Ian Eagle Interview

well it's such a pleasure bring in one of the best broadcasters in the land he has been a legend for all those years ever since he graduated from Syracuse you know a eagle from his work on CBS primarily doing NFL and of course you know his college basketball work now the number one guy he's also on Turner of course because of TBS and TNT during March Madness he's the voice of the Nets but most importantly after reading Brian Curtis's riveting profile of him in the ringer I did not realize Ian's entertainment connections he is the son of a prominent comedian who used to be featured in the cat skills and his mom was a wonderful singer as well so I'm sure we'll talk some sports as well but it's a pleasure to bring in the great a eagle winner of eight Emmy Awards a great to see you man Adan this is a a real honor and I love the idea of blending sports and entertainment that's always been a big part of my approach to the job so what you've been doing on this podcast is tailor made it is right in my sweet spot so honored to be a part of it no I appreciate it man I was going to say it's arguable who the best play by play guys are but you're easily the funniest and it it makes it it makes sense that's indisputable because when I look back and and by the way it was after I met you at the emys you were so kind you were so gracious I got to meet you got to meet your son Noah met your wife briefly as well and I told you Stephen oing by the way remains your biggest fan gigantic fan of yours from ESPN cor he's a big Nets fan but I go back I tell our buddy Bill pedo our mutual friend he's Moonlighting an NHL Network I tell Billy hey I got to meet H Eagle finally go he's the best he's like he's great he goes you ever read that Brian Curtis article I said no he goes you got to read this article he goes his background's insane and I said yeah he goes he used used to uh like he would organize his own little league practices like go what are you talking about he goes just read the article so that specifically is the fact that your parents were on the road you would like make phone calls to get rides from friends so let's let's go back to the beginning dad a comedian mom a singer on the road all the time how did you make it work yeah the the fact of the matter was I had no idea that this was abnormal in any way not abnormal but abnormal in any way and I just rolled with it I was very young when I realized that I had to do a lot on my own and just make it happen or it was not going to happen so it's a double-head sword the fact that my parents weren't around that could absolutely be a source that you look back on and say ah I missed out on this I missed out on that or you flip it and you say well I grew up fast I was really independent I recognized that I had to advocate for myself at a very early age and that was true across all levels of life whether it be friends whether it be schoolwork whether it be literally getting yourself up in the morning and getting yourself ready to go to school and making sure you go to little league practice and what have you I see it as a positive it ended up being a really interesting background and my youth is full of joy my my wife made the point to me someone recently sent me a bunch of photos in memorabilia my my father's uh Widow so my dad was married two kids got divorced met my Mom married my mom got divorced met a woman married her got divorced and then married her again so if you could follow along that flowchart she ended up sending me a box full of stuff from my youth and the one recurring theme that my wife noticed in all of these photos she said man you are a really happy kid and I was I felt really loved and I felt respected and I felt heard and I think that did translate a great deal as I made my way into adulthood of okay nothing seems insurmountable nothing seems too overwhelming just kind of do your thing and and do it with the right intentions and things will work out the way they're supposed to to yeah I mean it's amazing to think about you know it's like there stressful moments sometimes in broadcasting but you you overcame all that because you said you were so independent dad I mean being the son of a comedian how funny was your dad my dad was really funny in a laugh out loud way but then in a really clever manner word play um people that he came across in life he made them feel incredibly comfortable and I saw that at as as early an age as you can think back on to have memories of that sort didn't matter people within the industry people outside the industry everyday people walking around the neighborhood the dry cleaning guy it didn't matter he just made it his business to make everybody in his world feel very comfortable around him and that really resonated with me because he could diffuse any situation using humor more often than not but the part that that struck me as I got a little longer in the tooth and now you remember things and you recognize that maybe I didn't have the exact handle on the situation he was actually very professorial and had great wisdom and insight and that probably is the more prominent quality that I remember more than him being funny and having a joke and a punchline the part also that sticks with me and and at then this is a very common thing for stand-up comedians if you go to a comedy show with a fellow standup and you sit with them you'll notice that most of them don't laugh at the standup because their wheels are turning and they're taking it all in they're processing they're saying would I do it that way that's funny that's funny but not laugh my father was a really good laugher yeah so that whole approach to me was the essence of him it wasn't about him it requires so much ego to do that job and years later when I was in the car with him I had seen his act probably a thousand times at that point in my life and I asked him I said well why don't you vary up your act you know you've got all this other material you can lean into and he looked at me he said what do you mean I said V it up come up with some new stuff he said no no no that's the ACT that's my ACT I said oh that works consistency as you know in anything performance-based it's all about consistency and and he just leaned into the consistency of working his material that never failed it was just made for the audience that he played to and it always killed as you're describing I feel like I'm watching an episode of marvelous Mrs masel I don't know if you watched the show but did you find that reminiscent of your up oh very much so very much so and a lot of personal experiences the first six years of my life were spent every weekend at the Catskill Mountains not oh every now and again no no no every weekend would spent at the Catskill Mountains and my dad and mom my mom opened for my dad and they were a force of nature in my mind I I would see these two people that led everyday lives and then boom Go on stage command a room take over entertain these were people that were very wellfed eating was a big part of of the the whole experience in the cat skull mountain so the audience they they were they were ready for something else other than eating entertain me and my mom really was a gifted singer and funny in her own right and my dad was a terrific musician trumpet player worked in big bands both of them dropped out of high school mindu dad went to arasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn dropped out at 16 years old to travel with a big band ended up playing with Buddy Rich and the like my mom grew up in Chicago was a child Radio Star in Chicago and elected at the age of 15 to leave High School my Dad read the New York Times every day and my mom did the New York Times crossword puzzle every Sunday and finished it these were two people that did not graduate high school so it was a different time it was a different era their intellect was very high and with that also came the hustle of trying to make make a living and trying to find their way in the entertainment industry my dad did not experience true success financial success until the age of 50 when he did the Xerox commercial playing brother Dominic it spurred many other commercials he ended up becoming the hot thing in advertising because he had that face and got about 50 different campaigns over the course of his career in that time period probably a six sevene time period anything he went up for he got but that was the first time he really experienced financial success he had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show with his comedy partner Frankie man eagle and man was the name of the act the two of them started buddy hackit convinced my dad to go on stage as a comedian he would hang out with Buddy Hackett my dad was a trumpet player buddy would say you're funny you you you should try this and eventually he did and it worked out he teams up with a different guy Frankie man initially Frankie man is more of the cutup role and my dad's the straight man they go meet with a fairly powerful agent at the time who said I'm G to come see your act watch their act afterwards they said what do you think they said you have good material but you got to switch up the roles he's the funny one you're the straight man meanwhile Frankie man is offended they had been working on one act and they did they ended up switching up the rules they traveled to Australia they ended up on The Ed Sullivan Show my dad told me the story it was not a great experience uh they did their act on a run through for Ed Sullivan he did not like some of the vocabulary and the verbiage made them change a couple of things my dad at the time said what are you crazy that's the essence of the joke and basically his partner said hey if you don't change it we're not going to be on well the act before them went long I think it might have been a dog act or spinning plates and they got pressed for time they had to take whatever their time allotment was and squeeze it into half and my dad felt it it completely tinkered with the timing they did not do as well as they could have done and th it did not lead to the kind of gigs they thought they were going to get they ended up breaking up my dad went up on his own and then years later ends up enjoying success financially from the commercial industry so pretty wild and uh just the the whole butterfly effect of Life how it can have an impact not only on him but then on my life he ends up going and doing sitcoms on the west coast three of them that aired and none of them got picked up they all aired on national TV none of them got picked up one was with mlan Stevenson another was with Lorenzo music the voice of Carlton M dman and later Garfield and if they get picked up Adan life is different we're moving to La Syracuse probably never happens for me and who knows what what path you end up choosing so uh you've got to keep everything in in context and perspective Ive when you talk about life and and what leads to what and the sliding doors of it all that's wild about Ed sanine because I I I I'm I because I can't like I'm wondering now like do you think your dad regretted doing that because I I totally get his partner's Point like if we don't do this We're not gonna be on the show and suvin can make you break you but I can see your dad being like no but this isn't the ACT we're supposed to do like that's that's a hell of a conundra he regretted it I know he regretted it because he probably played over in his head a thousand times and my dad had tremendous instincts he could read people he could read situations he could read the room he knew they were doomed he knew it he knew it was not going to do well and then the time constraints I think affected it as well and then it just did not go the way that he thought it led to their breakup uh Frankie man eventually ended up in the movie this is really ironic ended up in the movie Lenny Dustin hman star of the film Frankie man played Ed sullan wow that's unbelievable that's great 1974 film yeah black and white I'm gonna go checked up again that's great mom was a singer who was more successful of the two because I always listen I'm too insecure I could never have a wife in the business I can't I can't stand the chance you're more successful than me it would completely eradicate my sense of self-esteem who was more successful I'm saying who's better who's more successful mom or dad Adan do you have a background in marriage counseling or psychology because you just nailed the issue within the marriage as my dad's career started to pick up 1976 commercial airs he ends up getting fleshman's margarine after that where he played Mr cholesterol for three different spots you can go on YouTube and check it out you'll crack up they really funny and to see the evolution of his character he was mean in one of the spots then he became a little nicer and then he Blended the two for the third spot as my dad's career picked up um my mom did feel jealousy did feel as if her career was not going the way that she wanted ended up moving to La we lived in New York and farest tills she moved to LA they were still married officially but they weren't it it was over and then her life started on the west coast that was her life I started as a Bic Coastal kid I would visit her twice a year she'd come back occasionally to New York but she completely abandoned the Catskill scene and the New York acting scene she was going up for commercial she was going up for soap operas and she ended up getting One Life to Live General Hospital bit Parts here and there uh a bunch of plays and one that I remember in particular the mom from Risky Business so Tom Cruz's mom when the egg cracked and they had the scene with the mom and the dad my mom was in a play with her and I remember seeing it and thinking to myself man that other woman is really good this was Prett Risky Business of course and I was maybe uh I'd say 10 years old at the time so Talent stands out Talent would always stand out in these situations and she led a really interesting life didn't enjoy the kind of success that she envisioned until she got a chance to play Judy Garland in a show called Legends and concert in Las Vegas changed her life completely immersed herself in the role I was fortunate enough to to see it and be there and watch the show on a number of occasions and she killed it she was really really gifted and perfect for it so another situation where all these other experiences you have no idea what's going to lead to what that somehow led her to the role she was always looking for financially it was successful for her she was out on her own it was important she passed away at a very young age lung cancer she was 43 years old but for her to enjoy that success I think she needed it for herself and in a strange way she needed me to see it she needed me to see that she could do it without my dad without any connection to him do it on her own and make something of herself and she did that's very cool they both got to achieve that it makes me think about like in our business people say to me you know are these actually the best sports casters if I said the best play play guys are you and Nance and buck and Michaels or is there somebody out there who's really gifted they just never got that chance never got that break and so my friend were arguing back and forth think go well I think eventually if somebody's really good they will get seen and I said but maybe that person doesn't want to leave their Gig if someone is you know the voice of the let's say I mean whatever they just you know you would know Joe Davis obious you know what I'm saying like it's just because we're on a national level it doesn't necessarily make us the best but at the same time I'm with you that the cream does rise at the top of the best get recognized how do you how do you reconcile that yeah I grappled with that theory during college because I was at Syracuse University everybody that was there that was involved in the broadcasting program College radio College TV had aspir operations and nobody knew exactly what the path would be and I thought that I was good that I had developed a skill that could translate to the next level being a professional broadcaster but I didn't know exactly how that was going to take place I had confidence I thought that if given a chance I would prove that I could do this and do it well but how does it happen and that plays right to what you're discussing are there highly talented people that never get the opportunity to do it because they didn't play their cards the right way or they took the wrong opportunity or they pissed off someone within the business who then held them down there's so many different permutations here the one thing I always went back to is and this goes back to our day L now but the tape doesn't lie so if it is a tape that you were physically sending of your on camera work or a cassette tape of your radio work that when someone stands out in the job a decision maker knows it there's some visceral feeling that hits you as a program director or associate uh director or uh athletic director or VP of production whatever it might be you see it or you hear it and you know it's really good and it's going to translate on camera or on microphone but there are people that get lost in the shuffle or never quite get the or don't have the personal skills to then handle all that I I'm sure I know you've been around people in your various jobs that you think to yourself man really really talented and then you see them out in their natural habitat whether it be a newsroom or at a game and you're like oh no they're an [ __ ] this is gonna come back and haunt them at some point which yeah it does happen well it's it's funny because I'm with you on all of that because I'm like I think intrinsically like do I do a good job like yeah I wouldn't have gotten this LEL a good job but I don't think I'm A+ like I think I'm just a solid good worker you said I I play well with others I'm easy to get along with I think all of that is very important I think you have to have the skill set as you said you got to deliver on the air when the lights on but you got to be a good guy as well that will keep you in the business longer and you're right there's guys I've seen that I'm like man that guy he really is Is Better Than People realize but he pissed off the wrong person said some stuff whatever it was but then some I'll go the other way which is I I would think oh my God I don't belong in ESPN but I say some of these anchors I'm like this guy's actually not that good I'm like you know what like so right like George cloney went to that he goes it's not that I thought I was that good it's just that I thought I could definitely do what that guy's doing so some that goes the other way too you know it's it's interesting you say that I got the net job at a very young age I was 25 years old I was not qualified to do NBA at that point but somebody took a chance on me it happened to be Eric spoler dad John spoler was the president of the New Jersey Nets and we had a great interview and it led to this position and I remember the night before the first game and I thought to myself I was brushing my teeth I'd looked in the mirror we're in Houston Texas and I'm about to go to bed and the next day I'm going to be an NBA broadcaster and I had that seed of doubt that hit me in the moment like dude what are you doing here are you in over your skis and then I pulled myself out of it and I said well wait a second there are 30 NBA teams so that means there are 30 guys on TV doing this 30 guys on radio doing this so 60 play-by-play announcers are doing this not Network local I said are 59 people doing this better than I am and more talented than I am and without even going through a list I just thought to myself no no there's no way there there's there's no way and that's what calmed me down I just thought to myself you can do this you're ready you do have experience you have to lean on that and you're a quick learner quick study and it is a little bit of the fake it till you make it and now I look back and I'm I'm 30 years in to doing Nets basketball that's the longest running job that I've had that was 1994 we're in 2024 and there have been a lot of announcers that have come and gone and I just thought to myself dude you got to have confidence you got to have conviction and uh you you've got to exhibit that when you go on the air have command of what you're doing and that's probably been what's carried me through a lot of unknown Waters here and there you know I I got a opportunity when I was at CBS I got a phone call from someone saying uh you do boxing right like that's a leading question yeah I said yeah yeah no I do the hell out of boxing oh great we have four fights we want you to do I was like okay yeah had no background none whatsoever I was a fan of boxing and I threw myself into it and immersed myself and showed up for that first fight and it was David Tua against OED Sullivan in Las Vegas and I knew very little about what I was about to do but studied prepared the executive producer of CBS Sports at the time Terry eward happened to be there in Vegas at a convention and after the fight uh pulled me aside and he said you sure that was your your first I said no that was that was it man so I I try to remind myself of these moments track and field same deal golf same deal tennis same deal you have to do all of this for the first time at some point so nobody came out of the womb ready to do all of these Sports you you study and you prepare and uh then you let your instincts take over yeah quick learner and takes feedback while I think are great qualities to have I'm with you on that because everyone kind of struggles at first but if you can go hey I can quickly make adjustments I can be verbally nimble like absolutely I can I can do what you're looking for I remember calling volleyball once similar to your point don't know anything about volleyball but like again study the work you have a good analyst you have a professional with you lean on them lay out as much as possible right it's it's so I box well same thing they go have you ever called boxing into Zone I go I've never called you'll be fine I go what they just just kind of call the action [ __ ] here right here tell a couple stories holy [ __ ] he got him like that's all it is it's it's the same thing I'm like okay like it's it's formulaic to a point yeah two things hit me one I also called volleyball so similar to you no background I had seen the C Thomas Hal film side out right with Courtney Thorne smith and Peter Horton so if I was ever in doubt Adnan I would say side out that's that's all I knew uh and then the boxing thing the funniest part about that I show up now I had never been to a boxing match so I talked to the executive producer the day of the first fight he said I'm gonna take you to lunch so we go to the lunch at MGM Grand I ordered chicken wings he got a Caesar salad and we're eating our lunch he said what's your background in boxing I'm like all right I'm doing this thing the fights in in eight hours so it's happening I said 'w Terry I said ' look I've I've never done a fight and he said really said yeah and he's taken a bite of a Caesar salad I said look truth be told I've never been to a fight and now I actually see like little balls of sweat forming right in the lip area right truth told I'm not really sure what boxing is all about yeah and then I said I said hey if we're going to put all our cards on the table I've never been in a fight so I have no background whatsoever which wasn't true in fifth grade somehow I still to this day have no idea I was told like oh I heard you're fighting James schneef after school I'm like am I I I did not get any memo on this and I ended up having to fight this guy after school it was winter time I had thick gloves I closed my eyes I caught him in the chin he went down I walked home yeah so want to know so 100% knew very little going in I show up now ringside and again didn't have the background necessary everybody sitting there had a cup of water or their favorite drink and then they put either a piece of paper or a small piece of cardboard over their cup I'm like what's go what is this weird boxing ritual and literally 20 seconds into the fight when David Tua got OED Sullivan backed up against the ropes and then SP blood and mucus ended up in my water and on my collar I was like oh that's that's why they cover the drinks that makes sense it's crazy uh what other the things I always appreciate your work and again this is great everyone should read the I don't know why I'm giving Brian Curtis so much love but keep reading the article it's a great he did a great job he tells unbelievable story this this one that you and I both share in common I'm sure a lot of broadcasters do this I know Buck joked about you know guys texting hey trying to get this word in the broadcast but making an esoteric reference that many may not get and I've asked kasus about this your buddy from Syracuse and Bob told me he's like and he goes listen at times you gotta entertain yourself and and Neil Everett told me this story years ago on Sports Center I work with Neil who I love and uh I said hey man I you know when I became a fan of your I said when I heard you say a home run call he'll take him across the street to Mitch and Murray and I said GL Ross is one of my favorite my favorite play my favorite movies he goes great fny you mention that he goes I remember doing that and the coordin pr said to me like like hey what's that about I was like it's from a movie called Glen Gary Glen Ross she's like who is it it's like Pacino lemon like Alan all that's written by David M go she say no I'm talking she goes I would lose it he's like why and he goes she goes well No One's Gonna Get it he said yeah but I get it yep that end in the article they mentioned there's like a touch I don't know it's a Taylor Swift whatever it was I think it was a Taylor Swift and you made a reference one of her songs and Charles Davis has no idea what you're talking about but anybody caught it thinks it's brilliant and I'm like that that's I Eagle of his best you nailed the call that's the important of course I'm not taking away from action I'm not making it about me but I had a little bit of spice a little bit of sauce that if you get it you say that's brilliant yeah I appreciate that truly I realized doing Nets games all those years I was doing them in relative anonymity in the New York Market the Nets weren't rating very high within the NBA the Nets were not exactly a hot topic of conversation and it was me and Bill raftery doing the games bill is a fountain of sayings U non seiters exclamation points and he would do it in a manner that was really entertaining even though it didn't seem to have a connection to what just happened in front of you but in his brain it did so I learned a great deal just sitting next to him and being around him he didn't have anything written down it wasn't like he jotted down on on the uh Hotel pad all right here's nine things I want to get into the broadcast no no it's truly coming from his fertile mind and after a while I I think just by osmosis I realized hey this keeps the crew engaged it keeps your partner into it and yes there is a segment of the audience that does get it and it's very subtle and there's a fine line if you throw out 30 of them over the course of a broadcast I'm not sure that's the way to do it but you can do things wink wink as long as you're not hurting anybody mocking anybody self-deprecation obviously is is always accepted and and often encouraged uh because people can relate and that that's all I've I've tried to do is is be a bit relatable and allow the audience to feel like Hey we're in it with you in some way but Raph a lot of it was based on just how he approached the job he was having a blast and you could tell and that rubbed off on me and we were not necessarily Prime Time viewing in the New York metropolitan area but I knew that we were enjoying each other's company and then the finite number of people that were watching they were enjoying it as well it's amazing ring those guys like my buddy Tim Kirch and like a th% approval rating like you can't get anyone to say a bad word but the Sha mcdonut tells you raap stories like you it's unbelievable true 30 years of calling Nets basketball favorite celebrity Nets fan whoopy Goldberg I don't know she's an actual Nets fan I'm I'm not sure I haven't uh I haven't seen her at a game in quite some time there was a stretch where Ethan Hawk was going to a lot of games I'm like man I think he's a Nets fan he lives in Brooklyn then I saw him at a bunch of Nick games and I realized I no he just likes basketball that's cool Jay-Z was a net guy for a while I thought all right Jay-Z and Beyonce were showing up they were literally sitting 15 feet away from me it got to the point where I was nodding to Jay-Z as I walked by to my broadcast location he was nodding back I'm like all right now we're we're entering a very surreal part of Net's history uh beyond that there are some repeats that that have popped up time and time again Seinfeld was at a game and I ended up making reference it was a gamewinner by Joe Johnson and we got a shot of Seinfeld right at the end of the game and I said the shot was real and spectacular yeah that's right and it it had a reaction of some sort he was at another game and I think I said something to the effect I gave out a stat and then we had a shot of him and I said and yada y y the Nets won over Washington the other you know whatever we can do to to make it light and and keep it and keep it moving recently I would say there have been more more celebrities entering the the Nets orbit than in previous years Brooklyn has definitely helped on that front there were not a lot of celebrities showing up at the metal lands in my experience yeah that makes sense all right I've kept you long enough let's let's finish up with this Christopher Guest The Great uh filmmaker of course Best in Show and spal tap all the rest I met him years ago at ESPN and he was a great guy and you knew who I was which made it even more wonderful but what I remember about him was that for a guy who's so funny he's made so many comedies he's a pretty serious guy and when I asked him what he was into he's mainly just watched documentaries and to your point about Comics you're bang on they never laughed they just go oh that's funny and I'm like okay well if you thought it was funny you would have laughed you wouldn't have just said that's funny but they distill it in that clinical way all of which is to say you're a very funny guy but I'm curious what kind of movies you enjoy I'm assuming you like some comedies but you tell me what some of your favorites are yeah I would say that we probably came from a similar movie background in' 70s 80 you had these seminal movies that just had an impact on you and all of them would fit in that category for me from Animal House Blues Brothers stripes on and on and on you know and then the sports side of it certainly played a role but anyone that says like uh people push it I feel with with the sports theme where they they try to shoehorn a movie into sports when it's not back to school is not a diving film like let's let's deline between meatballs is not a running film like just because there was a moment in the film doesn't mean that that's the the main Crux catty Shack okay yes it's a golf film The backdrop is golf I I I'm with you on all of that I found the biggest Fascination point for me was the actors in films and then where their careers took them I just was so fascinated by following someone that didn't necessarily have the greatest success but maintained a career so Tim mat's path was interesting to me that I found interesting or Peter rert that was interesting James widows I'm doing all Animal House people but all of that I found no he became a director he oh he was in Crossing Delany I later popped up in a number of CBS shows just as a guest star so I think that's what spurred a lot of it for me pre IMDb if I was at a cocktail party forget it I was I was just a wealth of knowledge now when people can just go now oh yeah yeah yeah he was in this he was like no no no no no no you had to know that that was important knowledge to know which actor came from which film and led to this and that that was really what what motivated me as I was learning entertainment but look you can name all of the major Motion Pictures of the last 50 years and odds are I saw them not once but multiple times and I appreciate I appreciate really good Cinema I appreciate now excellent television which it's morphed into you know to to see presumed innocent and every Wednesday get excited about it and not binge it watch it like you used to feel like you were excited about the next episode I was in a film certainly not saying this as a flex by any stretch but it just spurred the thought Jake Gyllenhaal Southpaw I played reporter number two oh the boxing movie yeah yes yes and in that film my role actually ends up being fairly important to the storyline I do not want to ruin it for anyone that's never seen the film but the scene I'm in leads to a key part in the plot so I fly to Pittsburgh how did I get this role the guy that I lived across the hall from freshman year Jason Blumenthal ends up wanted to be a movie producer his dad was in the industry had worked produced Hill Street Blues he does it he ends up doing he's produced some really major Motion Pictures and calls me up and and says hey I got this thing you want to do I had to leave for the French Open like three days after he called I was like well when is it he's like tomorrow like oh so boom I fly to Pittsburgh uh I do not get the script because they don't want the script out there and we get finally on set that night I get up the script I look at it I think to myself all right I don't think this is great how it's written but fine director is antoan fuka and we do two takes and now fuka comes out and he calls me over I'm like oh [ __ ] am I blowing this and he said hey you're doing great you're excellent he says are those the words you would use though in a press conference setting I said honestly no I would not he goes oh no okay you just say what you would say like oh I'm now writing the script I'm writing Southpaw so we now shoot it six more takes and I'm now riffing with Jake chillen Hall he's going Way Off Script I'm like dude I don't think they're going to use any of this but fine I'll go down that road with you and they come back they said great great great and I'm acting my ass off I'm facial acting and they come back assistant director comes out and he says all right everybody take 10 we're gonna now switch the cameras I'm like switch the cameras what have you not been shooting me this whole time I've been acting my ass off so they switched the cameras we do two takes and uh eventually what what's in the film is is a compilation of all that but it was a great experiment it was a lot of fun and it was really interesting to see how the sausage was made oh it's amazing gonna shoot reverse now my what I have no idea what you're talking about southa I gotta check it out by the way I gotta tell you my boxing story now so I voice only in big George for room currently available on Netflix yes me and Robert Flores voiced it last year and I I I swear it's eerily similar to yours because I I'm reading the lines and sure enough the director this via Zoom he goes is that what you guys would normally say and Robert and I like yeah you he's like do do it your own way and I swear to God I what I watch the movie first of all you do it takes like an hour you do like 35 lines maybe four make the cut and the stupidest stuff I did did not make the when I started doing like coell Impressions like no so when they go he do whatever you normally do or do what you want for fun one I'm like they're not goingon to use this just I'll just stick to the script that's the what they said and that's what you did um all right last thing and I just on a poignant note here I it struck me you know obviously son Noah is having such great success and I told him and you at the emms how great he was in that Nickelodeon because it's a common fallacy people think oh you're a sports C your kids must love Sports I'm like no of my four boys two do two don't and the one who didn't it's the first football game he's ever watched in his life because Nickelodeon and he loves SpongeBob so I told no you got to do this again he was locked in I have no idea what the stats where I still even know won the Super Bowl but I know that Patrick was fantastic and he's biting his nails and like it it was it was great great stuff but it made me think about your dad didn't achieve success till 50 mom passed weight 43 and now one of your boys knowah is calling the French Open like he he just called my beloved Canadian team losing at the Olympics like this is that's that's crazy that's come full circle like you had parents who did not achieve success now you have a son who's achieving extraordinary success early in life how do you reconcile that yeah mindboggling more than anything else my wife and I looked at one another uh first during the French Open the opening standup is him Mary cillo and John macenroe which ends up being the Last Broadcast that NBC does at the French Open after a 40-year affiliation and it's Noah taking them off the air I'm thinking like how the hell did this Happ my wife and I looked at each other and I've worked with Mary and I've worked with John so I've had experience with and they're both great and he sandwiched in between them and we looked at each other like what how why and it happened and then the Olympics same same type of emotion uh the back-to-back games against Serbia and against France and uh the drama that took place I said to him dude you could do this 50 years you probably are not going to get two more impactful basketball games than what you just did and that does not mean that he's not going to do big events in his life what it does mean is he just happened to do a couple really early in his career really proud of how he handled himself how he's navigated his way through this wacky business even at a young age he knows how fortunate he is he does not take it for granted it does not giving him a big head and he's the same person that we sent off to Syracuse where my wife turned to me as we were driving away you get on 81 to then get to 380 to 80 to get back to where we live in New Jersey as we pull up on the highway we've now unloaded his stuff set up his room met his roommate met his roommates friends did the goodbye hug all of it we just pull on of the highway and my wife who also went to Syracuse turns to me and says is he going to be any good at this broadcasting thing and I turned to her and I said I don't know because I really don't know you don't know until they're actually doing it so I think back to that moment a lot it's been it's been pretty incredible and uh he's he's very much aware of uh how fortunate he's been and he doesn't take any of it for granted yeah two thoughts on that one you know you know people in this business can be supportive but also incredibly jealous you then people go Noah Eagle neppo baby and then did you listen to him did you listen to that Serbia game listen to that France game this guy's pretty freaking good so he's clearly silencing any of those and to your point about Father and Son um this goes back to Ivan wman actually his son Jason wman is a filmmaker up in the air does very well he gets nominated for an Oscar I'm talk to your friend of mine he's like oh man that's that's too bad for for Ian I go what do you mean he goes well his kid has surpassed him his kid was nomin for an Academy Award I said any father worth his salt always wants greater success for their kid he goes go no no you ask any father in the same industry unless you're a complete sociopath of course you would want greater success for your own ding ding ding though you just hit on something there are there are people that do feel the way you're not supposed to feel and for that I I would not be able to that that is completely foreign to me of course you want your kid to do better you want him to do better and I think Noah takes it all in stride fortunately and has a really good head on his shoulders and understands that this is not easy and what he's doing is uh is pretty remarkable in the grand scheme but he doesn't see it as as anything beyond the norm he really is taking it one step at a time with with each assignment all right last one I've kept you long enough but this one self-indulgent for me so Harry when I met ey at the Emmys I told him listen I've always been a fan but it went to a next level after you told the John maon Nikolai DAV day story on Richard D's podcast this is a good remind of everybody out there you can be the face of CBS sports for decades when somebody hears you a Richard D's pocket you know what I'm locked in so tell that story just for me yeah so quick version of it I'm working with John Macken at the French Open John is excellent on the air as we know notorious for not going to production meetings and also showing up about five minutes before airtime so you out ofsight out of mine you don't see them you're not around him it's not like the whole day you're talking about the match you're talking about the the two players none of it and yes to The Scouting Report he shows up five minutes before the match and the match is rapael Nadal against a French Wild Card Nicola delde that's his name I ask everybody in Paris basically how do you say this and everyone says well it's Nicola delde I there's a question mark at the end like I said okay I'm gonna do it Nicola delde I practice in the mirror I practice again John comes to the booth he's got a Nicks hat on Sideways uh his tie is undone his jacket is hanging off his finger and he comes in like the Tasmanian devil like and now we've got five minutes there I go hey John yep yep yep yeah good to go all right we got Nadal and we have uh Nicola delde he says what I said it's Nicola delde I've checked with everybody he says now it's Nick dilder I go no no no no actually it's Nicola delde and John looks me in the ey he says it's Nick dilder okay Nick dilder and guess what it was the entire match it was Nadal against dilder so oh I love it said like as a question am I question yeah tremendous unbelievable the great IR Eagle you can make sure you listen to him on CBS of course NFL is kicking up soon you'll hear him on Nets games you see him in college hoops the best combat I could pay you again you're the funniest play byplay guy and you're great at your job but in this business which is a small one everyone Raves about you back at ESPN years before I met you mikeam anise shroof step oen Bill pedo I I could scottf there so many people that you hear an eagles's name it's the best I do have to close with this though how much do you hate the movie Iron Eagle because you choose to pronounce your name I and you've been called the eagle has landed for how many years yeah um add on this obviously hits me in a in a very tough spot because I fought like hell for people to say my name correctly and I understood it was not normal Beverly Hills 90210 helped the emergence of ion zering helped that's true so I I had that working in my favor but in 1986 Iron Eagle comes out with Jason gedrick and AC Academy Award winner Lewis Gossett and that became the bane of my existence not just for that year everyone's like oh hey what's up Iron Eagle I'm like okay again works fine iron iron iron IR they make a sequel Iron Eagle 2 so now it extends no no no no they were not satisfied with just two iron eagles they go straight to video with Iron Eagle three they're going to keep this franchise resuscitated whatever they have to do clear n we we've got more I think they're might be an iron eagle four if you look it up I'm not sure gossip was in that one so the this uh this did affect me and not just in that people in my everyday life now had a place to go to with Iron Eagle athletes coaches general managers to this day believe my name is Iron Eagle I do not correct them I just lean into it and every so said oh you had a son he should have been called Iron Eagle too right yeah yeah and to that point again back to chrisopher guest I said to him what do you how do you react when people like quote like your lines and he goes it's the worst he said just now guy was miking me up and he goes hey don't worry this one goes to 11 I I do use that by the way I do use that with audio guys we like hey you good your levels I go I could use 11 if possible and they're like not over there hi Eagle you're the man I can't than enough this is awesome great to be with you thanks so much adna