In September 2022, 27-year-old Jac Collinsworth debuted in the prestigious role of play-by-play voice for NBC’s Notre Dame football games, succeeding Mike Collins, one of the most acclaimed broadcasters in sports. · Mike Tirico.
Earning such a position suggested he was a sports broadcasting prodigy, but from his first game — Marshall’s win over Notre Dame — Collinsworth didn’t sound worthy of the role on the national stage. He lacked precision and rhythm and was always saying “uh-huh,” a bad habit that usually takes years of practice to break.
The focus on Collinsworth only increased last year, especially after a lackluster performance in the Notre Dame-USC primetime game with his co-star Jason Garrett in October.
The root of all the criticism is that Collinsworth’s father, Chris, is NBC’s top NFL analyst who has appeared on “Sunday Night Football” and five Super Bowl broadcasts. Jac has also appeared on the SNF pregame show as a live reporter/host and has held other roles on the network.
Any son or daughter who enters the family business is labeled nepotistic. Jac Collinsworth’s case is no exception, but as he falls into trouble, so does the focus.
Although Collinsworth had a successful career as a reporter for ESPN and then as a host for NBC Sports on the sidelines after graduating from Notre Dame in 2017, it was his failure with the Fighting Irish that initially led to the move. Sam Flood, NBC Sports’ president of production, ultimately fired Collinsworth last month, admitting he was wrong because Collinsworth didn’t have enough live reps to pull off such a big job. task.
Jacques Collinsworth, Chris Collinsworth and Flood all declined to be interviewed.
Jac Collinsworth joined Tony Dungy (center) and Rodney Harrison for the Chargers’ game against the Bills before Christmas. (Kirby Lee/USA Today)
Sports broadcasts are filled with father-son inheritance stories. There have been more successes than failures – and to be clear, Jac Collinsworth shouldn’t be pigeonholed into either category just yet. Especially at 29 years old. He is not alone.
This offseason, the Athletics hired 24-year-old Chris Caray in Oakland, a fourth-generation broadcaster whose roots can be traced back to his great-grandfather Harry. In Toronto, Ben Shulman, the 23-year-old son of Dan Shulman, joined the Blue Jays radio station just a door away from his father while making calls for the team , while working on ESPN.
From Mike Golic Sr. and Mike Golic Jr. to Karl and Sam Ravech to Kevin Harlan and Olivia ‧Harlan Dekker (Olivia Harlan Dekker), there is a long line of children who followed their parents into the field of sports broadcasting.
The trend is not new; Fox Sports hired the three sons of famous play-by-play broadcasters — Joe Buck (son of Jack, St. Louis Cardinals) — after luring the NFL from CBS in the mid-1990s. (National Football and Baseball Broadcasters), Kenny Albert (son of Marv, legendary NBA play-by-play voice), and Tom Brennaman (son of Marty, former Cincinnati Reds voice).
Like Fox three decades ago, NBC has shown a keen interest in sports broadcasting descendants, from Collinsworth to Phil’s son Chris Simms to Ian’s son Noah Eagle.
Collinsworth’s demotion further opens the door for Noah Eagle to continue his rise. At just 27 years old, Eagle has excelled in Big Ten Saturday primetime games and the NFL playoffs in his first season at NBC.
He and his analyst Todd Blackledge will continue to play Big Ten games next season and beyond, but, on a given week, if Notre Dame is the top game on the network, the duo will slide into This showdown.
Eagle has started down a path reminiscent of Buck, but the issue of nepotism in the booth is complicated.
When Joe Buck talks to kids who want to be sportscasters, he often tells an old joke.
“My advice is to start with a famous father,” Buck told Competitor.
Buck is often cited as a prime example of nepotism in sports broadcasting, but he may also be its greatest success story. His father, Jack Buck, is one of the most legendary play-by-play announcers in history, and Joe, 54, rivals, if not surpasses, his father’s accomplishments.
Joe Buck has hosted 24 World Series and 6 Super Bowls on television. Jack has hosted two World Series and a Super Bowl in the media while also serving as a constant soundtrack for both events as the radio voice.
Joe grew up in St. Louis, and at the age of six, he began studying how his father prepared for MLB and NFL broadcasts.
At age 12, Joe was recording games on a cassette recorder in an empty TV booth in the Busch Stadium press box. On the drive home, he and his father would listen and Joe would learn. Commentary is provided by Jack, as if the raspy-voiced Mozart was giving feedback to the teenage violinist.
Joe Buck (right) joins Chris Collinsworth (left) and Troy Aikman at Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Florida, in February 2005. (Frank Miserlotta/Getty Images)
At 21, Buck was scheduled to be in the Cardinals’ main stands, but before he called the game, he had tears in his eyes.
He was still living at home when he started The Post-Dispatch, St. Louis’ largest newspaper, when Dan Kaiser, the paper’s respected media critic, wrote an op-ed about how nepotism helped Buck get the job. .
In June 1990, Kaiser wrote: “The burning question is why was 21-year-old Joe Buck being force-fed to Cardinals fans? The reason is simple, spelled BUCK.”
It hurt Buck, but he knew there was nothing wrong with it.
“As much as it breaks my soul to read how offensive my recruitment was, he was right,” Buck said. “I remember crying about it.”
Buck said he felt like he was in a race, but starting from behind the starting line. While he realized he had the advantage of being an apprentice since childhood, he also realized he got the job largely because of his last name.
While Buck was often considered the most confident man in the booth over the years, that insecurity drove him — and still does — because he always knew someone would attribute his achievements to his father’s Hall of Fame Qualifications.
“This was Dan’s gift to me, the opportunity to understand what people were thinking,” Buck said. “It’s human nature. “Oh, well, we know how he got the job. “
Nowadays, with social media, it’s more difficult because everyone is a critic, Barker said.
“It makes it hard to stand up,” Buck said.
Eagle and Collinsworth have done well under the NBC umbrella, but that comes with credibility on the air.
“For Noah Eagle, he’s done a really good job, obviously he’s worked really hard and put in the time on this,” Buck said. “I think all of us – and it’s a large group – have the advantage of being around it as children. I think that makes sense.”
Noah Eagle first thought he wanted to be a sportscaster when he was 13 years old. Less than a decade later, he sat in the conference room of Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for 90 minutes in front of one of the richest men in the world. area of Seattle, overlooking Mount Rainier and Lake Washington, to try to land a job on Ballmer’s broadcast team.
In college, Noah tried his best to be himself—almost too much. Since his father and mother, Alyssa, both attended Syracuse, he was initially reluctant to go there, but eventually decided it was the right place for him. Once he got there, however, he tried to hide his last name. He introduced himself as “Noah.”
“I wanted to be like Cher or Madonna or Beyoncé, you know. I just wanted to be ‘Noah,’ that’s it,” Noah said.
He doesn’t want people to think any chances are because of his father, who is considered one of the best broadcasters in all of sports and will call the Final Four this year.
Midway through Noah’s time in Syracuse, Ian told his son that he should embrace himself instead of running away from it.
“I respect the fact that Noah wants to be himself when he gets to Syracuse, but remind him to be proud of his last name,” Ian said.
“For Noah Eagle, he’s done a great job, obviously he’s worked very hard and put in a lot of time on this,” broadcaster Joe Buck said. (James Blake/Icon Sportswire via AP Photo)
By his senior year, Noah had earned the respect of Emmy Award-winning sports producer Olivia Stomski, Syracuse University’s Newhall Head of the Sports Media Center of Si School. She contacted the Clippers, who were looking for candidates after longtime TV play-by-play voice Ralph Lawler retired.
Stomski recommended Eagle and Drew Carter, a classmate of Eagle’s and now a member of the Boston Celtics’ broadcast staff. The Clippers liked every tape they took, but liked the Eagles’ tape more, and invited him to Los Angeles for a preliminary interview.
Stomski said the Clippers knew it was Ian’s son, but they decided to go with Noah.
Asked about Ian’s impact, Stomski said: “I would say very little, if any.” “I know they didn’t call Ian. Ian didn’t call anyone else. People. If anyone’s pushing it, it’s probably me.”
After Noah Eagle aced his first interview, he went to meet with Clippers owner Ballmer. The two disagreed, and Eagle even disagreed with Ballmer on some points.
Eagle ended up getting the radio job instead of the television job. That allowed him to spend four years on the ground in the nation’s second-largest market.
That led to Nickelodeon’s critically acclaimed Slimetime broadcasts, including this year’s Super Bowl, and later a top job on NBC’s College Football. He also hosted games for Fox Sports.
Four years and 82 broadcast games and playoff games gave Eagle representation on the national stage. Then he gave up the Clippers job.
“My biggest goal is that I can do it well enough that other people will want to hire young people in the future,” Eagle said. “I would basically go out there and they would know that a 22-year-old can accomplish this. So the biggest pride that I have actually doesn’t come from my four years there. It’s because they were there for me. Then a 22-year-old was hired.”
At 22, Carlo Jiménez, a recent graduate of USC, replaced Eagle as the Clippers’ radio voice. Jimenez’s father is a professor at Santa Clara University who teaches ceramics and works in academic consulting, while his mother is the chief revenue officer of a technology startup. With Eagle’s help, Jimenez quickly leveled the playing field and honed his skills on the big stage.
“I think it gives you a huge advantage,” Buck said of being the son of a famous sportscaster. “But the question is, ‘What do you do with it?'”
(Photo above by Jac Collinsworth: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
