THE EAGLES: IAN AND NOAH

Stellar sportscasters together in our first Father-Son episode. Lots of laughs, behind the scenes stories, and tales from the family business with play-by-play icon Ian Eagle and superb, fast rising Noah Eagle. Just three sports guys shooting the…. breeze.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Today, my guests are the Eagles and Noah together and
our first ever father son episode. Now, Iron Eagle has
been at the top tier of sports play by play
for the long run. Noah used to be the new
kid in town. Now he's living life in the fast lane,
not partying, of course, ascending the sportscasting ranks at warp speed. Okay,

(00:34):
those will be my last Eagles references. I know, low
hanging Fruit, but I am a fan of the band
for about fifty years, and also, of course a fan
of the broadcasting Eagles. I've admired iron superb work for decades.
Who hasn't calling the NFL, the Masters, and college hoops
for CBS. I will take over his play by play
voice of the Final Four next season. He's also worked

(00:57):
the NBA for TNT, he called Rolling Eras for Tennis Channel,
and he's been the TV voice of the Nets Brooklyn
and New Jersey since ninety five. Noah calls the LA
Clippers games on Radio, a gig he earned fresh out
of Syracuse, but is also called college football and NFL
on Fox and Nickelodeon. He'll work Big Ten Football for

(01:17):
NBC this fall, and also works for Tennis channel, and
I'm probably forgetting a few things all by the age
of twenty five. The gift for storytelling on and off
the air runs deep in the Eagle family. There's a
lot of laughs here and great behind the scenes stuff.
Just three sports guys shooting the breeze well, Iron Eagle,

(01:38):
Noah Eagle. Thank you guys for making time during busy
periods in your seasons. I am fans of both of
your work. Massive respect for you. I in no I
have less time to build up that massive respect, but
you're well on your way to being very high in
my books too, so we appreciate. Let's have some fun
with this. We will talk about the present in the past,

(02:01):
which is compelling for both of you, but I want
to just talk about the near future because you guys
both have very exciting assignments. Within the next twelve months.
You will take over as the game caller play by
play in the Final four, following in the footeps of
Jim Nantz so I believe called it. Since Adolph Rupp
was winning Championship Kentucky, it's been a long time. You

(02:23):
might be well deserved, and you've done obviously college hoops
and probes for a long time, and Noah, you'll be
diving into the fray in prime time college football with
NBC calling Big ten games. So while I wish I
in really close, compelling final fours, I wish you a
season of blowouts and first round knockouts as you go

(02:45):
head to head against our game on ABC. I hope
you have a bunch of six to three games in
West Lafayette, but you know.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
You'd be surprised. I mean, the first college football game
I did this year on Fox, it was a seven
to three final with no touchdown, So your parents for anything, considering,
I got through that one and didn't cry myself to
sleep after, I think I'm good to go.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, it's awesome you're working with Todd Blackfatch, with whom
I worked. He's a friend, and Catherine Tappan has been
a neighbor of Jennifer of mine and two different New
York buildings, so I close close connections to your booth.
You'll have great fun. I seriously wish you the best.
It's a It's a very cool thing to go to
those big ten stadiums and call those games.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
So I appreciate it now I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
You guys. Both from doing my my prep and listening
to numerous interviews, you both seem to be extremely comfortable
and confident performing, whether it was on stage or in
front of a camera a microphone at a really young age,
which I'm incredibly envious because I certainly was not. It's
took me a long time to get there. But but
I your parents were in show business. Your mom was

(03:44):
a singer, dad was a comedian, and you were thrust
out on stage. You said at eight, at age four
or five, to like entertain the crowd. But those crowds
could be tough, with those borsch belt rooms, right, I mean.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, child labor laws be damned. But basically I would
get a bagel and a milkshake, form my troubles at
the end of my shtick, and my mom would open
and would do a solid forty minutes of music and
a gifted singer. Really, I think because of the era

(04:19):
no YouTube and no videotapes to show for it. I
wish that I had the material to go back and listen.
I just remember in my experience just how talented she was.
And then my dad would come on. He would do
forty to forty five minutes of comedy, and then at
the end of it, they'd bring me out for about

(04:41):
five minutes of impressions where I did Howard Kosel and
Muhammad Ali and the always popular W. C. Fields, and
I would kill you. They put me in a handsome suit,
sometimes three piece suit, corduroy green, and they would just
wind me up, and I'd go out there and do it.

(05:02):
And I do think, Chris, you hit on something that
was from a very young age. So I was injected
with confidence before I even had an idea what confidence was.
So school plays or any kind of performances seemed very
much within the realm and within my sphere. So when

(05:23):
I went to college and I wanted to break into
TV and radio at Syracuse, it was not a big leap.
The camera was not intimidating, the mic was not intimidating.
Going in front of crowds or an audience not intimidating.
And I think to some degree, Noah felt that through
the generations and then just from watching me and being

(05:43):
around me and recognizing that this is pretty normal.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
No you did the same thing, not Borschpelt comedy, but
obviously you felt complied. You said you were that kid
that would always be in front of the class, comfortable
with oral reports and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I mean, the one thing that you do need to
ask my dad Chris, is how is it that he
had more drip at seven.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Than he does?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Like, I've never seen him pack a handsome suit for
a trip. Where where's handsome suit in modern day?

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yes, it's the seventies. Noah, that's the that's the difference.
The seventies that had drip from every pore because you
were matching your your jacket to your tie. You were
going same material shirt and jacket. There was no shame,
so it all worked somehow. That's a great point.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
I'm excited for your mushroom shirt. That mushroom shirt, it'll
be good. But now you're absolutely right, i'd say, young age,
I think that you know. It wasn't that I got
to push from the from them or anything, but it
was this this nudge of hey, you're good at this, naturally,
just keep doing it. It was encouragement. Every time I

(06:53):
went in front of the class, it felt right. It
just was easy God, And so yeah, I remember the
big one was in fifth grade we got to sign
biographies that we had to read. I got to sign
Bill Gates, and most kids just went and delivered their
speech and went on with their day. And my mom,
I think, convinced me you should dress up as Bill

(07:13):
Gates and go the whole nine yards. So sure enough,
here's little Noah, who was already smaller than everybody in
the class, in a suit that probably didn't fit them,
wearing glasses, and bringing in a poster board that was
a fake big check to the school that I gave.
So I went all out, and at the end of speech,
my teacher came up to me and said, whatever you

(07:35):
do one day, you're going to have public speaking in
your future. And I said to her, no, no, I'm
going to play in the NBA, because that was my
prerogative at the time. And I think I quickly realized
that was very unrealistic and my vertically challengedness and my
limited athletic ability would restrict that, and so I made
the pivot. But yeah, it was. It was just something

(07:56):
that it felt right every time I did it.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
For me, I for more common in your generation than mine,
because I think a lot of kids have been looking
at a camera attached to their phone since they're toddlers,
and so it seems very normal to look into glass
and express yourself and kind of be yourself. Not so
for me. I was terrified of public speaking. I didn't
even like it in my early years of broadcasting. There
were just many good reasons to overcome that. When you

(08:22):
found out that the Talah Hassi Quarterback Club actually paid
you to go down there and talk about football better
damn well, get over your fear. But you know, I
and I can't even imagine. I mean, I guess you
don't know what you don't know at five years old,
but I was. My dad was a theater director, different
kind of show business in yours, but they were both theatrical.
And I could have played I don't know mcduff's son

(08:43):
on stage, and you know, I had a few cute lines,
and then he gets murdered by making baths, so it's
not a great part, but I would. I was just
terrified of the notion of standing in front of people,
looking into faces and doing anything. And it didn't translate
to being scared of being on a mic or a camera,
thank god. But I admire that you were calling nets

(09:04):
games and when Noah was born, fortunate they weren't on
the road. I guess that magical night back in ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Was it? It was ninety six. Very good research on
your part. The Nets were indeed at home. They played
the Seattle SuperSonics that night. My wife Elisa went into
labor at the wee morning hours, so I was able
to get her to the hospital, watch Noah being born,

(09:35):
which was incredible, and then work the Net game. That
night they beat the Seattle SuperSonics. They had Sean Camp
Gary Payton. The Nets did not have Sean Camp and
Gary Payton, and yet found a way to win the way.
I remember we had just moved to New Jersey into
a townhouse and my wife overnight said something's a little

(09:59):
bit off, but I don't really think this is it.
So there was trepidation, and then finally at like three something,
she said, now this is it. It's happening. I said, okay,
I'm going to shower, and that threw her off, like
you what do you mean? I was like, well, you know,
I want to be fresh for this, So I start

(10:19):
plowing through lights because I want to get pulled over,
like this is the dream that a cop pulls you over.
And nobody pulled me over. I just kept plowing through
reds and Elisa says, hey, you know what, just park
in front in case this isn't it, in case it's

(10:40):
it's a false alarm. I was like, what, you don't
want me to pay for parking? What's what's your thought
process here? So I placated her and we walk in
and she explained what's going on in the nurse and
the nurse said, no, no, no, it's it's happening. It's real.
So Noah was born early in the morning. We were
watching Regis and Kathy Lee. I recall that, and then

(11:05):
I just assumed I was going to do the game.
I said, are you good? She's like, yeah, no, go
for it. So I ended up doing the game. And
that's God Is.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
You have an amazing command of information and numbers, which
is important in the job. Do you know Noah's weighted
birth because I'm sure you know how many points Kendall
Gill had in that game that she called so.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, Kendall had fifteen. I know that. Noah. Noah, I
believe was was seven pounds three ounces somewhere.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
And guessing now, I would never know. You're just guessing, Noah,
do you know do you know the number? How could
you forget seven pounds?

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Five? Seven pounds?

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Do you know your own weight? Is that?

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Is that actually true?

Speaker 2 (11:52):
I had a revelation when he was telling the story
because for all my life people always ask how are
you just so chill all the time? And now it's
maybe because my dad decided to shower when my mom
was in labor and then just leave the car front.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
You're good?

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, well that great point.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
That was a hero because when you get this question,
are you good? I mean you just had a human
come out of you. Are you good? Like no? Do
you remember your first sports memory? I mean, I know
you were a fan from from almost day one.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
What was it?

Speaker 1 (12:26):
What was the first game you wouldall watching or or
watching your dad work?

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I would say it goes back probably to the preseason
Jets times. You know when I was born. I was
born ninety six, as he said, and Keishon Johnson just
came to the league, was number one overall picked to
the Jets. I had a jersey. And those are the
photos all around the house of me in the in
the bright green nineteen looks good, still looks good, and
it's still I think hung up in my old room

(12:52):
that has now been turned into everything. But my old room.
It's funny.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
I know it's a it's a yoga studio. Chris his
old group that's not existing. It's over.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
But I do think Mike Key, Shawn Johnson still still
hung us. No, it's still there. Probably number one. But
in terms of games that were seminal to me at
that young age, there was a game I was early.
I went to all those finals games the Nets made
in two and three, and those stick with me. But
there was a game in the playoffs that the Nets
played the Pacers and Reggie Miller. You can go back,

(13:22):
game five, best of five series, so winner to the
ball at Continental Airlines Arena. Dad's doing the game. I
went with my mom. Reggie Miller hits a half court
heave to force overtime. Now, if you go back and
watch it, technically was late, but the clocks were off,
so they counted the bucket. He banked it in from
half court, go to overtime, and then he had a

(13:43):
dunk to force double overtime. The floor was shaking. It
was one of those where, yeah, the first time I
felt an arena actually, and it felt like an earthquake
around me, and there was something that stuck with me
of when the nets pulled away. Ron Mercer had a
big double ot, Jason Kidd had a couple of huge
rebounds and assists, and there was something that as always

(14:03):
walking away. It was like, I don't know if I'll
ever get this feeling again, this feeling of togetherness, this
feeling of we just went through a life changing out
of body experience with eighteen thousand of people that we
don't even know. And I think that was the first
time it shifted of Oh, this is awesome. I want
more of this.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
I knew your answer would make me feel not quite young,
considering I covered Kishan destroying Northwestern in the Rose Bowl story. Jets,
that's a good first memory. You said something that made
me think of why I first wanted to do this.
You get that question a lot, right, And it took
me a while to figure this out in life. But
it was about witnessing and being a part of people

(14:45):
expressing joy together. It was the roar of the crowd
when the Blackhawks scored a goal and Lloyd Pettitt set
a shot and like, oh he drew it out and
there's the organ and the crowd and he laid out
because there was no choice but to lay out with
the kind of noise there, and I thought, I still
get chills that what could be better than that and
than having that many people so happy together. I don't

(15:07):
know if Ian, what sparked you to first figure out
that you got a passion for sports and be you
want to be involved some way in doing this.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Well, two things struck me from Noah's to him. One,
he's right. Keishawn Johnson was his guy. And it got
to the point, Chris where he was about two years
old and we would go to the grocery store and
Noah would wander off in front of us and would
keep an eye on him, and he'd go down the
aisle and he would not respond to the name Noah. Alisa,

(15:39):
my wife, had to call him Kishawn in order. He
was role playing to that level. So he's going down
the produce department and Alisa said, Noah, Noah will not
turn around Keishawan. And then people are like, you name
your kid Keishaan, you're that big a jet fan. So
he went through about a year and a half phase.
He only responded, gonna talk about the loudspeaker. We got

(16:01):
a toe tap in Aisle two.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
What wasn't it? Was it just the name or was
the persona when you walking around? Just give me the
damn sereal? Was it like a whole angry Keishan vibe
or was it just call me Keishan?

Speaker 2 (16:17):
It was everything. I had a little swat and it
felt good every day. Woke up and knew it was
gonna be a great day. Woke up and new I
had greatness pumping through my blood.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, so that's the first thing. Then the second thing
the game that Noah is talking about. That game five
of the first round series, Nets and Pacers the Nets
with a one seed. If they don't advance, the season
would have actually been considered a failure. They want a
record amount of games and franchise history. Jason Kidd turned
the team around, but it comes down to the final

(16:47):
game of that opening round series. They go to overtime
because of Miller, They go to the second overtime because
of Reggie Miller, and then Kid just takes over and
I'm doing the game with Bill Raftree. It ended up
being Bill's last year doing Nets games, and he had
done it twenty years, so it really was a cathartic experience.

(17:08):
If you could find these highlights. You think Bill has
high energy in general, this game, Bill was at another
level because there were so many emotions coming out of
him in that game. And to be sitting next to
him in that moment to feel what Noah described of

(17:28):
eighteen thousand people and Chris as you described the cacophony
of sound between the pa, between the crowd and the energy,
you're hooked. You're hooked in moments like that. I didn't
know Continental Airlines Arena could actually rock like that because
it had never really happened for a net game. For me,

(17:49):
baseball was everything for me as a kid. Anything was
a distant second. So I grew up in Queens. I
grew up a huge Mets fan. Being a Mets fan
in the mid seventies, it was not a good place
to be and you had to be pretty strong and
courageous to walk into school when the Yankees are winning
titles in nineteen seventy seven and Reggie Jackson hitting three

(18:11):
home runs in a pivotal game in the World Series
against the Dodgers, and Charlie Huff and Bert Houghton and
Elia Sosa and I'm walking in with a le Mozilli lunchbox,
just hoping not to get ridiculed. So I dug in
with my fandom, and it really was about baseball. It

(18:32):
was about Bob Murphy and Lindsay Nelson and Ralph Kiner
who were calling the games back then. Eventually Tim McCarver
and Steve Zabriski and other announcers that stepped in, and
I was just fascinated by that part of it, fascinated
by Marv Albert and the job he was doing in
New York as played by play Man for the Knicks
the Rangers, doing local news at six and eleven o'clock.

(18:53):
I just thought to myself, this is insane. This man
can do all these things, get paid for it, and
then do it the next night and the next night
and the next night, and this is a career. So
I decided very early on. I was eight years old
when I told my parents what I wanted to do,
and they were both so encouraging and resolute. Again, this

(19:14):
is almost like an irrational form of confidence that your
parents tell you can do it at eight years old,
so you believe them. And that was it. I just
believed I would do it, and that led me to
whatever stages it takes to do this for a living.

(19:35):
It was almost blind faith.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
We were about the same age. I was a Cubs fans.
I don't want to hear about the Mets angst in
the seventies because the Cubs slow motion collapsed in sixty
nine at the hands of the miracle Mets was a
traumatic experience for a young seven year old, and I,
despite that, decided this is what I want to do,
even though none of the teams I writed for win
any championships when I was a kid. But yeah, that's

(19:59):
it's it is infectious. No, I would imagine, you know,
your dad doesn't suck at this profession, but also seems
to really have a passion for it. And that's not
a given. There's many people who do this job extremely well,
don't love it deeply, and certainly when they go home
away from the gig, don't express the love and the
gratitude for it that people expect. They might that not

(20:21):
being the case, I probably made it pretty easy for
you to jump in and embrace.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
This one thousand percent. One thousand percent. It's one thing
to watch a parent go through life and wake up
and say, all right, it's time to go to work
and just go through the routine, and that's that, and
that can still be a very good life. There's nothing
wrong with that. But to your point, when your parent
finds a passion and it's something that they wake up

(20:46):
with a smile on their face, no matter how many
hours of preparation is required, money, how many games in
one week can take you all across the country, and
red eye flights can maybe derail your sleep schedule. To
still have that smile on his face, to still have
that same level of enthusiasm as when he first started,
that was everything for me. For him to get home

(21:08):
and then watch him as he got ready for the
next game, to sit in his office and read through
media guides, which I don't even know if they exist anymore,
which is it's still upsetting as somebody legitimately sat in
his chair in his office and went page by page
learning ridiculous facts about Zadrenus Aldauskis for no reason. You know,
that just was what I enjoyed doing, and I was

(21:30):
I was somebody who loved the sport so much. Certainly
basketball was at the top of football and baseball and
everything that I really kind of took in as a kid.
I loved it all so much that I didn't mind
sitting there and just watch, you know, and just take in.
So everybody always asked me, what's the advice that you
got as a little kid from your dad, or what's
the one thing he told you that eventually led you

(21:51):
to this. It's nothing of what he said, it's everything
of what he did. And it was the example that
to your point, waking up and being very excited to
get to work and so have that relationship with him,
it's easy for that to rub off on you.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Despite the talent and the preparation, no matter what stage
we're at in your career, there are still those there's
sink or swim moments. And that's what fascinates me about
this business. Get asked about it a lot, and it
might be a sport you haven't done before, it might
be an unfamiliar situation that you're thrust upon. There was
no way to prepare for it. It's just in front
of you now. And how that is handled, I think

(22:27):
it is so important. And I've heard you tell stories.
You've never even been to a golf tournament. Now you're
covering the Masters for CBS Amen Corner. Yeah, that's like
having no basic training and just parachuting into a battlefield.
Good luck, son. I mean, I'm sure at that point
you're already a skill broadcaster, but stuff like that your

(22:48):
first ever tennis match experience, which I know is a
long story, but just being able to have the presence
and the instincts how to deal with that in the
moment is impressive. Man.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, and Chris, as you can relate to. Nobody tells
you that it's going to be a pivotal moment in
your career, so you have to have a sense of awareness,
but you can't be too aware that this might overwhelm you.
It's a very fine line of being in the moment
but also not allowing it to become too big or

(23:22):
too much or an avalanche as you're trying to fight
your way through it. Yeah, the golf thing, I think
it was really a case and I look back on
it now that CBS trusted me, and that's a huge
word in our business when your bosses start to trust you.
And that was probably pivotal as I look back on

(23:44):
my career of recognizing without them saying it, but based
on the assignment getting Army Navy in two thousand and two.
That came out of a left field. I had not
done college football for CBS. That was not something that
I assumed could happen. They gave it to me, and
I ended up doing it for nine years and with

(24:04):
boomersize and for most of those years, even though there
was a time we were trying to get into the
stadium and President Bush was attempting to get in as well,
and Boomer and I are now on the perimeter and
he makes eye contact with a security guard near the door.
We were not going to be able to get in.
They were not going to let us in, and clearly
the security guard recognized Boomer, so he gives him a

(24:27):
nod and we start walking over. He grabs my hand
as if I was his child, and he's dragging me
with him to get to the entrance. And now we
get there and the guy says, big fan, mister Simms,
and I turned a Boomer. He called you, Phil sent
you shut up, and he brought me in. He did
not want me to share that story, but it happened.

(24:49):
It happens.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
You know, I could do a whole podcast on the
presence of a president's former and current who have ruined
the Vans, and it certainly killed some of the fun
by just showing up along with her secret service squad.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, so Boomer had to suck it up and be
Phil Simms for a moment just to get into the venue.
And the golf event that you mentioned, I did track
and field. I had never been to a track and
field event. I ended up doing eight straight NCAA Track
and Field Outdoor Championships and loved it. I thought the
whole vibe was a play by play man's dream. Every

(25:24):
race is good. If it's a lopsided race, it's exciting
that someone's dominating the field. If it's close, it's equally
exciting that it's coming right down to the wire and
someone's gonna win in the very last instant. So I
enjoyed it. I try to bring enthusiasm and energy to

(25:45):
whatever event that I'm calling, and ultimately those moments that
you're alluding to, Chris, that you've had a number throughout
your career on the hosting side and the play by
play side, it's about being in the moment and delivering
in the moment. And there's no guidebook there, there's no
how to, It's it's a personal navigation of how to

(26:08):
handle it and how to make it work.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, you just never know when a curveball is going
to be throwing your way. I had done a lot
of stuff, but my first year doing the ABC primetime booth,
succeeding Brent Musburger who had done it a long time,
and obviously with Ramon Keith Jackson's I've grown up watching
and listening with these guys, and now I'm calling it
after calling week one of the US Open Monday through
Thursday day and night, jumping a plane, doing a three
hour pregame show game day Saturday morning for at Worth.

(26:34):
Now I'm down in AT and T Stadium in Florida
State's playing, and you know, it's a very nice booth.
It's pretty close to the field. Out comes Florida State
in alternative uniforms, white jerseys, numbers that I would describe
as urine yellow and a light a light urine yellow,
and you can't see them. I couldn't see the numbers

(26:59):
from the booth in warm up, which is kind of
a problem. Yeah, and you know, I'm not I was prepared.
I wasn't nervous. But you see that and you're thinking,
oh shit, like you know, I am going to be
judged by this game. I want to do it well.
I want to meet my own standard. You just turn
to your spoder, buddy, have a good night. We're going
to call off the monitor. You're going to back end

(27:19):
the call. You can back end the player ID caught
first down thirty two and it's Isaac Sims. You know
what the things we do when you can't immediately identify
the player. But in college, I don't want to say
it's much more challenge. In the NFL. That's debatable, but
it is. No there's double the number of guys on
the field, and right, twelve guys will catch a pass

(27:40):
in a college game, half that in an NFL game,
And so it's kind of important to know the numbers.
And I somehow got through it but did not meet
my standard. And it's just an example of just when
you think you've got this down, here comes the curveball.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Right Yeah, And you know, I think Noah obviously went
through it doing college. This here he got thrown into
a couple of NFL games. And I don't want to
speak for you, Noah, but I think it felt like
a vacation in many ways.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
The Nickelodeon shows are amazing. I want to tell you this.
I mean, I I don't have a encyclopedic knowledge of
Nickelodeon's characters, but I did see part of that and
I look back at a piece of it. Man, you know,
you and Nate Olsen do no just a phenomenal job
with the slime coming at CG slime and here comes
the getting. I mean, what a cool thing to document

(28:27):
some pretty important and notewere the NFL games in this
Nickelodeon style.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Well, and that's that's one of the hardest parts about it,
is finding the right balance because to your point, our
first year doing it, it's a wild card game. And
sure you can go and you can watch the normal broadcast,
but we knew that because it was so new, a
lot of people were going to be tuning in. Whether
you were an eight year old kid from Des Moines, Iowa,
or you were a fifty five year old fan who's

(28:54):
just intrigued from New York City. We just knew we
were going to get all different types of people, and
so trying to invite the entire audience was seminal in
our minds. Now, the one thing, as you guys, spoke
about all these these pivotal moments in your careers and
those those proven moments and the first kind of big
breaks and maybe thrown into the fire, whether it was
a track and field or whether it was your first

(29:15):
play by play game. The one difference that I think
about with a lot of people today getting those first
moments is having this having the cell phone right next
to you all the time, and having social media, having
people constantly reaching out texting you in the middle of games.
And I think the best thing that Nate and I
did year one was before the game, we looked at

(29:37):
each other and we said, Okay, put it away, just
just put it to the side. We don't want to
We don't want to be impacted by anything. We didn't
want any words that anyone was saying, anything was texted
to us. We just didn't want anybody to impact us.
We said, if anyone used to get a message to us,
Ken Mack, our producer, can get in our ear and
let us know. And I remember at halftime, I had

(29:57):
had we had five seven minutes maybe to go to
the bathroom, get something to drink. Is then we had
to do a filler segment and make sure we could
bridge from the second quarter into the third quarter, and
a couple people came up to us. Because at the
time that was still heavily COVID, no real fans in
the building, A couple of thousand were there. So a
couple people came up to us and they said, have

(30:19):
you seen the reaction? You go, no, they go, I go,
is it good? They go, it's the most positive I've
ever seen. I goy, Okay, they go, just keep doing
whatever you're doing.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
I was like, all right.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
So I looked at my phone after It was the
most tweets, messages, et cetera that I had ever gotten.
But it was a good lesson for me, and I've
fod It's something I've passed along to a lot of
people who have asked of Sometimes it's better to just
shut it off and be completely present in that moment.
Just just stay with it, just be locked in as
much as you possibly can. And so doing those games

(30:52):
has taught me a lot of how to balance the
fun with the serious, how to get down to the
nitty gritty when you have to, how to take care
of the business that maybe network wants you to take
care of, or your producer wants you to take care of,
but at the same time not losing sight of that
kid in you. And I think I've taken a lot
of that to the not animated or different or adverse

(31:13):
broadcast that I've done just the normal stuff, let's say,
whether it's a Clipper game or those NFL or college
games I've did. It's just making sure that I still
have fun with it, and so I think doing it
has been a good practice in a lot of ways.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
How about you keep your phone turned up these days.
I mean, that's a thing I don't know if I
don't know if if you do. But I mean, Tariko,
we have so many connected lines. There's so many different
people that we know and we're I mean, there's a
lot of texting going on in the announcer community. If
you have your phone open, if you're into that kind
of thing, and it's yeah, you can't let it destroy
your concentration. But it is amusing and breaks and sometimes

(31:48):
somebody might actually give you good input, not in your performance,
but on something that's gone on in the field. So
other coaches will text you watching another game, you know,
sometimes is valuable. But I get your point, but not
want to be distracted do you guys critique each other.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
I don't know if critique is the word. I think
it's more back and forth input. I'm not what word.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Would you use. That critique is a broad term. It
could mean a lot of things.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Well, I would say critique is more negative connotation. Oh okay,
So I wouldn't call it like the great Santini where
I'm on top of Noah with every word that's coming
out of his mouth and do it.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Again, Basketball off the forehead exactly.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Basketball off the forehead with Danny Noonan. Yeah, it's not
happening like that. I got to hear the touchdown again.
Man again, Hey man.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
I talked to Andres Cantour, the Great Andres Contour, who
was a guest of the podcast and and his son
Nico works for CBS and for Paramoutlus doing soccer, and
he said, hey, there, critiques or comments, whatever you want
to call it, go both ways. The sun is not
above saying in a dad, He's not going to criticize
as the goal call, but it might be. I don't

(33:02):
know if you read the game, I don't know if
you saw that you didn't you didn't pick up in
the Chaine of momentum and and and i'd risk would
accept it. I don't. I don't know if if you're accepting,
if that if Noah comes up with something.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
I'm accepting, I'm very accepting. I would say our dynamic
is one of positivity, and then if there's something that
stands out to me, I'll mention it to him, but
not necessarily the day after the game. It might be
in a series of conversations we have a week later,

(33:32):
ten days later, and usually it will be in the
Oreo cookie realm, which would be positive, and then we'll
use the word critique positive. So chocolate cookie, vanilla filling,
chocolate cookie.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Is that how you see it? Noah?

Speaker 2 (33:56):
It is I one of the best things that I
think he did for me growing up. And at the
time I hated it, and at the time my sister
hated it, and I think we both appreciate it as
we get into our adult lives. But when we were
speaking when we were kids, if we use the words
like or um in a sentence, it was what did

(34:18):
you just say? And we would repeat and said nope,
start the sentence over, restart, and it was really just
to eliminate the words. Would you agree I can see that.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
It's I fully support that, by the way, yes.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Oh no, no, I agree. But I'm just now realizing
maybe I am more like Robert Duval than I thought
I was. There is a great Santini thing here going
which Noah has seen almost every film. I don't believe
he's ever seen that.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
So that reference not yeah, that one's not in my
one over your head, but the Noon and I got
Danny Newton right well, he was in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Ny to knock down my pott.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
But so what I what I would say about that
looking back on it, for myself is I took pride
in the fact that you guys were capable of interacting
with adults at a young age because I could, I
mean being around my parents. I was just placed in

(35:16):
situations where I was around adult a lot at a
very young age. And it wasn't the oh, the cute
kid in the corner. I could keep up. I could
have conversations. I was aware of sports and movies and
entertainment and music, so at a young age I could
hang And I know for you, looking back on it,

(35:37):
and for Aaron, it was important for you to be
able to carry yourself in a way and to be
taken seriously, because to me, credibility comes with how you
carry yourself in those moments. So I do think it
was important. Little did I know back then that it
would rub off into the adult years where you do
care how you speak and avoiding these crutches that we have.

(36:03):
That was always really important that both you and Aaron,
Noah's sister recognized that communication is the key to life.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
You guys are competitive anyway, do you guys? Whether it's
tennis or one v one. I mean, I will not
know what that is like that the father's son competitive dynamic,
but it fascinates me. I mean, do you do you
guys go at it in any form of sport?

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Interesting dynamic. I don't I don't think Noah and I
have ever been competitive in that way unless I'm misreading it. No,
and we did participate a lot. You suck, Yeah, Okay, Yeah,
he's right. I think we we saw ourselves as allies
more than competitor. Is that a fair assessment?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Do you think it is? It is? I think that
as I was getting into this more and more, and
I think it goes even back further for when I
was growing up like.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
I didn't mean in broadcasting. I don't mean I'm talking
about a basketball cart.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
I just we never we never had those battles in
the driveway. I think he knew I would win, so
I just.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
That might have been it. Yeah, that's probably what it
came down to.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
But no, it was never. We never had those those
hardcore back and forth battles of any sort. It was.
It was certainly uplifting on either side. And then definitely
as I got into this, he started giving me his thoughts.
As he said, in a very positive way and a
very easy going way. But sometimes he would say things

(37:36):
that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me
because it was and I think anybody can relate to this.
When you just have it in you innately, you just
can say it. So he would say all the time
when I'm trying to I would ask when I say, okay,
how do you how do you get the best command
of your voice? How do you get the best control
and big moments to cut through a big crowd if
there's a buzzer beater or a huge block or dunk

(37:58):
in a in a basketball game, or a touch down,
And he would say, you have to go above your
vocal course. You have to then go below your vocal core,
and I'm saying, what does that mean. I don't understand
what you're saying, because you have to go from the diaphragm,
go inside, and it's just feeling very technical and I
couldn't I couldn't quite grasp it until you do it.

(38:20):
And then once you actually get it, you go, oh, yes,
you know that. That's what he was talking about, that
feeling that you get. And so finally you just have
to you have to get the reps. And sometimes I
think and he knows this better than anybody, and that's why,
for the most part, especially as I got to college
and into the professional world, he just let me do
it and let me figure it out. And then when

(38:41):
I asked and wanted some of those critiques, he would
give them and you have them ready, but he let
me figure it out because he knew that was the
best way to learn.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I need some pointers know it from you on play
I play because you are far more experienced than I am.
And calling pickleball. Yes, for listeners who don't, no, televised
pickleball is a thing on Tennis channel. ESPN is televising
a pickleball slam. By the time this air is that
the match will have happened. But it's Andre Agassi, John McEnroe,

(39:12):
Andy Roddick and Michael Chang in a team events. Neither
of them have played pickleball before, and I'm announcing it
with Patrick McEnroe, another former colleague of yeers. I in,
so what do I need to know? And don't board
the people, so be concise in twenty five to thirty seconds.
What is a key thing in doing play by play
on pickleball?

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah? I think that you you've got to get the
rules down. It took me a while.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Its are hard, there's sneaky hard, It's hard.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
I agree, it's hard. As someone who never played before
I got started learning what a dink was, learning what
the kitchen line is, learning what an ernie is, all
the technical terms that when you're doing tennis you don't
think about. Now, I will say, because you do so
much tennis, it will it's easier because you've got that
muscle that you work. But there are differences. The other

(40:00):
thing and the biggest thing, the best piece of advice
I can give you or anyone who does pick a ball,
don't drink too much water because the breaks, it's not
like tennis where you've got to change of ends that
could last two minutes. And certainly when someone leaves the court,
and if it's Stefano Sitsipas, he could take eight to
ten minutes and you might have some time to go
to the bathroom, get back to the boots in time.

(40:22):
The breaks and pick a ball are one minute.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
One of these old guys, these guys are not young.
I bet there'll be some lengthy bathroom breaks here.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
I know, one minute sixty seconds.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Are you honestly telling me that I did a five hour,
fifty three minute tennis match where the bathroom was down
the hall a rod laver arena. You know it's we
had to sprint down there and get back because at
any point in that joke, if it's an I'll match,
the crux could happen in the fifth set. So will
I will not overhydrate, and I will I will lay

(40:55):
out a lot because all four player is going to
be micd and that's where the fun is going to be.
It's one of those kind of things like like Ty
and Phil hopefully they're betting against each other and miked up,
so's it's not not that serious a game.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
But thank you, that'll be good. It's gonna be a
lot of fun. I'm excited to tune in because I
keep seeing seeing the promos for it, and all four
of those guys obviously have great personalities to work with
the game, so it'll be it'll be a good one
for you.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
I know you've done tennis spectacularly well over the years.
I think CBS early years, US Open, Yeah, obviously Roland
Garris for Tennis Channel. I mean those are two amazing events,
very distinct. But speaking of curveballs, as you know, when
you do this sport, you might get assigned to, you know,
a Djokovic for a Serena match, and then that goes

(41:37):
very quickly lopsided. And now all of a sudden you're
digging through your notes because Beshila's Velli and Barancas are
playing in a fifth set and on the court fifteen
and you need to go out there and they've been
playing four hours. You haven't seen a point of it.
You're trying to figure out how to get people up
to speed. Let's see, it's Lithuania, what's going on. He's
twenty nine, but no other sport that I couldn't think

(42:01):
of it. Kind of puts you in that situation, not
rarely but routinely.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah, Chris, the one story that comes to mind for me.
It might have been my first year for CBS doing
the US Open, and basically we were assigned to the
outer courts. It was grandstand and then if something popped
up on an outer court. Rarely did this make air,
but Bob Monsbach, the producer at CBS, wanted to make

(42:29):
sure he was covered the Moonzie sends me and Pam
out to grandstand and I'm telling you, like, this is
pre smartphone. I may have literally brought a book because
I knew we were not touching it. And I'm out
there at grandstand and Pam's next to me and I

(42:52):
can hear through my headset. I'm not even sure our
stage manager was on headset because nobody expected that we
were going to be on And I can hear through
my headset Manzie's nasal voice, iron iron, Where's that coming from?
And I put the headset. I'm like, yeah, he goes,
we're coming to you. I go, there's no match in
front of us. There's no match at Grants And I go, okay,

(43:14):
what match quarter to eleven, and I'm now trying to
find on the screen. You have the one screen that
has every match, and I'm looking. I go, oh my goodness,
holy shit, it's anna check for Todsay and Elena Bovina.
And I said, well, how long? He goes forty seconds?

(43:36):
Forty second? What are you high? So Pam is like
not even in the boots. She's chatting with someone downstairs
and like, y, Pam. He's like, why I go, they're
coming to us. She's like what. She comes upstore fifteen
seconds she goes, what match? I go, it's a check
for Todsay Bovina And now it's four three to one

(44:02):
go and boom it pops on and he says, identify
them please. I'm like, I don't know which is which.
I don't know the difference between the two and that
moment and I turned to Pam, I go, do you
I don't know, So I just wait to see where

(44:22):
the marker is for the server and it's check for
Toadze and I just welcome everyone, and I checked for
Todsy serving bottom of your screen.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
How dull was the rest of the tournament they would
actually go to that match? What kind of historically awful
moment was that in US Open history.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
I think what happened is the matches went very quickly,
and then we had a bit of a chasm between
feature matches and Dick Enberg and Bill McAtee. I don't know.
I don't know what was going on. I just know
that that aired, and then I had another match with Robbie,
Jeanepri and David Nalbandian. That was last minute. It was

(45:03):
rain that week at US Open. So I'm just by
myself and Monzie again in my headset, and he says
I'm sending over McEnroe. I go, great, which one here? John, John?
Now we're twenty seconds from here, and I hit the

(45:24):
talk like, go hey, just let you know Monty he's
not here. He'll be there. And with like seconds for
many he comes in like the Tasmanian devil. He's got
a Knick's hat on to the side, he's got a
white shirt with a black tie, but it's undone and
he comes in. They're like ten second. I go, hey,
j I had not met John other than ball boying
for him. I had not met him. Chris, I know

(45:47):
this is shocking. John did not attend the production meetings.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
No he does. Now I can report that he's now.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
Back then, back then, no production meetings. So I stick
up my end. I go hey, John, I an eagerly goes, yeah,
I know who you are. I go, oh, all right, great,
four three two one away we go for Jeneffery and
Melt Bondian and within the first five minutes Chris he
mentions the new Jersey nets, Bob monsmack Hits talkback. Nobody

(46:16):
cares like this, And it was awesome, completely and it
was a great experience. But yes, you're right. Tennis, you
get thrown and Noah can absolutely relate to it. Having
done Roland Garros and a bunch of events, you get
thrown into some interesting situations. In tennis.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
You had a rolling Garos story you'd wear. It was
hard to identify the players.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Roland Garros was tough because the year I went was
twenty twenty when it was bare. But my favorite thrown
into the moment story was I did a lot of
the return to tour action during COVID, so I came
back to la in June of twenty twenty and Novak
Djokovic was putting on his I think it was called

(47:03):
the Adria or Aria Tour, whatever it was. You probably remember, Chris,
and that did not go all that great.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
No, it didn't go out, but that.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
They still had other events they were doing. I know
Isner and a couple of Americans put on a grass
event back in the US and they were grabbing their
own ball, no ball boys or girls. Chris Ubanks had
a big win in it, now at a top one
hundred player, but at the time he's going to grab
and all that. So they're leaving balls on the court
and I'm doing all of it with Paul Anacone. And
one day we were there thirteen hours straight because the

(47:33):
matches take so much longer when you don't have someone
picking up their own loose balls at the net. So
we're already pretty fried. And then we get I can't remember,
I think we had Ian Dunn producing that day and
he gets an our ear goes, okay, we're going to Serbia.
I'm like, huh, you know, Janko Tipsarevich is putting on
more of a charity type of event. It's at a

(47:54):
park and we're going to the world number three, nine
hundred and seventy seven Spectaglia go and there's no info
on him. There's no ATP page on him. I look
to see if there's an Instagram page. He has one
post from twenty seventeen. He looked ironically and this is
not even a shock. You could look him up. He

(48:15):
did look like Danny Newton. And so the amount of
Aaddy Shack references made that was what was that?

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Was that the super spread or invitational that they had
over there?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Was that that was? That was not that one.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
It was Oh, that was not that one. Okay, go ahead,
that's sure. So it's happened.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
First we did that one, Lindsay Davenport and I did that,
and in the couple weeks after Uncle Tip Sarvig said
we're gonna try again. And so that one was at
a park that kept panning to people doing power walks
around a track. Was definitely.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
It's funny you don't control the cameras, which you rarely do.
Intendis is always some world feed guy that's got his
own agenda. The Rolling Garris directors loved to shoot the
match through the glass of reflection in the sunglass. If
it matches just a little bit less similating than they
hoped for, You never know what you're gonna get on
the screen and that that's all the fun.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
They're true artists, Chris, the the European World Feed directors,
They're they're doing something that that we can't even understand.
They're doing it at a.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Level trufau spin on the match, which is, you know.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Completely completely, it's like a Fellini film and it's it's on,
it's on, you know, uh uh as Suzanne Longlan and
they're going, you're right, they're going to try to get
a shot from the other side. But if they can
do it through the reflection through the tennis canister around

(49:36):
and then an.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Umbrella flowers, Yeah, I said, just shoot through the flower
bed and it's insane.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Yeah. I. I really enjoyed the French Open and Chris,
you and I were there at the same time when
Tennis Channel and ESPN crossed over for a stretch, and
then we also shared a green room. The facilities were
such early on, if you remember, Chris, there just wasn't
no room. So we would literally get the crossover where

(50:03):
there would be five guys from ESPN, five from Tennis
chown and we're just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Announcers try to get along pretty well. Management I'm not
so sure. But the announcers.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Announcers was not a problem management. You're right, that might
have been a bit of an issue.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
But you guys, you guys called the same basketball game,
right if it was was it a Syracuse Miami game
for CBS.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
That was the first one. That was the first one that.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Was the NBA. It happens. But I mean, yeah, even
back then, I mean, how many was cool? How many
times have you have you simultaneously called the same game? No,
it would have been it would be a few times
now in the NBA, I guess right.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Plus yeah, we've had a few in the NBA. The
college game was noteworthy because Noah was only a junior
in college and he basically asked the sports director, Hey,
I know you were trying to get me a game,
just so you know, putting.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
On your radar.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
My dad's doing a game down in Miami, so if
that one's open, And he ended up doing the game.
So a Lisa was there and her parents, Gene and
Sue were there. It became a bit of a family
affair in raf. I was doing the game with Raf
who had known Noah literally since birth. I mean, he
wasn't in the room with Alisa when it happened, but
he does know or know him from a very young

(51:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Good to see a kid, yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
I mean look anything with Raf, like Noah is a kid,
as we know with Raff. But I've I've tried to
explain this. Everybody's a kid in Bill Raftery's life. No
matter who I mentioned, I'll say, like, oh hey, Bill,
I saw Jerry West. He sends its bestally, what a
nice kid?

Speaker 2 (51:39):
What numbers?

Speaker 3 (51:41):
The math doesn't work there.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
But when you get to work with guys who were
older generations and you admired and you were young, it's
it's special. I mean, I'm sure you'll have that opportunity
quite a lot now. But you know, Jim McKay was
a guy who was an early idol of mind when
he hosted the Olympics the seventy ten year Games. His
handling of an awful situation with the Israeli athletes with

(52:04):
such humanity and grace and dignity, I was mesmerized. I
was about nine or ten years old, and I thought,
that's what I want to do. I want to try
to have that sense of storytelling and that humanity. So
to work with him near the end of his arc
on the Triple Crown Races was an enormous thrill. I'm
not comparing that to Raftery, but you knew him obviously,
You're a college kid when he's already a big figure

(52:25):
in broadcasting. Now you guys will be on the call
reunited for the final Fource. How cool is that?

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Yeah? And I think Chris as you know, when you
have a real friendship with someone, it translates on the air.
It doesn't mean it has to be that way. You
can have very good chemistry and not necessarily be close
friends or socially connected. I've had it every which way,
and I've had about I shouldn't say about I recently

(52:54):
counted because I added Jay Wright to the list. I've
had one hundred and forty six different part within broadcasting.
And if I broke down number of games that I've
done with one individual, Raf might be number one. It's
either Raff or Spinarkle because it's going to be based
on volume and basketball, and both of them I've just

(53:16):
done a ton of games with. So I've done hundreds
of games with Bill. But there's a friendship there that
goes well beyond our broadcasting relationship, and it's all very
real and organic and you can bust chops because you
know at the end of it, it's all fun. And yes,
Noah got a chance to work a game with Bill

(53:40):
for Fox. Did a Big East game. Who was it
Saint John's or Seaton Hall?

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Who was Hall? And fdu ah?

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Oh yeah, so just to see that come Ba's cool.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Didn't know.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Didn't you work with Dan Fouts who was also I
worked with Dan Fouts years ago?

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Right?

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Didn't you do a was it a preseason game with
Dan Faust? How cool to have that connection?

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, incredible. We did all three of the charge with
preseason games, which which hopefully will continue doing for several
years moving forward. But that both of those just because
again they saw me. I'm not saying that I'm a
great R and B singer, but they saw me boy
to men or man and so with them, I think
it was this step back, weird, crazy moment of they

(54:25):
saw younger version of my dad, especially for Raf who
works who began working with them at my age, and
so I think I posted on Instagram, but the photo
of the two of them when my dad is my age,
and then the photo of the two of us at
my age, it's freaky, it's freaky stuff. But for me,
there's nothing cooler than that. And again, for all the

(54:45):
reasons he said about rap especially, and all the true,
all the same is true for Dan. The friendship, the
ability to bust on each other and to say whatever
and joke and back and forth. That that's what makes
it experspect because you know, at the end of the
day there is that level of, oh, yeah, we're in
this together and we enjoy each other's company, and so

(55:06):
trade all of that for the world.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
A second on risk canto reference because he's from Argentina,
he called the World Cup final one of the greatest,
if not the greatest ever played archers Uni beats France
and penalties. His son Nico was also working radio for
the same match and they had an incredible embrace afterwards.
In a World Cup is as powerful as it gets,
to my opinion, and to have that father son moment.

(55:29):
So I'm asking you, guys, is there the possibility of
some form of that If Syracuse were to cut down
the nets next year in Vegas and you're both somehow
involved in that, would there be a powerful emotionally experience.
I mean, it's been twenty years since Syracuse won a championship.
I think about twenty years, So I'm not saying that's likely,

(55:52):
But is there anything like that that could happen where
you'd father's son and broadcaster colleague that it kind of
all comes together in one big, sloppy hut at the
end of some result.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah. Now, first of all, Syracuse winning a championship, that's
that's a tall order right now. They've got some work
to do. Red Autry's in there, he's in the lab.
I see good things developing, but that that might be
a bit of a leap to presume that twenty twenty four.
The other thing, I erroneously reported that it's going to

(56:23):
be in Vegas next year, So that's maybe where you got.
It's actually in Glendale, Arizona next Okay, it will be
in Vegas, but not the Super Bowls in Vegas. I
somehow crosswires.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
That did come from my research, So damn no, it's
not you.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
It's all on me. And I could absolutely see the
embrace that we're like good, strong huggers. We have that bond.
The broadcast side of it, I don't know. I don't don't.
I don't know how that's gonna.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Be Net's Clippers. That's also unlikely. But like Net's Clippers
NBA final Game seven overtime, somebody's crushed.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Yeah, I don't know. I feel like we've got more
of the breakfast club fist bump at the end. That's
that's really yeah. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
But how deeply sad, No, how deeply sad it is
constrained to that?

Speaker 2 (57:20):
I mean that. Listen, Chris. The first article written about
me when I got the Clipper job was he's twenty
two going on fifty two. I think that's that's where
the problem.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Why did it offend you?

Speaker 2 (57:31):
I mean, oh no, Actually I took it as a compliment,
which it was. Context.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Hey, I was working at ESPN and I was mistaken
for a high school kid. We were covering high school
kids on the show I did, and I was asked
for a hall pass, to the humongous amusement of my
crew because I was dressed like this and in a
T shirt. And they did not believe me that I
was a college graduate in the professional world. They thought
it was a high school kids. I know what it's
like to be treated.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
I had the same. I had the same exact thing
with the nets. They went practiced in a high school
gym my first year in Washington, and we had to
go because we're flying out to Phoenix after the game.
So we get off the bus. We now walk through
high school hallways and I'm the last guy off the bus.

(58:18):
They walk into the gym. Literally everybody in the high
school is lining the hallways to watch Benoit, Benjamin, Derek Coleman,
Kenny Anderson, Dwayne Schintz, is Rick Mohorn, Chris Childs, Kevin Edwards,
on and on and on and on. Yinka dar Jason Williams.
Walked through the school and I'm the last guy, and
the security guard goes, nowhere, where are you going? I said, no, no, no,

(58:41):
I'm with the team. He goes, get back to class.
Come on. So we tell the trainer, Ted Arzonica. I
go Ted Ted, and he ted was a funny dude.
He comes over. He goes, yeah, how can I help you?
The security goes, this guy says, he does your radio goes, now,
I've never seen him in my life. Just get out
of here and get the algebra. Uh it happens.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
That tops my story. That's awesome. Uh, it's been a
lot of fun. I mean, preparing for this was a
lot of fun. Doing this was it was a whole
lot of fun. I'll share this. Jennifer is a co
executive producer, and yesterday she said, listen, I think we
need we need to listen to the Eagles. Now behind me,

(59:22):
we have a kick ass, high end vinyl collection and
a badass two bamp turntable set up. So I think, okay,
we're gonna go Desperado Hotel, California, tod we go the
long run now now now now? No, no, and I in,
I shouldn't have. She didn't say it that way. I'm sorry.

(59:43):
She did not say it that way, but she said
it stridently, and I was thinking, you know, Don and Glenn, No,
it was no. So we have listened to you guys
for for the week. So thank you for coming into
our homes day yesterday and and joining us, joining us
here today.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
One last one last just to tag that Chris uh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
When Noah song, by the way, I meant to I
meant to segue to a music question because yeah, well.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
It connects to this point when Noah was wrapping up
college and I was going to move to l A.
Alisa and I flew to LA to look for an
apartment for him. I think you were doing we were
work in summer league, maybe in Vegas.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
So I was at summer league and then I was
going to meet you guys, and we're all going to
start looking at a few.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Yeah. So Alisa and I get on the plane. We're
flying Newark to LA and we're going about our business
and now we're on dissent and the woman next to us,
who looked familiar but I didn't say anything about it,
we make eye contact and she says Ian. I said, yeah,

(01:00:51):
said I'm Adrian woj Niowski's wife. Oh my gosh, yes, yes,
we've met, missus woj woj Bomb. So we're chatting and
she says, I happen to tell you something, and I
think you're going to find it humorous. I said, yeah, please.
She said, I texted Adrian during the flight. You're not

(01:01:12):
going to believe who I'm sitting next to. And he
wrote back who, and she wrote back the Eagles, And
then there was a long pause and Wog writes back,
oh my god, that's unbelievable, and she's like, I mean,
it's not that unbelievable. Okay, So some time goes by
and then he writes, what are they doing? Why are

(01:01:35):
there on that flight? And she said, I don't know.
I think they're just going to LA. And then he
writes are they touring together? And she's like, I mean
they're married. I think they're touring together. Obviously he thought
that she was sitting next to Don Henley and she was.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
The thing is Woge came up to me and then
tells me this worry from his perspective. He goes, I'm
sitting here, I go, why would they be flying commercially.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
United flight?

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
Right now, that's his first.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Thought, you know, banded dynamics, So wait, have been on
separate private planes? I think actually at that point, good point.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Sure, it's hard.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
It's hard to follow our top that story, so well
we'll leave it there. Guys, thanks again, and I continue
to be just incredibly impressed by everything you've done for decades. No,
I could not be more impressed by by He was
a young broadcaster and a person, So decades decades of
utual success to you and and you guys have been
you guys have been great fun Chris.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Feelings, mutual great, great being with you and thanks for
allowing me to see my son. That was the highlight.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Chris. I appreciate you, appreciate you having us on. I'm
looking forward to catching as much of your calls as
I possibly can this year. Very much enjoyed following along
for the last several years, and I'm just glad to
know that my dad cared about my birth. When it's
all said and.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
Done, Yeah I did. I cared enough to bathe That
was good.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
One could be fresh, fresh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
And ending on a laugh just seems completely appropriate. That
was a lot of fun for me. You can't maybe
fully appreciate listening the facial expressions that reflect the mutual
pride and joy I in space when Noah's talking telling

(01:03:27):
a story, and Noah's face when his dad is relating
his career. I plan to post some video clips on
the website and on YouTube, and I think you'll also
enjoy that and be able to fully appreciate how loving
and support of this father son relationship is. If you
enjoy broadcasting stories and behind the scenes stuff from TV,
I invite you to check out a list of archived

(01:03:49):
episodes that we're really proud of. A lot of my
colleagues have joined me to tell their tales right back
from episode one, Willie Geist, Maria Taylor, Rich Eisen, Jeremy Shapp,
but also Mike Terrico and Kirk kurb Street, Dick Vital,
Charles Barkley, stephen A. Smith, Doris Burke, Holly Rowe, Andre's cantor,
Jay Billis check him out. There's a lot of great

(01:04:12):
stuff in there, as always, thanks to my co executive
producer Jennifer Dempster and to the folks at Octagon. I'll
talk to you soon with more of season six of Fowler.
Who You Got