Talking Sports, Life, and SpongeBob With Father-Son Broadcast Duo Ian and Noah Eagle

Photographs courtesy of CBS Sports, NFL; Collage: Gabe Conte

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For Ian and Noah Eagle, sports is literally the family business. But unlike father-son combos like Dell and Steph Curry or Keith and Matthew Tkachuk, the Eagles don’t actually play in the games. Instead, they’re suiting up in a different way, donning a coat and tie to broadcast the action. Ian, 55, began doing play-by-play for the Nets when they were in New Jersey, starting on radio in 1994. He’s still the voice of the Nets, but now on television, and he intersperses that with NFL games on CBS and being the lead play-by-play voice of the NCAA Tournament.

Noah, 26, followed in his father’s footsteps to become a successful broadcaster in his own right. At 22, he landed a radio play-by-play gig with the Los Angeles Clippers, and he, too, has crossed over into the NFL: in recent years Noah has handled the league’s innovative Nickelodeon broadcasts, including the Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where he was joined in the booth by SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick Star. This summer, he’s already been on the mic for the French Open (he called in from Paris for this conversation) and will be there again for NBC Sports next month to call men’s and women’s Olympic basketball.

But before all that, both Eagles jumped on a Zoom to tell us anything and everything about following in dad’s footsteps, mom’s role in all this, and the dreaded “nepo baby” label.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Noah, was broadcasting always the plan for you? Was it as simple as, I see what my dad is doing. That looks cool. I want to do it?

Noah: Somewhat. I would say about [age] 13 was when I lasered in on it. Before that, people would ask what I wanted to do, and the answer was very simple: I wanted to be a TV dentist, which is not a real thing. That's something I concocted in my brain and would tell grown people. I thought I could combine Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, filling molars, Wednesday 2:30 time slot. For whatever reason, my eight-year-old brain thought people would be interested in that.

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Then I realized extra schooling, no good for me. So 13 or so, I had seen what [my dad] had done obviously, and I saw how much joy it brought him. I saw every day how excited he was to prepare for games, to go to the events, to work with cool people, to be around the action. When you see that, and you've got a good relationship with a parent, it becomes easier to really become magnetized to it. That's what happened for me. But it wasn't a foregone conclusion, and in the back of my head there was always something with mouths or teeth that just enamored me. I don't know what it was.

Ian, as you’re watching Noah become more interested in broadcasting, is there any trepidation on your end? There’s a lot of travel, a lot of late nights. Were you ever trying to steer him away from it?

Ian: No, I never even thought about that, because it was something that he was very passionate about. I was nothing but encouraging, but I also knew the reality of the business. The reality is, if you don't have the talent to do it, it's probably not going to work out for you.

I have a very vivid memory of my wife and I dropping Noah off at Syracuse [ed.: Noah, like his dad, graduated from Syracuse’s famed communications program] and going through what parents go through when you drop off your oldest child at college. You go buy everything that they need for their dorm room, and the goodbyes are emotional, and the hugs. We get in the car to drive back to New Jersey, and just as we turn on the highway, my wife turns to me and asks, Is he going to be any good at this?

I looked at her and said, I don't know! You have this seminal moment of dropping off your child, and they're pursuing their dreams, and then the very real visceral feeling of, We have no idea how this is going to go. Good luck for the next four years! Obviously, I had some gut feelings that he had an aptitude for it and was not going to be intimidated by the idea of doing it, but he did have to forge his own path. Even with it being in his genes, he has to do it. I can't do it for him.

Noah, when you got dropped off at college, what was your broadcasting experience?

Noah: Extensive background in muting my NBA 2K and calling the action as I played. That was very strong. Outside of that, not a whole lot. I did the morning announcements my senior year of high school. I hosted our version of a talent show my senior year as well—any events that we had that I could go and try to at least get on a microphone. But other than that, it was giving speeches in classes, and just seeing my dad do it. I had no real tape of any kind. I had no real legitimate game experience of any kind. I was about as close to a clean slate as you could get. And I preferred it that way, because I felt like that was the time to form good habits and really learn the craft.

I was a baseball-obsessed kid, and I would call fictional baseball games out loud to nobody. 2-1 Mariners, top of the fourth inning, Bret Boone steps to the plate. My teachers had to intervene. They thought something was wrong with me.

Noah: There was something wrong with you. It’s what makes all of us good for the job.

Absolutely. But it started to wane after a bit. I had always known in the back of my mind that that would be a cool job for me. But I guess I started to get more realistic about it. So, Noah, we talked about your TV dentist career. Ian, did you have a backup plan in place?

Ian: I had zero backup plan. Nothing ready to go as a just in case. I knew at the age of eight what I wanted to do, and my parents were incredibly supportive and very positive in encouraging me to pursue it. When your parents tell you at that young an age that this is what you'll do, you believe it. And very similar to Noah, I had nothing to go on when I got to Syracuse. Very similar to you, I was calling games in my bedroom. I was playing pickup basketball with my friends and doing the play-by-play while we were playing, which I found people don't like.

Oh, Jimmy misses his sixth shot in a row!

Ian: That’s a travel on Russ, no call! He’s like, What? It’s not a popular way to attract new friends. I attacked it when I got to school. It was interesting for me to see what his path was like, because it was similar to mine, with about a 29-year difference. And yet, he was doing a lot of the same things that I did, which is a testament to Syracuse and the consistency of the program there.

It’s also a reminder that you can't really skip steps in this. There's a formative process in developing your skills as a broadcaster. There’s an idea that you just come out of the womb ready to do this. And while natural ability certainly comes into play and can distinguish you from others, you've got to do all of the things required in order to be ready for the next step.

For both of you, did you come in with a plan as far as the sport you wanted to cover? Noah, you’re literally in Paris right now for the French Open. Was this ever part of the plan?

Noah: Yeah, I was always interested in tennis. My dad had done this event, and he did the US Open while I was growing up. So, I went to the US Open every year. But to answer your question: Dan D’Uva, who is now the voice of the Vegas Golden Knights, was an adjunct professor at Syracuse. He was adamant. He said, Try everything when you get to school, not just sports, either. You might fall in love with it. Be an analyst. Do sideline reporting. Host, anchor, run a camera, be a producer, be a director, run the teleprompter, do whatever is available to you, because you just never know. Try writing!

So, I was doing as many different things as I could find. I was calling games, but I was hosting, I was producing—especially on the radio side, more so than really on the TV side. I would run the teleprompter. I did that for almost a full year. I was doing basically every role: news, morning news, entertainment. I hosted a game show when I was there. I did every possible sport that Syracuse had to offer. I just tried everything to see what gave me the most fulfillment.

Ian, you've been in the industry for a while, you’ve seen its evolution. There’s obviously way more opportunities thanks to the internet and podcasts and all that. I'm curious how you’ve seen those changes specifically manifest with Noah, where you see stuff that he's doing or you hear stuff he's working on and you're like, Wow, that didn't exist when I was coming up, or I would've never thought about that?

Ian: I think for Noah, his timing was impeccable, based on all of the opportunities that were popping up in college. I had some of those—but the fact that Syracuse was producing in-house television broadcasts and airing them on what was often ESPN+ or ESPN3 meant that you would get chances. The goal is to get as many opportunities as possible to see what you like and to see what you don't like and to make mistakes. The idea that you're going to be perfect the second that you put a headset on is not realistic.

The fact that there was satellite radio—Sirius was doing a show where college students would host. They reached out to Noah and he ended up hosting it for a year. Those experiences prepare you for the next challenge. Often it was Noah by himself in a studio creating something over a three-hour period with some guests. And then often you've got to figure out a way to fill the segment and do it in an interesting and entertaining manner. You don't know, at that point, what that's going to prepare you for. But when Noah got the Clippers radio job, he was told that he would be doing the broadcast by himself. That could be daunting for a young broadcaster. What do you mean it's all me? But he had already done it in his mind, a three-hour show every week by himself. So, the idea of now just looking into a microphone and creating something interesting had already been done. I just think the way the business has evolved—the ability to do things on your own, to look into your computer and create something—has certainly worked to the advantage of young people. The challenge is how do you turn it into a career? And again, not cut corners.

Don’t skip game notes is what I’m hearing.

Ian: No, it’s true. Your audience is so varied. You have the rabid fans. You have the casual fans. You have gamblers. Then you have people that just check in because it's something to do. You have to service each section of the audience, and that requires you to be on top of all of it at all times.

Noah, at any point did you call home and say, “I don’t think I can do this?”

Noah: No, I wouldn't say there was a doubt of the career itself. I think there are just moments over the course of—I mean even just life moments—where I was seeking out advice on how to handle this situation or how to approach a person. He just mentioned the Clipper job—it's all alone, and I'm calling every single game. It's 82 games plus preseason, plus postseason. I mean, it's alien to you at that point. How do you sustain something like that over the course of an entire year? I think those were more of the calls that I was making, just [about] the minute details you don't necessarily think about.

The best thing that he provided for me—and certainly my mom, in her support and always being there to bounce ideas off of—was that he's been through all of it. There was no situation that he hadn't already dealt with. So, if I felt like I was uneasy about a situation, he had the answer just tailor-made for me. That's the best thing I could ask for.

I’m glad you brought up mom. Is she a sports person?

Noah: I'd say she's an Eagles sports person, and I'm not talking about Philadelphia. She's a Noah and Ian Eagle sports person. I don't think that you're going to catch her watching a random Islanders-Devils game on a Tuesday night, let's put it that way.

Ian: When Noah was on the West Coast for those four years doing Clipper games, Alisa was often doing a doubleheader, watching a Net game and then shifting over to the first half of the Clippers game on radio. That would take her to about midnight eastern. So she was consuming about three and a half hours of NBA hoops an evening, oftentimes three to four times a week. I think she’s had more NBA knowledge seep into her brain than she ever would've predicted. She’s randomly saying, “What’s going on with Lou Williams’ left hand?” or “Andray Blatche’s help defense is lacking.”

Ian, was there ever a moment where you would sit Noah on your knee and be like, Here's how you set up a big third down?

Ian: I think there might be a little bit of a misconception that our household was like a version of the movie Whiplash. More inflection! Vocabulary!

Noah: I had a little PTSD watching it. Miles Teller was too good in the role.

Ian: No, it wasn’t like that at all. A lot of deep discussions about the art of play-by-play. But even today, Noah and I don't set time up to discuss the business. If it comes up organically in the midst of a conversation or a text chain, great. But I'm not one after a broadcast to give him 10 pointers that I noticed. Our relationship is not broadcast first, father-son second. It's quite the opposite. That's made it a much healthier dynamic. I will say, at the Emmy Awards a couple of weeks ago, Noah won a national sports Emmy. My wife and I are looking at each other. How did this happen, exactly? But it felt very much like a transition from bring your kid to work day to bring your dad to work day.

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I am going to put you on the spot a bit. Do you have a favorite call from the other person’s career?

Ian: For me, I was watching the Indianapolis-Minnesota game from 2022, start to finish. Noah was doing it on NFL Network, and it was the greatest comeback in NFL history. It was a roller coaster ride, and there were probably three or four loops in the fourth quarter. I just know, from a play-by-play perspective, what that requires. Maintaining energy, recognizing situations, how important one play may be, the domino effect, and never giving up on the game. I just felt that he and [broadcast partner] Nate Burleson handled it incredibly well. I told them afterwards, you could call NFL games for the next 40 years, and you're never going to get a game like that.

And then, I've just found the Nickelodeon games to be so entertaining! It's a combination of Noah's skills on display as a play-by-play caller, and then his pop culture knowledge, his ability to weave in a line where it works and keep it light, but shift it to another gear when the play calls for energy and the perfect inflection and command. Watching Noah call Nets games, that's very full circle just for the family, because he really did grow up as a huge Nets fan. This past year, if I was on the road working a different event and logging onto the YES Network app to watch Noah and Sarah Kustok or Richard Jefferson do the game, there was a proud papa moment there.

Noah: I feel like he needs to do more signature games before I can choose one. No, it would be impossible to choose one. A lot of people remember and still bring up the Miami Miracle, Kenyan Drake [scoring the winning touchdown] on a bunch of laterals. Gronkowski didn't have the angle! That’s gotten used in commercials. I mean, people still come up to him and say, Gronkowski didn't have the angle! You don't know what you're going to say in those chaotic moments. That's why I thought it was a great call, because he was still on it when it mattered most. The same goes a couple of years later when Kyler Murray threw a Hail Mary (or “Hail Murray”) to DeAndre Hopkins. When you rise to the moment, it always resonates, and his voice always cuts through. Those are just two examples of that.

NBA-wise, there's almost too many to count. I'm going to give you the two that still resonate. I've ripped off one of them, and I have no shame about it: Jason Kidd against the Chicago Bulls was probing through the basket and just chucked one up [at the] end of the shot clock. Literally wasn't even looking at the basket, just threw it up behind his head and banked it in. And he said, "Jason Kidd is a magician." Perfectly said, perfectly put, not too wordy. It just captured the moment. The last one is Joe Johnson’s buzzer-beater in double overtime over the Detroit Pistons. Jerry Seinfeld was sitting courtside. He said, “That was real, and that was spectacular!”

I do want to ask one more question, because I’d feel remiss if I didn't do this. Noah, the term “nepo baby” has been thrown around a lot in culture recently. I'm wondering what you feel inside when you hear that term, because there's obviously a negative connotation to it, implying that you didn't earn your spot. I would like to give you a platform to defend yourself from the nepo baby allegations.

Noah: I don't take much offense to it, if we're being honest. First of all, I love that they've now come up with a different term altogether. It feels like you're part of this exclusive club of nepo babies. It's awesome.

Ian: When do you guys meet? Is there a meeting place? How does that work?

Noah: There was a seminal moment for me when I first got to Syracuse. Obviously my dad went there, but my mom went there as well. It's where they met. So, there was a lot of family history, and at first I think I was reluctant—or certainly hesitant—to embrace that. I got there and I didn't want to attach my last name to myself, because I wanted to make my own name. I wanted to be my own person, a separate entity. I think anybody would. So I would just introduce myself as Noah.

I got through my sophomore year doing that. I got back in that summer between sophomore and junior year, and my dad sat me down and he said, "Look, I totally get what you've been doing. I totally understand why you've been doing it, but there's zero reason to feel any shame for who you are and where you come from." A big reason for that is because of how hard he's worked and how he's treated people and his reputation around the business. It'd be one thing if he was known as this super diva who nobody wants to be around, but it couldn't be farther from that. He is the guy that everybody wants to be around. He lights up the room.

I flipped the switch and embraced it more, because I owe it to him for everything he's done in his career. Not just on the air, but more specifically who he's been off the air. I look at it as a badge of honor at this point to carry on the Eagle name and the Eagle legacy. And for anybody that questions why I got a role, I don't let that get to me.

Originally Appeared on GQ