A 62-year-old former NFL quarterback who stands 6-foot-3 and a 25-year-old with limited athletic abilities who stands almost a foot shorter walk into a room and …
It sounds like the start of a joke, an “and” waiting for a punchline.
If the room they’re walking into is a college football broadcast booth, though, then Todd Blackledge, the former QB, and Noah Eagle, an already accomplished and rising-star broadcaster, are about to do something well.
They’re about to inform viewers and serve as the most public faces of “Big Ten Saturday Night” — the weekly broadcast from NBC that usually produces the best-looking and most-complete broadcast of a Big Ten Conference game each week.
This week, for the second time this season, they’re working a Penn State game, and that’s a good thing for viewers who can catch the game against Michigan State (7:30 p.m. Friday) on NBC or Peacock.
Blackledge has 30 years of experience as a college football analyst and has worked for almost every major networking covering the sport (ABC, CBS, ESPN). Eagle, the son of broadcaster Ian Eagle, grew up destined to continue in the family business. He pinned down his first big job, as a radio play-by-play man for the NBA’s L.A. Clippers, before he graduated from college and his resume is already impressive with experience covering the NBA, NFL and Olympics, working for the Tennis Channel and more.
Together Blackledge and Eagle, along with sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen, have made NBC games must-see TV — even when some of the matchups this season have not merited that attention. They’re just collaborative and smooth as broadcasters, consistently working to inform viewers and clearly working together. Best of all, NBC provides top-notch production quality every week.
The broadcasters’ togetherness has been honed, in part, by Blackledge’s ability to mentor as well as Eagle’s interest in investing in the relationship.
When they started their season in Happy Valley, for the first-ever “Big Ten Saturday Night” featuring West Virginia at Penn State in early September, Blackledge spent an hour or so the day before the game talking with communications students. The question-and-answer session became the start of something he’s done almost every week at every school they’ve visited this season.
After a few weeks, he invited Eagle to join him — wisely figuring college students would enjoy hearing from a 20-something in the industry.
“It was a way for me to hear more about Noah’s story, too,” Blackledge said.
Perhaps not surprisingly for Blackledge, who led Penn State to its first national championship, competition and improvement drive him in the broadcast booth as they did on the football field. Three decades into his career, after being attracted to NBC as a foundational and proven talent for its broadcasts, Blackledge appreciates feedback.
Specifically, he’s sought input from longtime “Sunday Night Football” executive producer Fred Gaudelli as well as Matt Marvin, the producer for “Big Ten Saturday Night.” Blackledge said that appreciation of feedback was a seed planted years ago during his first on-camera position.
He was living in Pittsburgh and hired to voice “The Penn State Football Story.”
“Guido D’Elia was my first boss, taught me how to cut tape, do voiceovers and be on camera. He has always been a mentor to me,” Blackledge said. “I just know he has a real good eye for it.”
At this point, Blackledge has a good eye and feel, too. He has invested in the NBC effort from the start, helping ensure a team approach among all involved in a broadcast — and that’s not small feat. When NBC shows up on a college campus, it comes with 100-plus credentialed team members. For the season opener at Penn State, because the network’s pregame show was on site as well, there were nearly 250 media credentials for NBC alone.
Still, Blackledge and Eagle are the primary faces and voices of the effort. They know they benefit from the work of their colleagues, and they do not take it for granted. Best of all, they don’t take the people watching for granted either.
So, when they walk into a broadcast booth … it’s a good thing viewers.
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