Jack Collinsworth made his prestigious debut as NBC's Notre Dame football play-by-play voice in September 2022 at just 27 years old, replacing Mike Tirico, one of the most decorated announcers in sports. became.
Landing such a position suggested he was a sportscasting genius, but from the first game, when Marshall beat Notre Dame, Collinsworth rose to the national stage in this role. I didn't think it was worth it. He lacked precision and rhythm and kept saying “um, uh,” his bad habits that usually break out with years of practice.
The attention on Collinsworth increased last year, especially during his lackluster performance with partner Jason Garrett in October's Notre Dame-USC primetime game.
At the root of all the criticism is the fact that Collinsworth's father, Chris, is NBC's top NFL analyst and has been featured on “Sunday Night Football” and on five Super Bowl broadcasts. . Jack has also appeared on his SNF pregame show as an on-site reporter/host, among other roles at the network.
Sons and daughters who inherit the family business are labeled as nepotists. Jack Collinsworth's case was no exception, but as he struggled, attention grew.
After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2017, Collinsworth had a successful career as a reporter at ESPN, then as a sideline and host for NBC Sports, but a flop at a Fighting Irish game led to his retirement. In the first place, Sam Flood, who was in charge of transfers, has resigned. , NBC Sports' production director acknowledged his own mistake, admitting that he finally removed Collinsworth from the role last month because he didn't yet have the play-by-play man needed for such a big assignment. Ta.
Jack Collinsworth, Cris Collinsworth and Flood all declined interview requests.
Jack Collinsworth works on the Chargers vs. Bills game before Christmas with Tony Dungy (center) and Rodney Harrison. (Kirby Lee/USA Today)
Sportscasting is full of stories of father and son succession. He's had more successes than failures, but let's be clear: Jack Collinsworth shouldn't be classified in either category just yet. Especially since he is 29 years old. he is not alone.
This offseason in Oakland, the Athletics hired 24-year-old Chris Kaley, a fourth-generation broadcaster dating back to his great-grandfather Harry. In Toronto, Dunn's son, 23-year-old Ben Shulman, joins the Blue Jays' radio booth right next door to his father, who calls the team's television appearances alongside his ESPN job.
The list of sons and daughters who have followed their parents into sportscasting is long, from Mike Golic Sr. and Jr. to Carl and Sam Labek to Kevin Harlan and Olivia Harlan Decker.
And this trend isn't new: After acquiring the NFL from CBS in the mid-1990s, Fox Sports acquired three sons of famous play-by-play broadcasters, Joe Buck (Jack, who was the voice of the St. Louis Cardinals), (son of legendary NBA play-by-play voice, Marv), Tom Brennaman (son of former Cincinnati Reds voice, Marty).
Like Fox three decades ago, NBC has shown a keen interest in the offspring of its sportscasters, from Collinsworth to Phil's son Chris Sims to Ian's son Noah Eagle.
Collinsworth's demotion further opens the door for Noah Eagle to continue his rise. Eagle, just 27 years old, excelled in the Big Ten Saturday primetime games and the NFL playoffs in his first season with NBC.
After next season, he and analyst Todd Blackledge will continue to play in the Big Ten, but if Notre Dame is the network's top game in a given week, the duo will slide into that matchup. .
Eagle has started on a path reminiscent of Buck, but nepotism within the booth is complicated.
When Joe Buck talks to kids who want to be sportscasters, he often remembers an old joke.
“My advice is to start with your famous father,” Buck said. The Athletic.
Buck is often cited as a classic example of sportscasting nepotism, but he is also perhaps sportscasting's greatest success story. His father, Jack Buck, is one of the most legendary play-by-play announcers in history, and Joe, 54, is a man who rivals, if not surpasses, his father's accomplishments.
Joe Buck has already called 24 World Series and six Super Bowls on television. Jack has called the World Series twice and the Super Bowl once on this medium, and was the constant soundtrack for both events as the radio voice.
Growing up in St. Louis, Joe began learning how his father prepared for MLB and NFL broadcasts by the time he was 6 years old.
At age 12, Joe was calling games into a cassette recorder in an empty television booth in the press box at Busch Stadium. On the car ride home, he and his father listened back and Joe learned. When Jack reviewed it, it was like a raspy Mozart giving feedback to a teenage violinist.
Joe Buck (right), Cris Collinsworth (left) and Troy Aikman attend the Super Bowl XXXIX call-up in February 2005 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
Buck was scheduled to be in the Cardinals' main booth by age 21, but he had tears in his eyes before calling the game.
He was still living at home when he started the Post-Dispatch, St. Louis' largest newspaper, and the paper's respected media critic Dan Caesar wrote a column about how nepotism helped Buck get the job. I saw you writing.
In June 1990, Caesar wrote: “The burning question is why is 21-year-old Joe Buck being force-fed by Cardinals fans?” The reason is simple: it's spelled “BUCK.”
It hurt Buck, but he knew it wasn't a mistake.
“I was heartbroken to read how unpleasant my hiring was, but he was right,” Buck said. “I remember him crying about it.”
Buck said it felt like he was in a race, but starting from behind the starting line. Although he recognized from an early age that he had the advantage of his apprenticeship, he realized that it was primarily because of his last name that he was able to get the job. .
For years, Buck was considered the most confident person in the booth, but that insecurity drove him – and still does – because he credits his father's Hall of Fame credentials. Because he always knew that some people would think it was a thing. .
“That was a gift I got from Dan, to have the opportunity to see what people were thinking,” Buck said. “That's human nature. 'Oh, we know how he got that job.'
Buck said it's even harder now with social media, where everyone is a critic.
“It's really hard to train my legs,” Buck said.
Eagle has been doing well under the same NBC umbrella as Collinsworth, but that comes from the reliability of its broadcasts.
“For Noah Eagle, he's been a meteor. He's obviously worked hard on this job and put in a lot of hours,” Buck said. “I think all of us, and it's a big group, had the advantage of being around that since we were kids. I think there's something to that.”
Noah Eagle first knew he wanted to be a sportscaster when he was 13 years old. Less than a decade later, he sat in a Los Angeles conference room for 90 minutes in front of one of the richest men in the world, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. He's trying to land a job on Ballmer's broadcast team in the Seattle area overlooking Mount Rainier and Lake Washington.
During his college years, Noah tried his best to be himself, but it was almost too much. His father and his mother, Alisa, both attended Syracuse, so he was initially reluctant to go there, but eventually decided Syracuse was the right place for him. However, once there, he tried to hide his last name. He introduced himself simply as “Noah.”
“I wanted to be like Cher, Madonna, Beyoncé. I just wanted to be 'Noah,'” Noah said.
He didn't want the perception that he had a chance because of his father, who is considered one of the best announcers in all of sports and will be in the Final Four this year.
During Noah's stay in Syracuse, Ian told his son that he should embrace who he is and not run away from it.
“When Noah got to Syracuse, we respected the fact that he wanted to be himself, but we reminded him to be proud of his last name,” Ian said.
“For Noah Eagle, he's been a meteor. He's obviously worked hard on this job and put in a lot of hours,” says fellow broadcaster Joe Buck. (James Black/Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
By his senior year, Noah had earned the respect of Olivia Stomski, an Emmy Award-winning sports producer who heads the Sports Media Center at Syracuse's Newhouse School. She approached the Clippers, who were looking for a candidate for her following the retirement of longtime TV play-by-play voice Ralph Lawler.
Stomski recommended Eagle and Drew Carter, Eagle's classmate and current member of the Boston Celtics' broadcast crew. The Clippers liked each tape, but preferred Eagle's and invited him to Los Angeles for his first interview.
Stomski said the Clippers knew this was Ian's son, but they had decided on Noah.
Asked about Ian's influence, Stomski said, “I can't say much, if anything.” “I know for a fact they didn't call Ian. Ian didn't call anyone else. If anyone was pushing, it probably would have been me.”
After passing his first interview, Noah Eagle proceeded to meet Clippers owner Ballmer. The two sides had a back-and-forth back and forth, with Eagle at odds with Ballmer on several points.
Eagle ended up taking radio work instead of television. This allowed him to spend his four years playing in his second largest market in the country.
This led to a callback to Nickelodeon's well-received Slime Time broadcasts, including this year's Super Bowl, and led to the top college football job at NBC. He has also been called into games on Fox Sports.
Eighty-two games over four years of radio broadcasts and playoffs earned the Eagles a spot on the national stage. He then handed over the Clippers job.
“My biggest goal was to do enough work so that others would be more willing to hire young people in the future,” Eagle said. “I would basically go out there and they would know that even a 22-year-old can do it. And the greatest pride I've ever had is literally from the four years I was there. It wasn't something that was born. It came from the fact that they hired another 22-year-old after me.”
At age 22, Carlo Jimenez, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California, replaced Eagle as the Clippers' radio voice. Jimenez's father is a professor at Santa Clara University who teaches ceramics and works in academic advising, and his mother is the chief revenue officer of a technology startup. With Eagle's assist, Jimenez is quickly leveling the playing field and honing his skills on the big stage.
“I think that gives you a huge advantage,” said Buck, the son of a famous sportscaster. “But the question is, 'What do we do with it?'”
(Top photo of Jack Collinsworth: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
