June 12, 2026 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Today's guest is one of the most recognizable voices in
American soccer broadcasting. John Strong serves as the lead play
by play announcer for Major League Soccer on Fox and
It has called some of the biggest matches in the sport,
including the twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two PIPA Men's
World Cup Finals, alongside analyst Stuart Holden. Over the course
(00:26):
of his career, John's work is a period across major
networks including Fox, ESPN, and NBC. Before becoming a national
broadcast here, he spent years covering the game at every level,
including serving as the radio and television voice of the
Portland Timbers and as a radio host in Portland, Oregon.
Please welcome John Strong. And John my first question for you,
given your voice, it is a beautiful voice. I have
(00:49):
to ask, as a former theater kid, did you do
musical theater? And if you didn't do musical theater, why
did you not?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is One of the really important things that I did
earlier in my career was I started taking singing lessons.
There we go, because what had happened is in twenty
fifteen we did so many games. It was such a
busy year and I was losing my voice in games
in the twenty fifteen playoffs. And so one of my
sort of mentors in the business was Brian Wheeler, who
(01:18):
passed away a few years ago, longtime NBA radio voice,
was a radio host in Seattle called Games for the Sonics,
and I knew him more in Portland, and he had
said he had sung and choirs his whole life. So
that was a big thing from that example, was like
taking singing lessons, understanding how to use my voice, how
to use this sort of the mechanics of this tool.
(01:38):
And I can tell you now, Keeley. I mean, so
as we talk, we're match day minus two. As we
look at it, because we start with the US opener,
I'm already fully in sort of my preparation of hydration.
I've got my special tea, I'm drinking, I've got lozenges
like it's I've learned over the years how to do
stuff like that. And it's I tell young broadcast the
(02:00):
same as being an athlete. You got to take care
of the tools that you've been given to do your job.
For sure.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, I was looking at your lineup, John, and we'll
get into it, but I can see that I didn't
know about the singing lessons.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I'm really intrigued. But we'll we'll shelve out for a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
That's not what we're gonna have you do here today,
but I wanted to take you back to Lake Oswego.
I'm actually in Lake Oswego right now, so I'm in
your hometown, so fittingly.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
How'd you get started?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I know you were Lake Oswego grad, University of Oregon.
How'd you get How'd you get into this?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Only job I've ever wanted to have in my whole
life was to be a sports play by play broadcaster,
even before I was old enough to understand what that
meant or how to get there or why exactly I
wanted to do it. That was what I wanted to do,
and so as a senior in high school, it was
largely the looming threat of our varsity soccer coach trying
(02:56):
to change the note cut policy for seniors on my
behalf to get me off the team, and sort of
that sense of I need to I had done a
little bit at that point, but that was the motivation,
like in August of like I need to start pushing
on this because you know this is not going well
as a player, I think that's the end for me.
(03:17):
And so that was when I started. And just I've
been the benefit of a lot of opportunities where you know,
an opportunity has been created for me that didn't exist before.
I mean, I try to explain to students now, you know,
in the fall of two thousand and two, like what
the internet was then as compared to now, the ubiquity
of the types of things, even just this sort of
(03:39):
zoom conversation and putting games online didn't exist back then.
I mean, the stuff that we were doing. The principle
later told my mom that the only reason he said
yes was to get us out of his office because
he didn't understand what we were asking. But getting the
opportunity as a high schooler and then as a college
student to just start doing it and calling games and
(04:00):
didn't matter the sport, didn't matter if anyone was listening
or not. It was just getting that sort of ten
thousand hours you need of practice to become proficient. And
what's fun is that. Just yesterday I did an interview
on Colin Coward's show, and you know, Colin lived in
Portland for a long time, so In the break, he's
asking me about high school and where I grew up,
and I'm saying, yeah, I saw the jail Blazers documentary recently.
(04:23):
Boy did my hometown not come off well in that one.
But that's also what happened, and that I love that
type of stuff because it roots me back in where
I started and a kid just with insane dreams and
hopes and a reminder to never take for granted what
I get to do, what I get to see and
witness and experience, and always maintain that sense of kind
(04:46):
of gallie g whiz, this is amazing what I get
to do, and not let it, not let it become normal,
and also not allowed sort of the pressure of it
to get to me and keep it fun and joyful.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Now you mentioned Coward and then Wheels, and then of
course you got to give a shout out to Shanley.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I mean, you had some people in this area. There
are some greats out of this area, including yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean, what role did those guys play in bringing you,
know you into who you are today? And how did
they play into that?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Most part, it was just sort of being inspired from
Afar and a lot of broadcasters a lot of the
very famous American sports broadcasters like Keith Jackson and Dick
Emberg and al Michaels. I grew up listening to announcers
from the UK like John Motson and Martin Tyler, but
also listening to games in Spanish, you know, Andre's Cantor
(05:39):
and Pablo Ramirez and John Laguna and voices like that.
It's sort of this giant mish mash of how I
call games. And I've had some hands on mentors as well,
which I've been very lucky to have. You know, Bill
Shanley was an inspiration of mine growing up as the
voice of the Trailblazers, and then I got to know
him a little bit because he sang in the church
choir with my and he actually did a reading at
(06:01):
our wedding and like it announced us as a couple.
My wife Nicole and I had the reception. So that
type of stuff is very fun, and it's there's a
surreality in moments when I speak to younger broadcasters who say, like,
you know, I've grown up listening to you and now
I want to do this, and I go, well, first
of all, that makes me feel very old, and secondly,
(06:22):
you know, Alexi Lawless's joke is like, you can take
this from my cold dead hands, because I love what
I get to do. I don't want to give it
up just yet. But those are moments that, as I said,
become very surreal to me of like, oh, I've actually
been able to get to where I dreamed of being.
Not everyone gets to experience that, and I'm very, very
lucky that I have been able to.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
What was your first real pinch me moment as a broadcaster, like,
how is this actually real?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
How is is real?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Life? Was actually a two thousand and nine Portland Timbers
Seattle Sounders US Open Cup game that was the Sounders
expansion year. The Timbers had been a bounce as a
future expansion team, but we're still in USL and I
got to call the game on the radio in Portland
because our normal radio announcer, Andy McNamara was calling the
game on TV that night, And that was the first
(07:11):
time I got a taste of like actually calling a
big professional game on the real radio, and that has
always stuck with me. I mean, it was that the
risk of this being an unfortunate metaphor, It was like
having a shot of a drug and there was I
became addicted to that feeling of that first taste of
what I felt like was the big time. And well,
(07:33):
I've had plenty of other moments and opportunities and special things,
and I think Friday night, but also the following Friday,
the second US game in Seattle. You know, it's funny
we had the opportunity with FIFA in the fall to
go stadium by stadium and kind of select, you know,
of the available options. Where do you want to be?
(07:53):
Do you want to be in a radio booth? Do
you want to be in the tribunal which is up
in the stands. The television booths are being used only
for cameras, so you can't call the game from there.
And when we went to Seattle Stadium, as we're calling it,
liberate decision of I want to be for US versus
Australia in the visiting team radio booth because I've called
(08:15):
a dozen plus games there over the years, both as
the Timbers radio announcer. But then we did an NBC
game there once actually randomly, and like the idea of
being able to walk into a booth that I have
been in so many times in a stadium I've been
in so many times, but calling this very unique, unusual game.
(08:36):
Those sorts of things are really special and meaningful for me,
And I think that's a big part of this whole
month for me, is just taking mental snap shots because
it's very possible for a number of reasons, I never
get an experience quite like this again, so I don't
want to let it just pass by.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Yeah, you know, I was looking at I was looking
back at things.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
That I you know, listened to you do locally, and
then you know, watching your career and then twenty eleven
MLS Call of the Year, and then I was looking
at how seemingly quickly you accelerated through pretty much every network,
every echelon, every tournament. Did it feel like it was
going at warp speed or did it feel natural as
it was happening?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
My path was not normal. A lot of it was.
I was in the right place at the right time,
But I was also in situations where you know, NBC
and Fox were looking for new young American soccer announcers,
and that was a list of like two people basically,
and I was. I was ahead of the curve in
(09:37):
a lot of ways, and even still in the sports
broadcast industry. I'm always surprised how few young hiring, very
successful announcers are either interested in soccer or are really
trying to pursue it because it's it's still sort of
an and or it's either soccer or football, basketball, baseball,
and there's a variety of reasons for that. I look
(10:00):
back on it now, I was so professionally and emotionally unprepared.
It was such a reckless decision for the Timbers to make,
and for NBC and Fox to make to give me
these opportunities when they did. I was so young, I
was so naive, I was so inexperienced. It's insane to me.
And I listened back to some of what I said
(10:21):
on television in those early days, and I'm like, what
are you doing? You know, you don't know what you
don't know, and you don't know any better when you're young.
And I'm very thankful that I've been in situations where
I've had bosses that have and coworkers that have allowed
me to sort of make mistakes as I go and
learn on the job and play my way into the role.
I'm still really quite young for this profession, honestly, and
(10:46):
I'm still learning and growing significantly. The fact, honestly that
I lost my hair as young as I did. That
worked in my favor because I think I tricked some
people into thinking I was older than I was. That's
not as I'm dead serious about that. So yeah, you know,
things came really quickly from me, and I'm very thankful.
And that's what's nice, is I do. It's something that
(11:07):
gives me comfort and confidence going into this unique opportunity
this month is I do have a lot of experience
under my belt and that helps. If I was if
this was my first World Cup, I don't think I'd
be able to handle that pressure in that anxiety. I
still struggle with the pressure in the anxiety, but I
at least have the benefit of Okay, I've done this before,
(11:27):
I know how to do it, have confidence and faith
in what I'm doing and what we're doing as a team.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Well, well, Kelley, will you share what we were talking
about before we jumped on here, just about like how
how you because I could go on and on about
how I've listened to John really from the beginning, and
from the beginning for me, I was like, wow, even
when you know you're talking about oh, I'd.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Said that, and oh my gosh, you know I've said
things that I never would say now and what was
I thinking?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Even listening to you?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Then it was like, oh, he knows what he's doing,
and Keila, you shared an interesting perspective on it.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Just of research that you do. I mean the when
I listen as a fan to all of your work, John,
I'm always so impressed with just all of the factoids
that you pull out about not just the stars and
not just the starters, but like anyone and everyone on
that field, which is such an important part of storytelling,
and there's so much preparation that is involved in that.
(12:21):
Can you talk about your process and you know how
you're able to just pull out factoids at the drop.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Of a hat.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Process for this has really been going on for multiple
months because I wanted to get ahead of it. I've
made the mistake of getting to crunch time for tournaments
and like I'm not sleeping in the week's leading up
and that I'm kind of a physical wreck. So I'll
show you what I've been working on before I started
this is this is what I have for Croatia right now,
which is, you know, twenty six players on the roster.
(12:49):
Each one of them has a sticker, and on each
sticker there's the biographical stuff, but then there's also a
what would be their twenty second life story I want
to say about them, you know, trying to give context
to every possible eventuality for every possible player. I love
that part. It's it's it's overwhelming. We're preparing to see
(13:13):
eighteen different teams in the group stage, twenty six per squad.
That's over four hundred and fifty players, and you kind
of have to have it done before the tournament starts.
You don't have time between games to do anything else. Yeah.
I actually get more joy talking about the players you
don't know than talking about the stars. I have to
(13:33):
I have to correct myself a little bit sometimes of Okay, yes,
I would love to talk endlessly about Christian roll don,
but also I need to make sure I'm talking about
Christian politic too, like that's you do have to play
the hits like that's why they're there. And also I
have to hold myself back from overdoing it. Sometimes I've
(13:54):
made the mistake at times of too much storytelling, too
many Because I love it, I fascinating, I want to
celebrate the journeys that every single player has gone on
to get to this moment. They're playing in a World Cup.
That's incredible. And being able to rain myself in and
pull myself back to not overdo it is the bigger challenge,
but I love it. That's when you know, at whatever
(14:17):
point I get to where I'm not enthusiastic to do
all the preparation work, that will be the red flag
that it's time for me to stop doing this. But
I still love the blank sheet of paper and Okay,
what's the story of this team, what's the story of
this game? And then being able to try to give
a little bit of that to viewers who, especially a
(14:39):
World Cup. You know, they're not watching this spore week
in week out. They don't know who these guys are.
I love that part of it.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
We love that you love it because the stories that
we get about it doesn't matter if it's the star
of the roster or it's somebody that might get some
minutes and then make a difference. I mean, I know
if that twenty sixth player will just you know, they
get in the game, you're going to have something on
them and it's going to be interesting and it's going
to draw me into the game and all of a sudden,
I'm going to be invested in that person and want to.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
See what they do. But I'm looking here at your schedule.
That shout out. Shout out to Nicole Wilcox Strong. She
still has that.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
My long suffering wife.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Oh yes, your wonderful wife. She and I love this.
I love that she does this.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
She posts your schedule so we all know what you're
doing and how we can find you, and then we
can turn the volume up because you're you're.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Going to do an outstanding job something like this.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I mean, I was just looking and you've mentioned it
eighteen different teams, and I was trying to do the math.
Keelee knows right before we got on. You start with
you have all the US Games and Group Stage USA
Paraguay in la at six pm, and then the next
day you have Brazil Morocco at three pm in New York,
and then the fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
You got one day.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I hesitate to call it a day off because I
know that's not what it's going to be.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And we call it yes, And.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Then you have Spain Cape Verde in Atlanta. How do
you manage a turn like that? You said that you
have to do the homework before you start. But if
you're in La calling a six pm game, and then
I mean that's some kind of red eye. But then
I mean, gosh, you're just like pulling up to game time.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Do you even sleep?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's the biggest thing between games is can you get
sleep and can you get to the hotel gym and
just kind of sweat and allow your brain to reset
for thirty minutes. That's a really big part of it
is the self care aspect. Again, we have the benefit
of experience. This is very much like the Russia World
Cup of twenty eighteen where Calligain get to the airport
(16:41):
flight to the next city. Calligaine get to the airport
flight of the next city. Very unlike in Qatar, where
we called a game every day, but it was the
furthest drive from our hotel was forty five minutes. So
that's where doing the prep ahead of time is big.
That's where keeping it simple is big, because it does
start to bleed together. You know. There's a couple of
(17:03):
them where we have one where we do a Tuesday
night of next week, eight pm Central time kickoff Argentina
Algeria Kansas City, and the next day at three pm
Central is England Croatia in Dallas, and then that night
we are we get in late that night to Seattle,
so you know, we'll see if we can still do this.
That we were a lot younger when we pushed ourselves
(17:24):
to this extent back in Russia. But I love it.
That's what we say to our bosses, like push us,
push us as hard as you possibly can. It's a
World Cup. When are we ever going to get this opportunity?
The bigger thing that would upset me is if we
were sitting around like I wish we had a game
to call today, you know, because we love this and
the games we're not calling, we're going to be watching.
(17:45):
And by the way, that's just the group stage, and
then the knockouts are going to be even crazier because
one of the things that's wild with the expansion of
the tournament, when we reach the end of the group stage,
we will have played as many games totally as the
last World Cup in its entirety will already be past
sixty five games and we haven't even started the round
(18:07):
of thirty two. And that's something that one of our
top executives. The other day was saying to Stu we
had a kind of a group dinner, and he said,
I know what it feels like the morning of the
Super Bowl and then that night when it's done. I
know what it feels like the morning of the World
Series Game one, and what it feels like at the end.
I don't know what it feels like day nineteen of
(18:29):
this World Cup. No one has ever attempted something on
this scale as an American sports broadcaster, so we've been
given every resource possible, but there is an awareness that
none of us know what this is going to be
like until we're in the middle of it. And that's
a very exciting challenge.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
So I got to ask you, because I feel like
you might know better than anybody honestly, with all the
knowledge you have on every single one of.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
These teams, who do you think is going to be
in the final?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I've learned not to bet against a mess just in general.
Doesn't mean they're going to win, But I'm not going
to put my money against him. That Argentina they know
what they're doing. Do they have the legs? I don't know,
but there's a savviness to what they do Spain has
a scary amount of depth and they have a winning mentality.
France have an even scarier amount of attacking talent and
(19:21):
they've been to the last two finals. I think Portugal
are really well placed because they they have the horses
to do the running around Christiano Ronaldo and allow Cristiano
to just stand in front of the gold score. And
I think I'm such a big fan of Roberta Martinez,
their manager. He is the ultimate it's fine, we got this,
(19:42):
don't worry about it, guys, and he keeps everything cool,
which I think is really important. I have much less
faith and confidence in England, but also because I just
think it's funnier if they don't do well. You know,
I think those are the big ones that I would
say any of those for I would be in no
way be surprised to see them in the final.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Then who's gonna make a run that we might not expect, that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You might not expect. You know, Morocco did it last time,
so would it be unexpected if Morocco make another run.
The difference is they were four years ago the hunters.
Now they're the hunted, and that's a very different thing.
You know. Brazil I'm never again. A bad World Cup
(20:29):
for Brazil is a quarterfinal, So they live on a
different planet from the rest of us, even though they've
got some big questions. You know, I think a lot
of people in Mexico are talking themselves into that they
can make a run. There's a scenario where Mexico play
England in the round of sixteen in Mexico City, which
I would want nothing to do with that if I'm England.
(20:51):
I think, at the risk of it sounding like I'm
being evasive, part of it, honestly, Laura is like, I
don't I intentionally go in with a blank slate in
my mind. I intentionally go in with no expectations, and
I intentionally allow myself to be surprised. Yes, we do
our research, we have our context. You're trying, you know,
(21:12):
is this expected? What's happening here is unexpected? That's an
important part of framing it. But I have long since
given up going in with any sense of here's what
I think is gonna happen, because I think it's a
lot more fun to allow myself to just kind of
be on this joyful roller coaster. And by the way,
look at two World Cups that we've done. No one
(21:36):
in their right mind was looking at Croatia in twenty eighteen,
no one in their right mind was looking at Morocco
in twenty twenty two, and no one in their right
mind at to Neil Argentina seventy minutes seventy five minutes
played in the final thought that would end up in
a penalty shootout and only by an Emmy Martinez say
that France doesn't win an extra time. So the international
(21:59):
game has a allowed us to continually expect the unexpected,
and that's what's really fun for me.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, I want the tea on working with Laura in
the past, and I know that you guys knew each.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Other and have worked together before.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I have had the honor of getting to be Laura's
producer for the past, you know, season and season and
chain for rain E FC.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
She's been wonderful on our crew.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Of course, John, what sort of memories you have working.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
With Laura Embury? I have, honestly as being in the
hotel in Atlanta, it's the hotel that's connected to the
old C and N Center, and chatting with you on
the phone because you were That was the first time
I think the forwards. At that point, I'd asked you
to do some broadcast work and we were talking about
different things. That was back in twenty I think it
(22:45):
would have been. It was a long time ago, and
I think it's super cool. One of the things I
always love when successful players and coaches come into broadcasting.
I think is really fun now because there's this natural
element of not liking a lot of broadcasters in media
and thinking these these morons, what do they know? You know?
(23:09):
And then they come in and it's like, oh, that okay.
It's very I've loved that process of seeing the Clint
Dempseys and the Carly Lloyd's and the Landon Donovan's and
other people come in. Julie Art's last year was terrific.
She was in for a couple of days with us
in the studio on the women Juro's coverage and chatting
(23:31):
with her beforehand, She's like, I'm really nervous. I'm like,
what are you talking about? You've won multiple World Cups?
How are you nervous by this? But because it's outside
of your comfort zone and so the fact that Laura,
you have embraced this so much, that you steered so
hard into it, and you sort of made it a
part of your regular thing. I think is really fun
(23:52):
because it's a really neat job. It really is, and
it's harder than people think. It requires dedication more than
people realize. But it's also a great way to stay
connected to the game. One of my favorite memories was
with Stu walking into the final in Moscow in twenty
eighteen and he said, this is the first time since
I was forced to retire because of injuries, I felt
(24:14):
anything close to that rush that you get as a player.
And that was really cool because I, of course was
just freaking out i'd have to call a World Cup final,
but for him, who's played at a World Cup, who's
played in the Premier League, to be like, wow, I
kind of feel that too. That's that's neat to kind
of bring people into our little nerdy world of broadcasting
and get them to experience that same field.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
All right, John, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
This was I know you have the most busiest of
busy schedules today, tomorrow and throughout the entire World Cup
and beyond the World Cup, so thank you so.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Much for joining us for this.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You know, twenty minutes or so for our podcast. You
guys can listen to this on ninety three point three KG.
Herem's page on iHeart station website.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Stick with us.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
We're talking to a bunch of broadcasters.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And learning a ton as we go through this World Cup,
so thanks for listening. M
Today's guest is one of the most recognizable voices in
American soccer broadcasting. John Strong serves as the lead play
by play announcer for Major League Soccer on Fox and
It has called some of the biggest matches in the sport,
including the twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two PIPA Men's
World Cup Finals, alongside analyst Stuart Holden. Over the course
(00:26):
of his career, John's work is a period across major
networks including Fox, ESPN, and NBC. Before becoming a national
broadcast here, he spent years covering the game at every level,
including serving as the radio and television voice of the
Portland Timbers and as a radio host in Portland, Oregon.
Please welcome John Strong. And John my first question for you,
given your voice, it is a beautiful voice. I have
(00:49):
to ask, as a former theater kid, did you do
musical theater? And if you didn't do musical theater, why
did you not?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is One of the really important things that I did
earlier in my career was I started taking singing lessons.
There we go, because what had happened is in twenty
fifteen we did so many games. It was such a
busy year and I was losing my voice in games
in the twenty fifteen playoffs. And so one of my
sort of mentors in the business was Brian Wheeler, who
(01:18):
passed away a few years ago, longtime NBA radio voice,
was a radio host in Seattle called Games for the Sonics,
and I knew him more in Portland, and he had
said he had sung and choirs his whole life. So
that was a big thing from that example, was like
taking singing lessons, understanding how to use my voice, how
to use this sort of the mechanics of this tool.
(01:38):
And I can tell you now, Keeley. I mean, so
as we talk, we're match day minus two. As we
look at it, because we start with the US opener,
I'm already fully in sort of my preparation of hydration.
I've got my special tea, I'm drinking, I've got lozenges
like it's I've learned over the years how to do
stuff like that. And it's I tell young broadcast the
(02:00):
same as being an athlete. You got to take care
of the tools that you've been given to do your job.
For sure.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, I was looking at your lineup, John, and we'll
get into it, but I can see that I didn't
know about the singing lessons.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I'm really intrigued. But we'll we'll shelve out for a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
That's not what we're gonna have you do here today,
but I wanted to take you back to Lake Oswego.
I'm actually in Lake Oswego right now, so I'm in
your hometown, so fittingly.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
How'd you get started?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I know you were Lake Oswego grad, University of Oregon.
How'd you get How'd you get into this?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Only job I've ever wanted to have in my whole
life was to be a sports play by play broadcaster,
even before I was old enough to understand what that
meant or how to get there or why exactly I
wanted to do it. That was what I wanted to do,
and so as a senior in high school, it was
largely the looming threat of our varsity soccer coach trying
(02:56):
to change the note cut policy for seniors on my
behalf to get me off the team, and sort of
that sense of I need to I had done a
little bit at that point, but that was the motivation,
like in August of like I need to start pushing
on this because you know this is not going well
as a player, I think that's the end for me.
(03:17):
And so that was when I started. And just I've
been the benefit of a lot of opportunities where you know,
an opportunity has been created for me that didn't exist before.
I mean, I try to explain to students now, you know,
in the fall of two thousand and two, like what
the internet was then as compared to now, the ubiquity
of the types of things, even just this sort of
(03:39):
zoom conversation and putting games online didn't exist back then.
I mean, the stuff that we were doing. The principle
later told my mom that the only reason he said
yes was to get us out of his office because
he didn't understand what we were asking. But getting the
opportunity as a high schooler and then as a college
student to just start doing it and calling games and
(04:00):
didn't matter the sport, didn't matter if anyone was listening
or not. It was just getting that sort of ten
thousand hours you need of practice to become proficient. And
what's fun is that. Just yesterday I did an interview
on Colin Coward's show, and you know, Colin lived in
Portland for a long time, so In the break, he's
asking me about high school and where I grew up,
and I'm saying, yeah, I saw the jail Blazers documentary recently.
(04:23):
Boy did my hometown not come off well in that one.
But that's also what happened, and that I love that
type of stuff because it roots me back in where
I started and a kid just with insane dreams and
hopes and a reminder to never take for granted what
I get to do, what I get to see and
witness and experience, and always maintain that sense of kind
(04:46):
of gallie g whiz, this is amazing what I get
to do, and not let it, not let it become normal,
and also not allowed sort of the pressure of it
to get to me and keep it fun and joyful.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Now you mentioned Coward and then Wheels, and then of
course you got to give a shout out to Shanley.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I mean, you had some people in this area. There
are some greats out of this area, including yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean, what role did those guys play in bringing you,
know you into who you are today? And how did
they play into that?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Most part, it was just sort of being inspired from
Afar and a lot of broadcasters a lot of the
very famous American sports broadcasters like Keith Jackson and Dick
Emberg and al Michaels. I grew up listening to announcers
from the UK like John Motson and Martin Tyler, but
also listening to games in Spanish, you know, Andre's Cantor
(05:39):
and Pablo Ramirez and John Laguna and voices like that.
It's sort of this giant mish mash of how I
call games. And I've had some hands on mentors as well,
which I've been very lucky to have. You know, Bill
Shanley was an inspiration of mine growing up as the
voice of the Trailblazers, and then I got to know
him a little bit because he sang in the church
choir with my and he actually did a reading at
(06:01):
our wedding and like it announced us as a couple.
My wife Nicole and I had the reception. So that
type of stuff is very fun, and it's there's a
surreality in moments when I speak to younger broadcasters who say, like,
you know, I've grown up listening to you and now
I want to do this, and I go, well, first
of all, that makes me feel very old, and secondly,
(06:22):
you know, Alexi Lawless's joke is like, you can take
this from my cold dead hands, because I love what
I get to do. I don't want to give it
up just yet. But those are moments that, as I said,
become very surreal to me of like, oh, I've actually
been able to get to where I dreamed of being.
Not everyone gets to experience that, and I'm very, very
lucky that I have been able to.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
What was your first real pinch me moment as a broadcaster, like,
how is this actually real?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
How is is real?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Life? Was actually a two thousand and nine Portland Timbers
Seattle Sounders US Open Cup game that was the Sounders
expansion year. The Timbers had been a bounce as a
future expansion team, but we're still in USL and I
got to call the game on the radio in Portland
because our normal radio announcer, Andy McNamara was calling the
game on TV that night, And that was the first
(07:11):
time I got a taste of like actually calling a
big professional game on the real radio, and that has
always stuck with me. I mean, it was that the
risk of this being an unfortunate metaphor, It was like
having a shot of a drug and there was I
became addicted to that feeling of that first taste of
what I felt like was the big time. And well,
(07:33):
I've had plenty of other moments and opportunities and special things,
and I think Friday night, but also the following Friday,
the second US game in Seattle. You know, it's funny
we had the opportunity with FIFA in the fall to
go stadium by stadium and kind of select, you know,
of the available options. Where do you want to be?
(07:53):
Do you want to be in a radio booth? Do
you want to be in the tribunal which is up
in the stands. The television booths are being used only
for cameras, so you can't call the game from there.
And when we went to Seattle Stadium, as we're calling it,
liberate decision of I want to be for US versus
Australia in the visiting team radio booth because I've called
(08:15):
a dozen plus games there over the years, both as
the Timbers radio announcer. But then we did an NBC
game there once actually randomly, and like the idea of
being able to walk into a booth that I have
been in so many times in a stadium I've been
in so many times, but calling this very unique, unusual game.
(08:36):
Those sorts of things are really special and meaningful for me,
And I think that's a big part of this whole
month for me, is just taking mental snap shots because
it's very possible for a number of reasons, I never
get an experience quite like this again, so I don't
want to let it just pass by.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Yeah, you know, I was looking at I was looking
back at things.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
That I you know, listened to you do locally, and
then you know, watching your career and then twenty eleven
MLS Call of the Year, and then I was looking
at how seemingly quickly you accelerated through pretty much every network,
every echelon, every tournament. Did it feel like it was
going at warp speed or did it feel natural as
it was happening?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
My path was not normal. A lot of it was.
I was in the right place at the right time,
But I was also in situations where you know, NBC
and Fox were looking for new young American soccer announcers,
and that was a list of like two people basically,
and I was. I was ahead of the curve in
(09:37):
a lot of ways, and even still in the sports
broadcast industry. I'm always surprised how few young hiring, very
successful announcers are either interested in soccer or are really
trying to pursue it because it's it's still sort of
an and or it's either soccer or football, basketball, baseball,
and there's a variety of reasons for that. I look
(10:00):
back on it now, I was so professionally and emotionally unprepared.
It was such a reckless decision for the Timbers to make,
and for NBC and Fox to make to give me
these opportunities when they did. I was so young, I
was so naive, I was so inexperienced. It's insane to me.
And I listened back to some of what I said
(10:21):
on television in those early days, and I'm like, what
are you doing? You know, you don't know what you
don't know, and you don't know any better when you're young.
And I'm very thankful that I've been in situations where
I've had bosses that have and coworkers that have allowed
me to sort of make mistakes as I go and
learn on the job and play my way into the role.
I'm still really quite young for this profession, honestly, and
(10:46):
I'm still learning and growing significantly. The fact, honestly that
I lost my hair as young as I did. That
worked in my favor because I think I tricked some
people into thinking I was older than I was. That's
not as I'm dead serious about that. So yeah, you know,
things came really quickly from me, and I'm very thankful.
And that's what's nice, is I do. It's something that
(11:07):
gives me comfort and confidence going into this unique opportunity
this month is I do have a lot of experience
under my belt and that helps. If I was if
this was my first World Cup, I don't think I'd
be able to handle that pressure in that anxiety. I
still struggle with the pressure in the anxiety, but I
at least have the benefit of Okay, I've done this before,
(11:27):
I know how to do it, have confidence and faith
in what I'm doing and what we're doing as a team.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Well, well, Kelley, will you share what we were talking
about before we jumped on here, just about like how
how you because I could go on and on about
how I've listened to John really from the beginning, and
from the beginning for me, I was like, wow, even
when you know you're talking about oh, I'd.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Said that, and oh my gosh, you know I've said
things that I never would say now and what was
I thinking?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Even listening to you?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Then it was like, oh, he knows what he's doing,
and Keila, you shared an interesting perspective on it.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Just of research that you do. I mean the when
I listen as a fan to all of your work, John,
I'm always so impressed with just all of the factoids
that you pull out about not just the stars and
not just the starters, but like anyone and everyone on
that field, which is such an important part of storytelling,
and there's so much preparation that is involved in that.
(12:21):
Can you talk about your process and you know how
you're able to just pull out factoids at the drop.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Of a hat.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Process for this has really been going on for multiple
months because I wanted to get ahead of it. I've
made the mistake of getting to crunch time for tournaments
and like I'm not sleeping in the week's leading up
and that I'm kind of a physical wreck. So I'll
show you what I've been working on before I started
this is this is what I have for Croatia right now,
which is, you know, twenty six players on the roster.
(12:49):
Each one of them has a sticker, and on each
sticker there's the biographical stuff, but then there's also a
what would be their twenty second life story I want
to say about them, you know, trying to give context
to every possible eventuality for every possible player. I love
that part. It's it's it's overwhelming. We're preparing to see
(13:13):
eighteen different teams in the group stage, twenty six per squad.
That's over four hundred and fifty players, and you kind
of have to have it done before the tournament starts.
You don't have time between games to do anything else. Yeah.
I actually get more joy talking about the players you
don't know than talking about the stars. I have to
(13:33):
I have to correct myself a little bit sometimes of Okay, yes,
I would love to talk endlessly about Christian roll don,
but also I need to make sure I'm talking about
Christian politic too, like that's you do have to play
the hits like that's why they're there. And also I
have to hold myself back from overdoing it. Sometimes I've
(13:54):
made the mistake at times of too much storytelling, too
many Because I love it, I fascinating, I want to
celebrate the journeys that every single player has gone on
to get to this moment. They're playing in a World Cup.
That's incredible. And being able to rain myself in and
pull myself back to not overdo it is the bigger challenge,
but I love it. That's when you know, at whatever
(14:17):
point I get to where I'm not enthusiastic to do
all the preparation work, that will be the red flag
that it's time for me to stop doing this. But
I still love the blank sheet of paper and Okay,
what's the story of this team, what's the story of
this game? And then being able to try to give
a little bit of that to viewers who, especially a
(14:39):
World Cup. You know, they're not watching this spore week
in week out. They don't know who these guys are.
I love that part of it.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
We love that you love it because the stories that
we get about it doesn't matter if it's the star
of the roster or it's somebody that might get some
minutes and then make a difference. I mean, I know
if that twenty sixth player will just you know, they
get in the game, you're going to have something on
them and it's going to be interesting and it's going
to draw me into the game and all of a sudden,
I'm going to be invested in that person and want to.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
See what they do. But I'm looking here at your schedule.
That shout out. Shout out to Nicole Wilcox Strong. She
still has that.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
My long suffering wife.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Oh yes, your wonderful wife. She and I love this.
I love that she does this.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
She posts your schedule so we all know what you're
doing and how we can find you, and then we
can turn the volume up because you're you're.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Going to do an outstanding job something like this.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I mean, I was just looking and you've mentioned it
eighteen different teams, and I was trying to do the math.
Keelee knows right before we got on. You start with
you have all the US Games and Group Stage USA
Paraguay in la at six pm, and then the next
day you have Brazil Morocco at three pm in New York,
and then the fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
You got one day.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I hesitate to call it a day off because I
know that's not what it's going to be.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And we call it yes, And.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Then you have Spain Cape Verde in Atlanta. How do
you manage a turn like that? You said that you
have to do the homework before you start. But if
you're in La calling a six pm game, and then
I mean that's some kind of red eye. But then
I mean, gosh, you're just like pulling up to game time.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Do you even sleep?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's the biggest thing between games is can you get
sleep and can you get to the hotel gym and
just kind of sweat and allow your brain to reset
for thirty minutes. That's a really big part of it
is the self care aspect. Again, we have the benefit
of experience. This is very much like the Russia World
Cup of twenty eighteen where Calligain get to the airport
(16:41):
flight to the next city. Calligaine get to the airport
flight of the next city. Very unlike in Qatar, where
we called a game every day, but it was the
furthest drive from our hotel was forty five minutes. So
that's where doing the prep ahead of time is big.
That's where keeping it simple is big, because it does
start to bleed together. You know. There's a couple of
(17:03):
them where we have one where we do a Tuesday
night of next week, eight pm Central time kickoff Argentina
Algeria Kansas City, and the next day at three pm
Central is England Croatia in Dallas, and then that night
we are we get in late that night to Seattle,
so you know, we'll see if we can still do this.
That we were a lot younger when we pushed ourselves
(17:24):
to this extent back in Russia. But I love it.
That's what we say to our bosses, like push us,
push us as hard as you possibly can. It's a
World Cup. When are we ever going to get this opportunity?
The bigger thing that would upset me is if we
were sitting around like I wish we had a game
to call today, you know, because we love this and
the games we're not calling, we're going to be watching.
(17:45):
And by the way, that's just the group stage, and
then the knockouts are going to be even crazier because
one of the things that's wild with the expansion of
the tournament, when we reach the end of the group stage,
we will have played as many games totally as the
last World Cup in its entirety will already be past
sixty five games and we haven't even started the round
(18:07):
of thirty two. And that's something that one of our
top executives. The other day was saying to Stu we
had a kind of a group dinner, and he said,
I know what it feels like the morning of the
Super Bowl and then that night when it's done. I
know what it feels like the morning of the World
Series Game one, and what it feels like at the end.
I don't know what it feels like day nineteen of
(18:29):
this World Cup. No one has ever attempted something on
this scale as an American sports broadcaster, so we've been
given every resource possible, but there is an awareness that
none of us know what this is going to be
like until we're in the middle of it. And that's
a very exciting challenge.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
So I got to ask you, because I feel like
you might know better than anybody honestly, with all the
knowledge you have on every single one of.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
These teams, who do you think is going to be
in the final?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I've learned not to bet against a mess just in general.
Doesn't mean they're going to win, But I'm not going
to put my money against him. That Argentina they know
what they're doing. Do they have the legs? I don't know,
but there's a savviness to what they do Spain has
a scary amount of depth and they have a winning mentality.
France have an even scarier amount of attacking talent and
(19:21):
they've been to the last two finals. I think Portugal
are really well placed because they they have the horses
to do the running around Christiano Ronaldo and allow Cristiano
to just stand in front of the gold score. And
I think I'm such a big fan of Roberta Martinez,
their manager. He is the ultimate it's fine, we got this,
(19:42):
don't worry about it, guys, and he keeps everything cool,
which I think is really important. I have much less
faith and confidence in England, but also because I just
think it's funnier if they don't do well. You know,
I think those are the big ones that I would
say any of those for I would be in no
way be surprised to see them in the final.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Then who's gonna make a run that we might not expect, that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You might not expect. You know, Morocco did it last time,
so would it be unexpected if Morocco make another run.
The difference is they were four years ago the hunters.
Now they're the hunted, and that's a very different thing.
You know. Brazil I'm never again. A bad World Cup
(20:29):
for Brazil is a quarterfinal, So they live on a
different planet from the rest of us, even though they've
got some big questions. You know, I think a lot
of people in Mexico are talking themselves into that they
can make a run. There's a scenario where Mexico play
England in the round of sixteen in Mexico City, which
I would want nothing to do with that if I'm England.
(20:51):
I think, at the risk of it sounding like I'm
being evasive, part of it, honestly, Laura is like, I
don't I intentionally go in with a blank slate in
my mind. I intentionally go in with no expectations, and
I intentionally allow myself to be surprised. Yes, we do
our research, we have our context. You're trying, you know,
(21:12):
is this expected? What's happening here is unexpected? That's an
important part of framing it. But I have long since
given up going in with any sense of here's what
I think is gonna happen, because I think it's a
lot more fun to allow myself to just kind of
be on this joyful roller coaster. And by the way,
look at two World Cups that we've done. No one
(21:36):
in their right mind was looking at Croatia in twenty eighteen,
no one in their right mind was looking at Morocco
in twenty twenty two, and no one in their right
mind at to Neil Argentina seventy minutes seventy five minutes
played in the final thought that would end up in
a penalty shootout and only by an Emmy Martinez say
that France doesn't win an extra time. So the international
(21:59):
game has a allowed us to continually expect the unexpected,
and that's what's really fun for me.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, I want the tea on working with Laura in
the past, and I know that you guys knew each.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Other and have worked together before.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I have had the honor of getting to be Laura's
producer for the past, you know, season and season and
chain for rain E FC.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
She's been wonderful on our crew.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Of course, John, what sort of memories you have working.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
With Laura Embury? I have, honestly as being in the
hotel in Atlanta, it's the hotel that's connected to the
old C and N Center, and chatting with you on
the phone because you were That was the first time
I think the forwards. At that point, I'd asked you
to do some broadcast work and we were talking about
different things. That was back in twenty I think it
(22:45):
would have been. It was a long time ago, and
I think it's super cool. One of the things I
always love when successful players and coaches come into broadcasting.
I think is really fun now because there's this natural
element of not liking a lot of broadcasters in media
and thinking these these morons, what do they know? You know?
(23:09):
And then they come in and it's like, oh, that okay.
It's very I've loved that process of seeing the Clint
Dempseys and the Carly Lloyd's and the Landon Donovan's and
other people come in. Julie Art's last year was terrific.
She was in for a couple of days with us
in the studio on the women Juro's coverage and chatting
(23:31):
with her beforehand, She's like, I'm really nervous. I'm like,
what are you talking about? You've won multiple World Cups?
How are you nervous by this? But because it's outside
of your comfort zone and so the fact that Laura,
you have embraced this so much, that you steered so
hard into it, and you sort of made it a
part of your regular thing. I think is really fun
(23:52):
because it's a really neat job. It really is, and
it's harder than people think. It requires dedication more than
people realize. But it's also a great way to stay
connected to the game. One of my favorite memories was
with Stu walking into the final in Moscow in twenty
eighteen and he said, this is the first time since
I was forced to retire because of injuries, I felt
(24:14):
anything close to that rush that you get as a player.
And that was really cool because I, of course was
just freaking out i'd have to call a World Cup final,
but for him, who's played at a World Cup, who's
played in the Premier League, to be like, wow, I
kind of feel that too. That's that's neat to kind
of bring people into our little nerdy world of broadcasting
and get them to experience that same field.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
All right, John, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
This was I know you have the most busiest of
busy schedules today, tomorrow and throughout the entire World Cup
and beyond the World Cup, so thank you so.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Much for joining us for this.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You know, twenty minutes or so for our podcast. You
guys can listen to this on ninety three point three KG.
Herem's page on iHeart station website.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Stick with us.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
We're talking to a bunch of broadcasters.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And learning a ton as we go through this World Cup,
so thanks for listening. M
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