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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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.
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.
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.
So I appreciate it now I'm looking forward to it.
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 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.
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 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 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. 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 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 around me and recognizing that this is pretty normal.
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.
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.
Than he does?
Like, I've never seen him pack a handsome suit for a trip. Where where's handsome suit in modern day?
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.
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 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 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 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 that it felt right every time I did it.
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 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 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 games and when Noah was born, fortunate they weren't on
the road. I guess that magical night back in ninety seven.
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, 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
Yeah, Kendall had fifteen. I know that. Noah. Noah, I believe was was seven pounds three ounces somewhere.
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?
Five? Seven pounds?
Do you know your own weight? Is that?
Is that actually true?
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.
You're good?
Yeah, well that great point.
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.
What was it?
What was the first game you wouldall watching or or watching your dad work?
Yeah?
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 that has now been turned into everything. But my old room. It's funny.
I know it's a it's a yoga studio. Chris his old group that's not existing. It's over.
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, 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
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
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.
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
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 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.
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, 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 a toe tap in Aisle two.
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?
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.
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
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. 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 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, 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 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 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.
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 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. It was almost blind faith.
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
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 being the case, I probably made it pretty easy for you to jump in and embrace.
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 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 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
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 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.
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 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 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.
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 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 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 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
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. It happens.
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.
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 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 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 handle it and how to make it work.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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 some pretty important and notewere the NFL games in this Nickelodeon style.
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
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
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 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 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 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.
I was like, all right.
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 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 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.
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 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.
I don't know if critique is the word. I think it's more back and forth input. I'm not what word.
Would you use. That critique is a broad term. It could mean a lot of things.
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.
Again, Basketball off the forehead exactly.
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.
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 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.
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, 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.
Is that how you see it? Noah?
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 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.
It's I fully support that, by the way, yes.
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.
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.
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 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, 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. That was always really important that both you and Aaron, Noah's sister recognized that communication is the key to life.
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?
Yeah?
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?
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.
I didn't mean in broadcasting. I don't mean I'm talking about a basketball cart.
I just we never we never had those battles in the driveway. I think he knew I would win, so I just.
That might have been it. Yeah, that's probably what it came down to.
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 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 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. 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 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.
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, 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?
Yeah? I think that you you've got to get the rules down. It took me a while.
Its are hard, there's sneaky hard, It's hard.
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 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.
The breaks and pick a ball are one minute.
One of these old guys, these guys are not young. I bet there'll be some lengthy bathroom breaks here.
I know, one minute sixty seconds.
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 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.
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.
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
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 of it. Kind of puts you in that situation, not rarely but routinely.
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 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 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, 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? 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 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 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.
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.
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 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 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 this is shocking. John did not attend the production meetings.
No he does. Now I can report that he's now.
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 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.
You had a rolling Garos story you'd wear. It was hard to identify the players.
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 the Adria or Aria Tour, whatever it was. You probably remember, Chris, and that did not go all that great.
No, it didn't go out, but that.
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 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 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 did look like Danny Newton. And so the amount of Aaddy Shack references made that was what was that?
Was that the super spread or invitational that they had over there?
Was that that was? That was not that one.
It was Oh, that was not that one. Okay, go ahead, that's sure. So it's happened.
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.
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.
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.
Level trufau spin on the match, which is, you know.
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 and then an.
Umbrella flowers, Yeah, I said, just shoot through the flower bed and it's insane.
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 there would be five guys from ESPN, five from Tennis chown and we're just sitting there.
Announcers try to get along pretty well. Management I'm not so sure. But the announcers.
Announcers was not a problem management. You're right, that might have been a bit of an issue.
But you guys, you guys called the same basketball game, right if it was was it a Syracuse Miami game for CBS.
That was the first one. That was the first one that.
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.
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.
On your radar.
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 I don't know.
Good to see a kid, yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah.
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?
What numbers?
The math doesn't work there.
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 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 in broadcasting. Now you guys will be on the call reunited for the final Fource. How cool is that?
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 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 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
for Fox. Did a Big East game. Who was it Saint John's or Seaton Hall?
Who was Hall? And fdu ah?
Oh yeah, so just to see that come Ba's cool.
Didn't know.
Didn't you work with Dan Fouts who was also I worked with Dan Fouts years ago?
Right?
Didn't you do a was it a preseason game with Dan Faust? How cool to have that connection?
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 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 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 trade all of that for the world.
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.
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, 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.
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 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.
That did come from my research, So damn no, it's not you.
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.
Be Net's Clippers. That's also unlikely. But like Net's Clippers NBA final Game seven overtime, somebody's crushed.
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.
But how deeply sad, No, how deeply sad it is constrained to that?
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.
Why did it offend you?
I mean, oh no, Actually I took it as a compliment, which it was. Context.
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.
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. 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, 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.
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, 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. 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.
One last one last just to tag that Chris uh.
When Noah song, by the way, I meant to I meant to segue to a music question because yeah, well.
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.
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.
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, 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 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 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.
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.
United flight?
Right now, that's his first.
Thought, you know, banded dynamics, So wait, have been on separate private planes? I think actually at that point, good point.
Sure, it's hard.
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.
Feelings, mutual great, great being with you and thanks for allowing me to see my son. That was the highlight.
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.
Done, Yeah I did. I cared enough to bathe That was good.
One could be fresh, fresh.
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 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 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 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