker 1: considering I covered Kishan destroying Northwestern in the Rose Bowl story. Jets,
Speaker 1: that's a good first memory. You said something that made
Speaker 1: me think of why I first wanted to do this.
Speaker 1: You get that question a lot, right, And it took
Speaker 1: me a while to figure this out in life. But
Speaker 1: it was about witnessing and being a part of people
Speaker 1: expressing joy together. It was the roar of the crowd
Speaker 1: when the Blackhawks scored a goal and Lloyd Pettitt set
Speaker 1: a shot and like, oh he drew it out and
Speaker 1: there's the organ and the crowd and he laid out
Speaker 1: because there was no choice but to lay out with
Speaker 1: the kind of noise there, and I thought, I still
Speaker 1: get chills that what could be better than that and
Speaker 1: than having that many people so happy together. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Ian, what sparked you to first figure out
Speaker 1: that you got a passion for sports and be you
Speaker 1: want to be involved some way in doing this.
Speaker 3: Well, two things struck me from Noah's to him. One,
Speaker 3: he's right. Keishawn Johnson was his guy. And it got
Speaker 3: to the point, Chris where he was about two years
Speaker 3: old and we would go to the grocery store and
Speaker 3: Noah would wander off in front of us and would
Speaker 3: keep an eye on him, and he'd go down the
Speaker 3: aisle and he would not respond to the name Noah. Alisa,
Speaker 3: my wife, had to call him Kishawn in order. He
Speaker 3: was role playing to that level. So he's going down
Speaker 3: the produce department and Alisa said, Noah, Noah will not
Speaker 3: turn around Keishawan. And then people are like, you name
Speaker 3: your kid Keishaan, you're that big a jet fan. So
Speaker 3: he went through about a year and a half phase.
Speaker 3: He only responded, gonna talk about the loudspeaker. We got
Speaker 3: a toe tap in Aisle two.
Speaker 1: What wasn't it? Was it just the name or was
Speaker 1: the persona when you walking around? Just give me the
Speaker 1: damn sereal? Was it like a whole angry Keishan vibe
Speaker 1: or was it just call me Keishan?
Speaker 2: It was everything. I had a little swat and it
Speaker 2: felt good every day. Woke up and knew it was
Speaker 2: gonna be a great day. Woke up and new I
Speaker 2: had greatness pumping through my blood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's the first thing. Then the second thing
Speaker 3: the game that Noah is talking about. That game five
Speaker 3: of the first round series, Nets and Pacers the Nets
Speaker 3: with a one seed. If they don't advance, the season
Speaker 3: would have actually been considered a failure. They want a
Speaker 3: record amount of games and franchise history. Jason Kidd turned
Speaker 3: the team around, but it comes down to the final
Speaker 3: game of that opening round series. They go to overtime
Speaker 3: because of Miller, They go to the second overtime because
Speaker 3: of Reggie Miller, and then Kid just takes over and
Speaker 3: I'm doing the game with Bill Raftree. It ended up
Speaker 3: being Bill's last year doing Nets games, and he had
Speaker 3: done it twenty years, so it really was a cathartic experience.
Speaker 3: If you could find these highlights. You think Bill has
Speaker 3: high energy in general, this game, Bill was at another
Speaker 3: level because there were so many emotions coming out of
Speaker 3: him in that game. And to be sitting next to
Speaker 3: him in that moment to feel what Noah described of
Speaker 3: eighteen thousand people and Chris as you described the cacophony
Speaker 3: of sound between the pa, between the crowd and the energy,
Speaker 3: you're hooked. You're hooked in moments like that. I didn't
Speaker 3: know Continental Airlines Arena could actually rock like that because
Speaker 3: it had never really happened for a net game. For me,
Speaker 3: baseball was everything for me as a kid. Anything was
Speaker 3: a distant second. So I grew up in Queens. I
Speaker 3: grew up a huge Mets fan. Being a Mets fan
Speaker 3: in the mid seventies, it was not a good place
Speaker 3: to be and you had to be pretty strong and
Speaker 3: courageous to walk into school when the Yankees are winning
Speaker 3: titles in nineteen seventy seven and Reggie Jackson hitting three
Speaker 3: home runs in a pivotal game in the World Series
Speaker 3: against the Dodgers, and Charlie Huff and Bert Houghton and
Speaker 3: Elia Sosa and I'm walking in with a le Mozilli lunchbox,
Speaker 3: just hoping not to get ridiculed. So I dug in
Speaker 3: with my fandom, and it really was about baseball. It
Speaker 3: was about Bob Murphy and Lindsay Nelson and Ralph Kiner
Speaker 3: who were calling the games back then. Eventually Tim McCarver
Speaker 3: and Steve Zabriski and other announcers that stepped in, and
Speaker 3: I was just fascinated by that part of it, fascinated
Speaker 3: by Marv Albert and the job he was doing in
Speaker 3: New York as played by play Man for the Knicks
Speaker 3: the Rangers, doing local news at six and eleven o'clock.
Speaker 3: I just thought to myself, this is insane. This man
Speaker 3: can do all these things, get paid for it, and
Speaker 3: then do it the next night and the next night
Speaker 3: and the next night, and this is a career. So
Speaker 3: I decided very early on. I was eight years old
Speaker 3: when I told my parents what I wanted to do,
Speaker 3: and they were both so encouraging and resolute. Again, this
Speaker 3: is almost like an irrational form of confidence that your
Speaker 3: parents tell you can do it at eight years old,
Speaker 3: so you believe them. And that was it. I just
Speaker 3: believed I would do it, and that led me to
Speaker 3: whatever stages it takes to do this for a living.
Speaker 3: It was almost blind faith.
Speaker 1: We were about the same age. I was a Cubs fans.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear about the Mets angst in
Speaker 1: the seventies because the Cubs slow motion collapsed in sixty
Speaker 1: nine at the hands of the miracle Mets was a
Speaker 1: traumatic experience for a young seven year old, and I,
Speaker 1: despite that, decided this is what I want to do,
Speaker 1: even though none of the teams I writed for win
Speaker 1: any championships when I was a kid. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: it's it is infectious. No, I would imagine, you know,
Speaker 1: your dad doesn't suck at this profession, but also seems
Speaker 1: to really have a passion for it. And that's not
Speaker 1: a given. There's many people who do this job extremely well,
Speaker 1: don't love it deeply, and certainly when they go home
Speaker 1: away from the gig, don't express the love and the
Speaker 1: gratitude for it that people expect. They might that not
Speaker 1: being the case, I probably made it pretty easy for
Speaker 1: you to jump in and embrace.
Speaker 2: This one thousand percent. One thousand percent. It's one thing
Speaker 2: to watch a parent go through life and wake up
Speaker 2: and say, all right, it's time to go to work
Speaker 2: and just go through the routine, and that's that, and
Speaker 2: that can still be a very good life. There's nothing
Speaker 2: wrong with that. But to your point, when your parent
Speaker 2: finds a passion and it's something that they wake up
Speaker 2: with a smile on their face, no matter how many
Speaker 2: hours of preparation is required, money, how many games in
Speaker 2: one week can take you all across the country, and
Speaker 2: red eye flights can maybe derail your sleep schedule. To
Speaker 2: still have that smile on his face, to still have
Speaker 2: that same level of enthusiasm as when he first started,
Speaker 2: that was everything for me. For him to get home
Speaker 2: and then watch him as he got ready for the
Speaker 2: next game, to sit in his office and read through
Speaker 2: media guides, which I don't even know if they exist anymore,
Speaker 2: which is it's still upsetting as somebody legitimately sat in
Speaker 2: his chair in his office and went page by page
Speaker 2: learning ridiculous facts about Zadrenus Aldauskis for no reason. You know,
Speaker 2: that just was what I enjoyed doing, and I was
Speaker 2: I was somebody who loved the sport so much. Certainly
Speaker 2: basketball was at the top of football and baseball and
Speaker 2: everything that I really kind of took in as a kid.
Speaker 2: I loved it all so much that I didn't mind
Speaker 2: sitting there and just watch, you know, and just take in.
Speaker 2: So everybody always asked me, what's the advice that you
Speaker 2: got as a little kid from your dad, or what's
Speaker 2: the one thing he told you that eventually led you
Speaker 2: to this. It's nothing of what he said, it's everything
Speaker 2: of what he did. And it was the example that
Speaker 2: to your point, waking up and being very excited to
Speaker 2: get to work and so have that relationship with him,
Speaker 2: it's easy for that to rub off on you.
Speaker 1: Despite the talent and the preparation, no matter what stage
Speaker 1: we're at in your career, there are still those there's
Speaker 1: sink or swim moments. And that's what fascinates me about
Speaker 1: this business. Get asked about it a lot, and it
Speaker 1: might be a sport you haven't done before, it might
Speaker 1: be an unfamiliar situation that you're thrust upon. There was
Speaker 1: no way to prepare for it. It's just in front
Speaker 1: of you now. And how that is handled, I think
Speaker 1: it is so important. And I've heard you tell stories.
Speaker 1: You've never even been to a golf tournament. Now you're
Speaker 1: covering the Masters for CBS Amen Corner. Yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: having no basic training and just parachuting into a battlefield.
Speaker 1: Good luck, son. I mean, I'm sure at that point
Speaker 1: you're already a skill broadcaster, but stuff like that your
Speaker 1: first ever tennis match experience, which I know is a
Speaker 1: long story, but just being able to have the presence
Speaker 1: and the instincts how to deal with that in the
Speaker 1: moment is impressive. Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Chris, as you can relate to. Nobody tells
Speaker 3: you that it's going to be a pivotal moment in
Speaker 3: your career, so you have to have a sense of awareness,
Speaker 3: but you can't be too aware that this might overwhelm you.
Speaker 3: It's a very fine line of being in the moment
Speaker 3: but also not allowing it to become too big or
Speaker 3: too much or an avalanche as you're trying to fight
Speaker 3: your way through it. Yeah, the golf thing, I think
Speaker 3: it was really a case and I look back on
Speaker 3: it now that CBS trusted me, and that's a huge
Speaker 3: word in our business when your bosses start to trust you.
Speaker 3: And that was probably pivotal as I look back on
Speaker 3: my career of recognizing without them saying it, but based
Speaker 3: on the assignment getting Army Navy in two thousand and two.
Speaker 3: That came out of a left field. I had not
Speaker 3: done college football for CBS. That was not something that
Speaker 3: I assumed could happen. They gave it to me, and
Speaker 3: I ended up doing it for nine years and with
Speaker 3: boomersize and for most of those years, even though there
Speaker 3: was a time we were trying to get into the
Speaker 3: stadium and President Bush was attempting to get in as well,
Speaker 3: and Boomer and I are now on the perimeter and
Speaker 3: he makes eye contact with a security guard near the door.
Speaker 3: We were not going to be able to get in.
Speaker 3: They were not going to let us in, and clearly
Speaker 3: the security guard recognized Boomer, so he gives him a
Speaker 3: nod and we start walking over. He grabs my hand
Speaker 3: as if I was his child, and he's dragging me
Speaker 3: with him to get to the entrance. And now we
Speaker 3: get there and the guy says, big fan, mister Simms,
Speaker 3: and I turned a Boomer. He called you, Phil sent
Speaker 3: you shut up, and he brought me in. He did
Speaker 3: not want me to share that story, but it happened.
Speaker 3: It happens.
Speaker 1: You know, I could do a whole podcast on the
Speaker 1: presence of a president's former and current who have ruined
Speaker 1: the Vans, and it certainly killed some of the fun
Speaker 1: by just showing up along with her secret service squad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Boomer had to suck it up and be
Speaker 3: Phil Simms for a moment just to get into the venue.
Speaker 3: And the golf event that you mentioned, I did track
Speaker 3: and field. I had never been to a track and
Speaker 3: field event. I ended up doing eight straight NCAA Track
Speaker 3: and Field Outdoor Championships and loved it. I thought the
Speaker 3: whole vibe was a play by play man's dream. Every
Speaker 3: race is good. If it's a lopsided race, it's exciting
Speaker 3: that someone's dominating the field. If it's close, it's equally
Speaker 3: exciting that it's coming right down to the wire and
Speaker 3: someone's gonna win in the very last instant. So I
Speaker 3: enjoyed it. I try to bring enthusiasm and energy to
Speaker 3: whatever event that I'm calling, and ultimately those moments that
Speaker 3: you're alluding to, Chris, that you've had a number throughout
Speaker 3: your career on the hosting side and the play by
Speaker 3: play side, it's about being in the moment and delivering
Speaker 3: in the moment. And there's no guidebook there, there's no
Speaker 3: how to, It's it's a personal navigation of how to
Speaker 3: handle it and how to make it work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just never know when a curveball is going
Speaker 1: to be throwing your way. I had done a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, but my first year doing the ABC primetime booth,
Speaker 1: succeeding Brent Musburger who had done it a long time,
Speaker 1: and obviously with Ramon Keith Jackson's I've grown up watching
Speaker 1: and listening with these guys, and now I'm calling it
Speaker 1: after calling week one of the US Open Monday through
Speaker 1: Thursday day and night, jumping a plane, doing a three
Speaker 1: hour pregame show game day Saturday morning for at Worth.
Speaker 1: Now I'm down in AT and T Stadium in Florida
Speaker 1: State's playing, and you know, it's a very nice booth.
Speaker 1: It's pretty close to the field. Out comes Florida State
Speaker 1: in alternative uniforms, white jerseys, numbers that I would describe
Speaker 1: as urine yellow and a light a light urine yellow,
Speaker 1: and you can't see them. I couldn't see the numbers
Speaker 1: from the booth in warm up, which is kind of
Speaker 1: a problem. Yeah, and you know, I'm not I was prepared.
Speaker 1: I wasn't nervous. But you see that and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: oh shit, like you know, I am going to be
Speaker 1: judged by this game. I want to do it well.
Speaker 1: I want to meet my own standard. You just turn
Speaker 1: to your spoder, buddy, have a good night. We're going
Speaker 1: to call off the monitor. You're going to back end
Speaker 1: the call. You can back end the player ID caught
Speaker 1: first down thirty two and it's Isaac Sims. You know
Speaker 1: what the things we do when you can't immediately identify
Speaker 1: the player. But in college, I don't want to say
Speaker 1: it's much more challenge. In the NFL. That's debatable, but
Speaker 1: it is. No there's double the number of guys on
Speaker 1: the field, and right, twelve guys will catch a pass
Speaker 1: in a college game, half that in an NFL game,
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of important to know the numbers.
Speaker 1: And I somehow got through it but did not meet
Speaker 1: my standard. And it's just an example of just when
Speaker 1: you think you've got this down, here comes the curveball.
Speaker 3: Right Yeah, And you know, I think Noah obviously went
Speaker 3: through it doing college. This here he got thrown into
Speaker 3: a couple of NFL games. And I don't want to
Speaker 3: speak for you, Noah, but I think it felt like
Speaker 3: a vacation in many ways.
Speaker 1: The Nickelodeon shows are amazing. I want to tell you this.
Speaker 1: I mean, I I don't have a encyclopedic knowledge of
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon's characters, but I did see part of that and
Speaker 1: I look back at a piece of it. Man, you know,
Speaker 1: you and Nate Olsen do no just a phenomenal job
Speaker 1: with the slime coming at CG slime and here comes
Speaker 1: the getting. I mean, what a cool thing to document
Speaker 1: some pretty important and notewere the NFL games in this
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon style.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's that's one of the hardest parts about it,
Speaker 2: is finding the right balance because to your point, our
Speaker 2: first year doing it, it's a wild card game. And
Speaker 2: sure you can go and you can watch the normal broadcast,
Speaker 2: but we knew that because it was so new, a
Speaker 2: lot of people were going to be tuning in. Whether
Speaker 2: you were an eight year old kid from Des Moines, Iowa,
Speaker 2: or you were a fifty five year old fan who's
Speaker 2: just intrigued from New York City. We just knew we
Speaker 2: were going to get all different types of people, and
Speaker 2: so trying to invite the entire audience was seminal in
Speaker 2: our minds. Now, the one thing, as you guys, spoke
Speaker 2: about all these these pivotal moments in your careers and
Speaker 2: those those proven moments and the first kind of big
Speaker 2: breaks and maybe thrown into the fire, whether it was
Speaker 2: a track and field or whether it was your first
Speaker 2: play by play game. The one difference that I think
Speaker 2: about with a lot of people today getting those first
Speaker 2: moments is having this having the cell phone right next
Speaker 2: to you all the time, and having social media, having
Speaker 2: people constantly reaching out texting you in the middle of games.
Speaker 2: And I think the best thing that Nate and I
Speaker 2: did year one was before the game, we looked at
Speaker 2: each other and we said, Okay, put it away, just
Speaker 2: just put it to the side. We don't want to
Speaker 2: We don't want to be impacted by anything. We didn't
Speaker 2: want any words that anyone was saying, anything was texted
Speaker 2: to us. We just didn't want anybody to impact us.
Speaker 2: We said, if anyone used to get a message to us,
Speaker 2: Ken Mack, our producer, can get in our ear and
Speaker 2: let us know. And I remember at halftime, I had
Speaker 2: had we had five seven minutes maybe to go to
Speaker 2: the bathroom, get something to drink. Is then we had
Speaker 2: to do a filler segment and make sure we could
Speaker 2: bridge from the second quarter into the third quarter, and
Speaker 2: a couple people came up to us. Because at the
Speaker 2: time that was still heavily COVID, no real fans in
Speaker 2: the building, A couple of thousand were there. So a
Speaker 2: couple people came up to us and they said, have
Speaker 2: you seen the reaction? You go, no, they go, I go,
Speaker 2: is it good? They go, it's the most positive I've
Speaker 2: ever seen. I goy, Okay, they go, just keep doing
Speaker 2: whatever you're doing.
Speaker 3: I was like, all right.
Speaker 2: So I looked at my phone after It was the
Speaker 2: most tweets, messages, et cetera that I had ever gotten.
Speaker 2: But it was a good lesson for me, and I've
Speaker 2: fod It's something I've passed along to a lot of
Speaker 2: people who have asked of Sometimes it's better to just
Speaker 2: shut it off and be completely present in that moment.
Speaker 2: Just just stay with it, just be locked in as
Speaker 2: much as you possibly can. And so doing those games
Speaker 2: has taught me a lot of how to balance the
Speaker 2: fun with the serious, how to get down to the
Speaker 2: nitty gritty when you have to, how to take care
Speaker 2: of the business that maybe network wants you to take
Speaker 2: care of, or your producer wants you to take care of,
Speaker 2: but at the same time not losing sight of that
Speaker 2: kid in you. And I think I've taken a lot
Speaker 2: of that to the not animated or different or adverse
Speaker 2: broadcast that I've done just the normal stuff, let's say,
Speaker 2: whether it's a Clipper game or those NFL or college
Speaker 2: games I've did. It's just making sure that I still
Speaker 2: have fun with it, and so I think doing it
Speaker 2: has been a good practice in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: How about you keep your phone turned up these days.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a thing I don't know if I
Speaker 1: don't know if if you do. But I mean, Tariko,
Speaker 1: we have so many connected lines. There's so many different
Speaker 1: people that we know and we're I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of texting going on in the announcer community. If
Speaker 1: you have your phone open, if you're into that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and it's yeah, you can't let it destroy
Speaker 1: your concentration. But it is amusing and breaks and sometimes
Speaker 1: somebody might actually give you good input, not in your performance,
Speaker 1: but on something that's gone on in the field. So
Speaker 1: other coaches will text you watching another game, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes is valuable. But I get your point, but not
Speaker 1: want to be distracted do you guys critique each other.
Speaker 3: I don't know if critique is the word. I think
Speaker 3: it's more back and forth input. I'm not what word.
Speaker 1: Would you use. That critique is a broad term. It
Speaker 1: could mean a lot of things.
Speaker 3: Well, I would say critique is more negative connotation. Oh okay,
Speaker 3: So I wouldn't call it like the great Santini where
Speaker 3: I'm on top of Noah with every word that's coming
Speaker 3: out of his mouth and do it.
Speaker 1: Again, Basketball off the forehead exactly.
Speaker 3: Basketball off the forehead with Danny Noonan. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 3: happening like that. I got to hear the touchdown again.
Speaker 3: Man again, Hey man.
Speaker 1: I talked to Andres Cantour, the Great Andres Contour, who
Speaker 1: was a guest of the podcast and and his son
Speaker 1: Nico works for CBS and for Paramoutlus doing soccer, and
Speaker 1: he said, hey, there, critiques or comments, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it, go both ways. The sun is not
Speaker 1: above saying in a dad, He's not going to criticize
Speaker 1: as the goal call, but it might be. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you read the game, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you saw that you didn't you didn't pick up in
Speaker 1: the Chaine of momentum and and and i'd risk would
Speaker 1: accept it. I don't. I don't know if if you're accepting,
Speaker 1: if that if Noah comes up with something.
Speaker 3: I'm accepting, I'm very accepting. I would say our dynamic
Speaker 3: is one of positivity, and then if there's something that
Speaker 3: stands out to me, I'll mention it to him, but
Speaker 3: not necessarily the day after the game. It might be
Speaker 3: in a series of conversations we have a week later,
Speaker 3: ten days later, and usually it will be in the
Speaker 3: Oreo cookie realm, which would be positive, and then we'll
Speaker 3: use the word critique positive. So chocolate cookie, vanilla filling,
Speaker 3: chocolate cookie.
Speaker 1: Is that how you see it? Noah?
Speaker 2: It is I one of the best things that I
Speaker 2: think he did for me growing up. And at the
Speaker 2: time I hated it, and at the time my sister
Speaker 2: hated it, and I think we both appreciate it as
Speaker 2: we get into our adult lives. But when we were
Speaker 2: speaking when we were kids, if we use the words
Speaker 2: like or um in a sentence, it was what did
Speaker 2: you just say? And we would repeat and said nope,
Speaker 2: start the sentence over, restart, and it was really just
Speaker 2: to eliminate the words. Would you agree I can see that.
Speaker 1: It's I fully support that, by the way, yes.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, I agree. But I'm just now realizing
Speaker 3: maybe I am more like Robert Duval than I thought
Speaker 3: I was. There is a great Santini thing here going
Speaker 3: which Noah has seen almost every film. I don't believe
Speaker 3: he's ever seen that.
Speaker 2: So that reference not yeah, that one's not in my
Speaker 2: one over your head, but the Noon and I got
Speaker 2: Danny Newton right well, he was in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: Ny to knock down my pott.
Speaker 3: But so what I what I would say about that
Speaker 3: looking back on it, for myself is I took pride
Speaker 3: in the fact that you guys were capable of interacting
Speaker 3: with adults at a young age because I could, I
Speaker 3: mean being around my parents. I was just placed in
Speaker 3: situations where I was around adult a lot at a
Speaker 3: very young age. And it wasn't the oh, the cute
Speaker 3: kid in the corner. I could keep up. I could
Speaker 3: have conversations. I was aware of sports and movies and
Speaker 3: entertainment and music, so at a young age I could
Speaker 3: hang And I know for you, looking back on it,
Speaker 3: and for Aaron, it was important for you to be
Speaker 3: able to carry yourself in a way and to be
Speaker 3: taken seriously, because to me, credibility comes with how you
Speaker 3: carry yourself in those moments. So I do think it
Speaker 3: was important. Little did I know back then that it
Speaker 3: would rub off into the adult years where you do
Speaker 3: care how you speak and avoiding these crutches that we have.
Speaker 3: That was always really important that both you and Aaron,
Speaker 3: Noah's sister recognized that communication is the key to life.
Speaker 1: You guys are competitive anyway, do you guys? Whether it's
Speaker 1: tennis or one v one. I mean, I will not
Speaker 1: know what that is like that the father's son competitive dynamic,
Speaker 1: but it fascinates me. I mean, do you do you
Speaker 1: guys go at it in any form of sport?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Interesting dynamic. I don't I don't think Noah and I
Speaker 3: have ever been competitive in that way unless I'm misreading it. No,
Speaker 3: and we did participate a lot. You suck, Yeah, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's right. I think we we saw ourselves as allies
Speaker 3: more than competitor. Is that a fair assessment?
Speaker 2: Do you think it is? It is? I think that
Speaker 2: as I was getting into this more and more, and
Speaker 2: I think it goes even back further for when I
Speaker 2: was growing up like.
Speaker 1: I didn't mean in broadcasting. I don't mean I'm talking
Speaker 1: about a basketball cart.
Speaker 2: I just we never we never had those battles in
Speaker 2: the driveway. I think he knew I would win, so
Speaker 2: I just.
Speaker 3: That might have been it. Yeah, that's probably what it
Speaker 3: came down to.
Speaker 2: But no, it was never. We never had those those
Speaker 2: hardcore back and forth battles of any sort. It was.
Speaker 2: It was certainly uplifting on either side. And then definitely
Speaker 2: as I got into this, he started giving me his thoughts.
Speaker 2: As he said, in a very positive way and a
Speaker 2: very easy going way. But sometimes he would say things
Speaker 2: that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me
Speaker 2: because it was and I think anybody can relate to this.
Speaker 2: When you just have it in you innately, you just
Speaker 2: can say it. So he would say all the time
Speaker 2: when I'm trying to I would ask when I say, okay,
Speaker 2: how do you how do you get the best command
Speaker 2: of your voice? How do you get the best control
Speaker 2: and big moments to cut through a big crowd if
Speaker 2: there's a buzzer beater or a huge block or dunk
Speaker 2: in a in a basketball game, or a touch down,
Speaker 2: And he would say, you have to go above your
Speaker 2: vocal course. You have to then go below your vocal core,
Speaker 2: and I'm saying, what does that mean. I don't understand
Speaker 2: what you're saying, because you have to go from the diaphragm,
Speaker 2: go inside, and it's just feeling very technical and I
Speaker 2: couldn't I couldn't quite grasp it until you do it.
Speaker 2: And then once you actually get it, you go, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: you know that. That's what he was talking about, that
Speaker 2: feeling that you get. And so finally you just have
Speaker 2: to you have to get the reps. And sometimes I
Speaker 2: think and he knows this better than anybody, and that's why,
Speaker 2: for the most part, especially as I got to college
Speaker 2: and into the professional world, he just let me do
Speaker 2: it and let me figure it out. And then when
Speaker 2: I asked and wanted some of those critiques, he would
Speaker 2: give them and you have them ready, but he let
Speaker 2: me figure it out because he knew that was the
Speaker 2: best way to learn.
Speaker 1: I need some pointers know it from you on play
Speaker 1: I play because you are far more experienced than I am.
Speaker 1: And calling pickleball. Yes, for listeners who don't, no, televised
Speaker 1: pickleball is a thing on Tennis channel. ESPN is televising
Speaker 1: a pickleball slam. By the time this air is that
Speaker 1: the match will have happened. But it's Andre Agassi, John McEnroe,
Speaker 1: Andy Roddick and Michael Chang in a team events. Neither
Speaker 1: of them have played pickleball before, and I'm announcing it
Speaker 1: with Patrick McEnroe, another former colleague of yeers. I in,
Speaker 1: so what do I need to know? And don't board
Speaker 1: the people, so be concise in twenty five to thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: What is a key thing in doing play by play
Speaker 1: on pickleball?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think that you you've got to get the
Speaker 2: rules down. It took me a while.
Speaker 1: Its are hard, there's sneaky hard, It's hard.
Speaker 2: I agree, it's hard. As someone who never played before
Speaker 2: I got started learning what a dink was, learning what
Speaker 2: the kitchen line is, learning what an ernie is, all
Speaker 2: the technical terms that when you're doing tennis you don't
Speaker 2: think about. Now, I will say, because you do so
Speaker 2: much tennis, it will it's easier because you've got that
Speaker 2: muscle that you work. But there are differences. The other
Speaker 2: thing and the biggest thing, the best piece of advice
Speaker 2: I can give you or anyone who does pick a ball,
Speaker 2: don't drink too much water because the breaks, it's not
Speaker 2: like tennis where you've got to change of ends that
Speaker 2: could last two minutes. And certainly when someone leaves the court,
Speaker 2: and if it's Stefano Sitsipas, he could take eight to
Speaker 2: ten minutes and you might have some time to go
Speaker 2: to the bathroom, get back to the boots in time.
Speaker 2: The breaks and pick a ball are one minute.
Speaker 1: One of these old guys, these guys are not young.
Speaker 1: I bet there'll be some lengthy bathroom breaks here.
Speaker 2: I know, one minute sixty seconds.
Speaker 1: Are you honestly telling me that I did a five hour,
Speaker 1: fifty three minute tennis match where the bathroom was down
Speaker 1: the hall a rod laver arena. You know it's we
Speaker 1: had to sprint down there and get back because at
Speaker 1: any point in that joke, if it's an I'll match,
Speaker 1: the crux could happen in the fifth set. So will
Speaker 1: I will not overhydrate, and I will I will lay
Speaker 1: out a lot because all four player is going to
Speaker 1: be micd and that's where the fun is going to be.
Speaker 1: It's one of those kind of things like like Ty
Speaker 1: and Phil hopefully they're betting against each other and miked up,
Speaker 1: so's it's not not that serious a game.
Speaker 2: But thank you, that'll be good. It's gonna be a
Speaker 2: lot of fun. I'm excited to tune in because I
Speaker 2: keep seeing seeing the promos for it, and all four
Speaker 2: of those guys obviously have great personalities to work with
Speaker 2: the game, so it'll be it'll be a good one
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: I know you've done tennis spectacularly well over the years.
Speaker 1: I think CBS early years, US Open, Yeah, obviously Roland
Speaker 1: Garris for Tennis Channel. I mean those are two amazing events,
Speaker 1: very distinct. But speaking of curveballs, as you know, when
Speaker 1: you do this sport, you might get assigned to, you know,
Speaker 1: a Djokovic for a Serena match, and then that goes
Speaker 1: very quickly lopsided. And now all of a sudden you're
Speaker 1: digging through your notes because Beshila's Velli and Barancas are
Speaker 1: playing in a fifth set and on the court fifteen
Speaker 1: and you need to go out there and they've been
Speaker 1: playing four hours. You haven't seen a point of it.
Speaker 1: You're trying to figure out how to get people up
Speaker 1: to speed. Let's see, it's Lithuania, what's going on. He's
Speaker 1: twenty nine, but no other sport that I couldn't think
Speaker 1: of it. Kind of puts you in that situation, not
Speaker 1: rarely but routinely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris, the one story that comes to mind for me.
Speaker 3: It might have been my first year for CBS doing
Speaker 3: the US Open, and basically we were assigned to the
Speaker 3: outer courts. It was grandstand and then if something popped
Speaker 3: up on an outer court. Rarely did this make air,
Speaker 3: but Bob Monsbach, the producer at CBS, wanted to make
Speaker 3: sure he was covered the Moonzie sends me and Pam
Speaker 3: out to grandstand and I'm telling you, like, this is
Speaker 3: pre smartphone. I may have literally brought a book because
Speaker 3: I knew we were not touching it. And I'm out
Speaker 3: there at grandstand and Pam's next to me and I
Speaker 3: can hear through my headset. I'm not even sure our
Speaker 3: stage manager was on headset because nobody expected that we
Speaker 3: were going to be on And I can hear through
Speaker 3: my headset Manzie's nasal voice, iron iron, Where's that coming from?
Speaker 3: And I put the headset. I'm like, yeah, he goes,
Speaker 3: we're coming to you. I go, there's no match in
Speaker 3: front of us. There's no match at Grants And I go, okay,
Speaker 3: what match quarter to eleven, and I'm now trying to
Speaker 3: find on the screen. You have the one screen that
Speaker 3: has every match, and I'm looking. I go, oh my goodness,
Speaker 3: holy shit, it's anna check for Todsay and Elena Bovina.
Speaker 3: And I said, well, how long? He goes forty seconds?
Speaker 3: Forty second? What are you high? So Pam is like
Speaker 3: not even in the boots. She's chatting with someone downstairs
Speaker 3: and like, y, Pam. He's like, why I go, they're
Speaker 3: coming to us. She's like what. She comes upstore fifteen
Speaker 3: seconds she goes, what match? I go, it's a check
Speaker 3: for Todsay Bovina And now it's four three to one
Speaker 3: go and boom it pops on and he says, identify
Speaker 3: them please. I'm like, I don't know which is which.
Speaker 3: I don't know the difference between the two and that
Speaker 3: moment and I turned to Pam, I go, do you
Speaker 3: I don't know, So I just wait to see where
Speaker 3: the marker is for the server and it's check for
Speaker 3: Toadze and I just welcome everyone, and I checked for
Speaker 3: Todsy serving bottom of your screen.
Speaker 1: How dull was the rest of the tournament they would
Speaker 1: actually go to that match? What kind of historically awful
Speaker 1: moment was that in US Open history.
Speaker 3: I think what happened is the matches went very quickly,
Speaker 3: and then we had a bit of a chasm between
Speaker 3: feature matches and Dick Enberg and Bill McAtee. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know what was going on. I just know
Speaker 3: that that aired, and then I had another match with Robbie,
Speaker 3: Jeanepri and David Nalbandian. That was last minute. It was
Speaker 3: rain that week at US Open. So I'm just by
Speaker 3: myself and Monzie again in my headset, and he says
Speaker 3: I'm sending over McEnroe. I go, great, which one here? John, John?
Speaker 3: Now we're twenty seconds from here, and I hit the
Speaker 3: talk like, go hey, just let you know Monty he's
Speaker 3: not here. He'll be there. And with like seconds for
Speaker 3: many he comes in like the Tasmanian devil. He's got
Speaker 3: a Knick's hat on to the side, he's got a
Speaker 3: white shirt with a black tie, but it's undone and
Speaker 3: he comes in. They're like ten second. I go, hey,
Speaker 3: j I had not met John other than ball boying
Speaker 3: for him. I had not met him. Chris, I know
Speaker 3: this is shocking. John did not attend the production meetings.
Speaker 1: No he does. Now I can report that he's now.
Speaker 3: Back then, back then, no production meetings. So I stick
Speaker 3: up my end. I go hey, John, I an eagerly goes, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know who you are. I go, oh, all right, great,
Speaker 3: four three two one away we go for Jeneffery and
Speaker 3: Melt Bondian and within the first five minutes Chris he
Speaker 3: mentions the new Jersey nets, Bob monsmack Hits talkback. Nobody
Speaker 3: cares like this, And it was awesome, completely and it
Speaker 3: was a great experience. But yes, you're right. Tennis, you
Speaker 3: get thrown and Noah can absolutely relate to it. Having
Speaker 3: done Roland Garros and a bunch of events, you get
Speaker 3: thrown into some interesting situations. In tennis.
Speaker 1: You had a rolling Garos story you'd wear. It was
Speaker 1: hard to identify the players.
Speaker 2: Roland Garros was tough because the year I went was
Speaker 2: twenty twenty when it was bare. But my favorite thrown
Speaker 2: into the moment story was I did a lot of
Speaker 2: the return to tour action during COVID, so I came
Speaker 2: back to la in June of twenty twenty and Novak
Speaker 2: Djokovic was putting on his I think it was called
Speaker 2: the Adria or Aria Tour, whatever it was. You probably remember, Chris,
Speaker 2: and that did not go all that great.
Speaker 1: No, it didn't go out, but that.
Speaker 2: They still had other events they were doing. I know
Speaker 2: Isner and a couple of Americans put on a grass
Speaker 2: event back in the US and they were grabbing their
Speaker 2: own ball, no ball boys or girls. Chris Ubanks had
Speaker 2: a big win in it, now at a top one
Speaker 2: hundred player, but at the time he's going to grab
Speaker 2: and all that. So they're leaving balls on the court
Speaker 2: and I'm doing all of it with Paul Anacone. And
Speaker 2: one day we were there thirteen hours straight because the
Speaker 2: matches take so much longer when you don't have someone
Speaker 2: picking up their own loose balls at the net. So
Speaker 2: we're already pretty fried. And then we get I can't remember,
Speaker 2: I think we had Ian Dunn producing that day and
Speaker 2: he gets an our ear goes, okay, we're going to Serbia.
Speaker 2: I'm like, huh, you know, Janko Tipsarevich is putting on
Speaker 2: more of a charity type of event. It's at a
Speaker 2: park and we're going to the world number three, nine
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy seven Spectaglia go and there's no info
Speaker 2: on him. There's no ATP page on him. I look
Speaker 2: to see if there's an Instagram page. He has one
Speaker 2: post from twenty seventeen. He looked ironically and this is
Speaker 2: not even a shock. You could look him up. He
Speaker 2: did look like Danny Newton. And so the amount of
Speaker 2: Aaddy Shack references made that was what was that?
Speaker 1: Was that the super spread or invitational that they had
Speaker 1: over there?
Speaker 2: Was that that was? That was not that one.
Speaker 1: It was Oh, that was not that one. Okay, go ahead,
Speaker 1: that's sure. So it's happened.
Speaker 2: First we did that one, Lindsay Davenport and I did that,
Speaker 2: and in the couple weeks after Uncle Tip Sarvig said
Speaker 2: we're gonna try again. And so that one was at
Speaker 2: a park that kept panning to people doing power walks
Speaker 2: around a track. Was definitely.
Speaker 1: It's funny you don't control the cameras, which you rarely do.
Speaker 1: Intendis is always some world feed guy that's got his
Speaker 1: own agenda. The Rolling Garris directors loved to shoot the
Speaker 1: match through the glass of reflection in the sunglass. If
Speaker 1: it matches just a little bit less similating than they
Speaker 1: hoped for, You never know what you're gonna get on
Speaker 1: the screen and that that's all the fun.
Speaker 3: They're true artists, Chris, the the European World Feed directors,
Speaker 3: They're they're doing something that that we can't even understand.
Speaker 3: They're doing it at a.
Speaker 1: Level trufau spin on the match, which is, you know.
Speaker 3: Completely completely, it's like a Fellini film and it's it's on,
Speaker 3: it's on, you know, uh uh as Suzanne Longlan and
Speaker 3: they're going, you're right, they're going to try to get
Speaker 3: a shot from the other side. But if they can
Speaker 3: do it through the reflection through the tennis canister around
Speaker 3: and then an.
Speaker 1: Umbrella flowers, Yeah, I said, just shoot through the flower
Speaker 1: bed and it's insane.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I. I really enjoyed the French Open and Chris,
Speaker 3: you and I were there at the same time when
Speaker 3: Tennis Channel and ESPN crossed over for a stretch, and
Speaker 3: then we also shared a green room. The facilities were
Speaker 3: such early on, if you remember, Chris, there just wasn't
Speaker 3: no room. So we would literally get the crossover where
Speaker 3: there would be five guys from ESPN, five from Tennis
Speaker 3: chown and we're just sitting there.
Speaker 1: Announcers try to get along pretty well. Management I'm not
Speaker 1: so sure. But the announcers.
Speaker 3: Announcers was not a problem management. You're right, that might
Speaker 3: have been a bit of an issue.
Speaker 1: But you guys, you guys called the same basketball game,
Speaker 1: right if it was was it a Syracuse Miami game
Speaker 1: for CBS.
Speaker 3: That was the first one. That was the first one that.
Speaker 1: Was the NBA. It happens. But I mean, yeah, even
Speaker 1: back then, I mean, how many was cool? How many
Speaker 1: times have you have you simultaneously called the same game? No,
Speaker 1: it would have been it would be a few times
Speaker 1: now in the NBA, I guess right.
Speaker 3: Plus yeah, we've had a few in the NBA. The
Speaker 3: college game was noteworthy because Noah was only a junior
Speaker 3: in college and he basically asked the sports director, Hey,
Speaker 3: I know you were trying to get me a game,
Speaker 3: just so you know, putting.
Speaker 2: On your radar.
Speaker 3: My dad's doing a game down in Miami, so if
Speaker 3: that one's open, And he ended up doing the game.
Speaker 3: So a Lisa was there and her parents, Gene and
Speaker 3: Sue were there. It became a bit of a family
Speaker 3: affair in raf. I was doing the game with Raf
Speaker 3: who had known Noah literally since birth. I mean, he
Speaker 3: wasn't in the room with Alisa when it happened, but
Speaker 3: he does know or know him from a very young
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Good to see a kid, yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean look anything with Raf, like Noah is a kid,
Speaker 3: as we know with Raff. But I've I've tried to
Speaker 3: explain this. Everybody's a kid in Bill Raftery's life. No
Speaker 3: matter who I mentioned, I'll say, like, oh hey, Bill,
Speaker 3: I saw Jerry West. He sends its bestally, what a
Speaker 3: nice kid?
Speaker 2: What numbers?
Speaker 3: The math doesn't work there.
Speaker 1: But when you get to work with guys who were
Speaker 1: older generations and you admired and you were young, it's
Speaker 1: it's special. I mean, I'm sure you'll have that opportunity
Speaker 1: quite a lot now. But you know, Jim McKay was
Speaker 1: a guy who was an early idol of mind when
Speaker 1: he hosted the Olympics the seventy ten year Games. His
Speaker 1: handling of an awful situation with the Israeli athletes with
Speaker 1: such humanity and grace and dignity, I was mesmerized. I
Speaker 1: was about nine or ten years old, and I thought,
Speaker 1: that's what I want to do. I want to try
Speaker 1: to have that sense of storytelling and that humanity. So
Speaker 1: to work with him near the end of his arc
Speaker 1: on the Triple Crown Races was an enormous thrill. I'm
Speaker 1: not comparing that to Raftery, but you knew him obviously,
Speaker 1: You're a college kid when he's already a big figure
Speaker 1: in broadcasting. Now you guys will be on the call
Speaker 1: reunited for the final Fource. How cool is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And I think Chris as you know, when you
Speaker 3: have a real friendship with someone, it translates on the air.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean it has to be that way. You
Speaker 3: can have very good chemistry and not necessarily be close
Speaker 3: friends or socially connected. I've had it every which way,
Speaker 3: and I've had about I shouldn't say about I recently
Speaker 3: counted because I added Jay Wright to the list. I've
Speaker 3: had one hundred and forty six different part within broadcasting.
Speaker 3: And if I broke down number of games that I've
Speaker 3: done with one individual, Raf might be number one. It's
Speaker 3: either Raff or Spinarkle because it's going to be based
Speaker 3: on volume and basketball, and both of them I've just
Speaker 3: done a ton of games with. So I've done hundreds
Speaker 3: of games with Bill. But there's a friendship there that
Speaker 3: goes well beyond our broadcasting relationship, and it's all very
Speaker 3: real and organic and you can bust chops because you
Speaker 3: know at the end of it, it's all fun. And yes,
Speaker 3: Noah got a chance to work a game with Bill
Speaker 3: for Fox. Did a Big East game. Who was it
Speaker 3: Saint John's or Seaton Hall?
Speaker 2: Who was Hall? And fdu ah?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so just to see that come Ba's cool.
Speaker 2: Didn't know.
Speaker 1: Didn't you work with Dan Fouts who was also I
Speaker 1: worked with Dan Fouts years ago?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Didn't you do a was it a preseason game with
Speaker 1: Dan Faust? How cool to have that connection?
Speaker 2: Yeah, incredible. We did all three of the charge with
Speaker 2: preseason games, which which hopefully will continue doing for several
Speaker 2: years moving forward. But that both of those just because
Speaker 2: again they saw me. I'm not saying that I'm a
Speaker 2: great R and B singer, but they saw me boy
Speaker 2: to men or man and so with them, I think
Speaker 2: it was this step back, weird, crazy moment of they
Speaker 2: saw younger version of my dad, especially for Raf who
Speaker 2: works who began working with them at my age, and
Speaker 2: so I think I posted on Instagram, but the photo
Speaker 2: of the two of them when my dad is my age,
Speaker 2: and then the photo of the two of us at
Speaker 2: my age, it's freaky, it's freaky stuff. But for me,
Speaker 2: there's nothing cooler than that. And again, for all the
Speaker 2: reasons he said about rap especially, and all the true,
Speaker 2: all the same is true for Dan. The friendship, the
Speaker 2: ability to bust on each other and to say whatever
Speaker 2: and joke and back and forth. That that's what makes
Speaker 2: it experspect because you know, at the end of the
Speaker 2: day there is that level of, oh, yeah, we're in
Speaker 2: this together and we enjoy each other's company, and so
Speaker 2: trade all of that for the world.
Speaker 1: A second on risk canto reference because he's from Argentina,
Speaker 1: he called the World Cup final one of the greatest,
Speaker 1: if not the greatest ever played archers Uni beats France
Speaker 1: and penalties. His son Nico was also working radio for
Speaker 1: the same match and they had an incredible embrace afterwards.
Speaker 1: In a World Cup is as powerful as it gets,
Speaker 1: to my opinion, and to have that father son moment.
Speaker 1: So I'm asking you, guys, is there the possibility of
Speaker 1: some form of that If Syracuse were to cut down
Speaker 1: the nets next year in Vegas and you're both somehow
Speaker 1: involved in that, would there be a powerful emotionally experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been twenty years since Syracuse won a championship.
Speaker 1: I think about twenty years, So I'm not saying that's likely,
Speaker 1: But is there anything like that that could happen where
Speaker 1: you'd father's son and broadcaster colleague that it kind of
Speaker 1: all comes together in one big, sloppy hut at the
Speaker 1: end of some result.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, first of all, Syracuse winning a championship, that's
Speaker 3: that's a tall order right now. They've got some work
Speaker 3: to do. Red Autry's in there, he's in the lab.
Speaker 3: I see good things developing, but that that might be
Speaker 3: a bit of a leap to presume that twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: The other thing, I erroneously reported that it's going to
Speaker 3: be in Vegas next year, So that's maybe where you got.
Speaker 3: It's actually in Glendale, Arizona next Okay, it will be
Speaker 3: in Vegas, but not the Super Bowls in Vegas. I
Speaker 3: somehow crosswires.
Speaker 1: That did come from my research, So damn no, it's
Speaker 1: not you.
Speaker 3: It's all on me. And I could absolutely see the
Speaker 3: embrace that we're like good, strong huggers. We have that bond.
Speaker 3: The broadcast side of it, I don't know. I don't don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know how that's gonna.
Speaker 1: Be Net's Clippers. That's also unlikely. But like Net's Clippers
Speaker 1: NBA final Game seven overtime, somebody's crushed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I feel like we've got more
Speaker 2: of the breakfast club fist bump at the end. That's
Speaker 2: that's really yeah. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But how deeply sad, No, how deeply sad it is
Speaker 1: constrained to that?
Speaker 2: I mean that. Listen, Chris. The first article written about
Speaker 2: me when I got the Clipper job was he's twenty
Speaker 2: two going on fifty two. I think that's that's where
Speaker 2: the problem.
Speaker 1: Why did it offend you?
Speaker 2: I mean, oh no, Actually I took it as a compliment,
Speaker 2: which it was. Context.
Speaker 1: Hey, I was working at ESPN and I was mistaken
Speaker 1: for a high school kid. We were covering high school
Speaker 1: kids on the show I did, and I was asked
Speaker 1: for a hall pass, to the humongous amusement of my
Speaker 1: crew because I was dressed like this and in a
Speaker 1: T shirt. And they did not believe me that I
Speaker 1: was a college graduate in the professional world. They thought
Speaker 1: it was a high school kids. I know what it's
Speaker 1: like to be treated.
Speaker 3: I had the same. I had the same exact thing
Speaker 3: with the nets. They went practiced in a high school
Speaker 3: gym my first year in Washington, and we had to
Speaker 3: go because we're flying out to Phoenix after the game.
Speaker 3: So we get off the bus. We now walk through
Speaker 3: high school hallways and I'm the last guy off the bus.
Speaker 3: They walk into the gym. Literally everybody in the high
Speaker 3: school is lining the hallways to watch Benoit, Benjamin, Derek Coleman,
Speaker 3: Kenny Anderson, Dwayne Schintz, is Rick Mohorn, Chris Childs, Kevin Edwards,
Speaker 3: on and on and on and on. Yinka dar Jason Williams.
Speaker 3: Walked through the school and I'm the last guy, and
Speaker 3: the security guard goes, nowhere, where are you going? I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: I'm with the team. He goes, get back to class.
Speaker 3: Come on. So we tell the trainer, Ted Arzonica. I
Speaker 3: go Ted Ted, and he ted was a funny dude.
Speaker 3: He comes over. He goes, yeah, how can I help you?
Speaker 3: The security goes, this guy says, he does your radio goes, now,
Speaker 3: I've never seen him in my life. Just get out
Speaker 3: of here and get the algebra. Uh it happens.
Speaker 1: That tops my story. That's awesome. Uh, it's been a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. I mean, preparing for this was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Doing this was it was a whole
Speaker 1: lot of fun. I'll share this. Jennifer is a co
Speaker 1: executive producer, and yesterday she said, listen, I think we
Speaker 1: need we need to listen to the Eagles. Now behind me,
Speaker 1: we have a kick ass, high end vinyl collection and
Speaker 1: a badass two bamp turntable set up. So I think, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go Desperado Hotel, California, tod we go the
Speaker 1: long run now now now now? No, no, and I in,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have. She didn't say it that way. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: She did not say it that way, but she said
Speaker 1: it stridently, and I was thinking, you know, Don and Glenn, No,
Speaker 1: it was no. So we have listened to you guys
Speaker 1: for for the week. So thank you for coming into
Speaker 1: our homes day yesterday and and joining us, joining us
Speaker 1: here today.
Speaker 3: One last one last just to tag that Chris uh.
Speaker 1: When Noah song, by the way, I meant to I
Speaker 1: meant to segue to a music question because yeah, well.
Speaker 3: It connects to this point when Noah was wrapping up
Speaker 3: college and I was going to move to l A.
Speaker 3: Alisa and I flew to LA to look for an
Speaker 3: apartment for him. I think you were doing we were
Speaker 3: work in summer league, maybe in Vegas.
Speaker 2: So I was at summer league and then I was
Speaker 2: going to meet you guys, and we're all going to
Speaker 2: start looking at a few.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So Alisa and I get on the plane. We're
Speaker 3: flying Newark to LA and we're going about our business
Speaker 3: and now we're on dissent and the woman next to us,
Speaker 3: who looked familiar but I didn't say anything about it,
Speaker 3: we make eye contact and she says Ian. I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: said I'm Adrian woj Niowski's wife. Oh my gosh, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: we've met, missus woj woj Bomb. So we're chatting and
Speaker 3: she says, I happen to tell you something, and I
Speaker 3: think you're going to find it humorous. I said, yeah, please.
Speaker 3: She said, I texted Adrian during the flight. You're not
Speaker 3: going to believe who I'm sitting next to. And he
Speaker 3: wrote back who, and she wrote back the Eagles, And
Speaker 3: then there was a long pause and Wog writes back,
Speaker 3: oh my god, that's unbelievable, and she's like, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's not that unbelievable. Okay, So some time goes by
Speaker 3: and then he writes, what are they doing? Why are
Speaker 3: there on that flight? And she said, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think they're just going to LA. And then he
Speaker 3: writes are they touring together? And she's like, I mean
Speaker 3: they're married. I think they're touring together. Obviously he thought
Speaker 3: that she was sitting next to Don Henley and she was.
Speaker 2: The thing is Woge came up to me and then
Speaker 2: tells me this worry from his perspective. He goes, I'm
Speaker 2: sitting here, I go, why would they be flying commercially.
Speaker 3: United flight?
Speaker 2: Right now, that's his first.
Speaker 1: Thought, you know, banded dynamics, So wait, have been on
Speaker 1: separate private planes? I think actually at that point, good point.
Speaker 3: Sure, it's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard to follow our top that story, so well
Speaker 1: we'll leave it there. Guys, thanks again, and I continue
Speaker 1: to be just incredibly impressed by everything you've done for decades. No,
Speaker 1: I could not be more impressed by by He was
Speaker 1: a young broadcaster and a person, So decades decades of
Speaker 1: utual success to you and and you guys have been
Speaker 1: you guys have been great fun Chris.
Speaker 3: Feelings, mutual great, great being with you and thanks for
Speaker 3: allowing me to see my son. That was the highlight.
Speaker 2: Chris. I appreciate you, appreciate you having us on. I'm
Speaker 2: looking forward to catching as much of your calls as
Speaker 2: I possibly can this year. Very much enjoyed following along
Speaker 2: for the last several years, and I'm just glad to
Speaker 2: know that my dad cared about my birth. When it's
Speaker 2: all said and.
Speaker 3: Done, Yeah I did. I cared enough to bathe That
Speaker 3: was good.
Speaker 2: One could be fresh, fresh.
Speaker 1: And ending on a laugh just seems completely appropriate. That
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun for me. You can't maybe
Speaker 1: fully appreciate listening the facial expressions that reflect the mutual
Speaker 1: pride and joy I in space when Noah's talking telling
Speaker 1: a story, and Noah's face when his dad is relating
Speaker 1: his career. I plan to post some video clips on
Speaker 1: the website and on YouTube, and I think you'll also
Speaker 1: enjoy that and be able to fully appreciate how loving
Speaker 1: and support of this father son relationship is. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy broadcasting stories and behind the scenes stuff from TV,
Speaker 1: I invite you to check out a list of archived
Speaker 1: episodes that we're really proud of. A lot of my
Speaker 1: colleagues have joined me to tell their tales right back
Speaker 1: from episode one, Willie Geist, Maria Taylor, Rich Eisen, Jeremy Shapp,
Speaker 1: but also Mike Terrico and Kirk kurb Street, Dick Vital,
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley, stephen A. Smith, Doris Burke, Holly Rowe, Andre's cantor,
Speaker 1: Jay Billis check him out. There's a lot of great
Speaker 1: stuff in there, as always, thanks to my co executive
Speaker 1: producer Jennifer Dempster and to the folks at Octagon. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you soon with more of season six of Fowler.
Speaker 1: Who You Got