Sports
Nepotism in sports broadcasting: 'A tremendous advantage,' but 'what do you do with it?'
When Jac Collinsworth, at just 27 years old, debuted on the prestigious job as NBC’s play-by-play voice for Notre Dame football in September 2022, he succeeded one of the most decorated announcers in sports, Mike Tirico.
To receive such a position suggested he was a sportscasting prodigy, but from his first game — when Marshall upset Notre Dame — Collinsworth did not sound like he deserved the national stage in this role. He lacked precision and rhythm, and he kept saying, “Mmm, hmm,” a bad habit that usually is eradicated with years of practice.
The focus on Collinsworth only grew last year, especially during a flat performance with his partner, Jason Garrett, on a Notre Dame-USC prime-time game in October.
Underlying all the criticism is that Collinsworth’s father, Cris, is NBC’s top NFL analyst, showcased on “Sunday Night Football” and in five Super Bowl broadcasts. Jac also appears on the SNF pregame show as an on-site reporter/host, among other roles at the network.
Any son or daughter who goes into the family business is stamped with the nepotism label. Jac Collinsworth’s case was no different, but the attention grew as he floundered.
Though Collinsworth, after graduating from Notre Dame in 2017, had success at ESPN as a reporter and then on the sidelines and hosting for NBC Sports, his failure on the Fighting Irish games caused the man responsible for the move in the first place, Sam Flood, the president of production for NBC Sports, to finally remove Collinsworth from the role last month, admitting his mistake as Collinsworth did not have the requisite play-by-play reps yet for such a large assignment.
Jac Collinsworth, Cris Collinsworth and Flood all declined requests to be interviewed.
Jac Collinsworth working the Chargers-Bills game before Christmas with Tony Dungy, center, and Rodney Harrison. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Sportscasting is filled with father-and-son stories of succession. There are more successes than failures — and to be clear, Jac Collinsworth should not be put in either category just yet; especially at 29. He is just not alone.
This offseason, in Oakland, the A’s hired 24-year-old Chris Caray, a fourth-generation broadcaster dating back to his great-grandfather Harry. In Toronto, 23-year-old Ben Shulman, son of Dan, is joining the Blue Jays radio booth, just a door over from his father, who calls TV for the team along with his ESPN work.
There is a long list of sons and daughters following their parents into sportscasting from Mike Golic Sr. and Jr. to Karl and Sam Ravech to Kevin Harlan and Olivia Harlan Dekker.
And the trend is nothing new, as Fox Sports, after luring the NFL from CBS in the mid-1990s, hired three sons of famous play-by-play broadcasters — Joe Buck (son of Jack, voice of the St. Louis Cardinals and national football and baseball broadcasts), Kenny Albert (son of Marv, the legendary NBA play-by-play voice) and Thom Brennaman (son of Marty, the former voice of the Cincinnati Reds).
Like Fox three decades ago, NBC has shown a penchant for sportscasting offspring from Collinsworth to Chris Simms, son of Phil, and Noah Eagle, son of Ian.
Collinsworth’s demotion opened the door further for Noah Eagle to continue to rise. Eagle, who is just 27, excelled on Big Ten Saturday prime-time games and the NFL playoffs in his first season with NBC.
Next season and beyond, he and his analyst, Todd Blackledge, will continue on the Big Ten, but, in a given week, if Notre Dame is the top game on the network, the duo will slide over to that matchup.
Eagle has started on a path reminiscent of Buck’s, but the issue of nepotism in the booth is complicated.
When Joe Buck talks to kids who want to become a sportscaster, he often falls back on an old joke.
“My advice is to start with a famous father,” Buck told The Athletic.
Buck is often cited as the quintessential example of sportscasting nepotism, but he is also probably its greatest success story. His dad, Jack Buck, is one of the most legendary play-by-play announcers in history and, at 54, Joe has matched his father, if not exceeded his accomplishments.
Joe Buck has already called 24 World Series and six Super Bowls on TV. Jack called two World Series and one Super Bowl on the medium, while also being a constant soundtrack as the radio voice on both events.
Growing up in St. Louis, by the time Joe turned 6, he began studying how his dad prepared for MLB and NFL broadcasts.
At 12, Joe was calling games into a cassette recorder in an empty TV booth in the press box at Busch Stadium. On the drive home, he and his dad would listen back and Joe would learn. With Jack doing the reviews, it was as if a raspy-voiced Mozart was giving feedback to a teenage violinist.
Joe Buck (right), with Cris Collinsworth (left) and Troy Aikman on the call for Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla., in February 2005. (Frank Micelotta / Getty Images)
By 21, Buck was slated to be in the Cardinals’ main booth, but before he could call a game, he had tears in his eyes.
He was still living at home when he opened the biggest newspaper in St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch, and saw that its respected media critic, Dan Caesar, had written a column about how nepotism helped Buck land the job.
In June 1990, Caesar wrote: “The burning question is why is Joe Buck, at age 21, being force-fed to Cardinals fans? The reason is simple, and it’s spelled B-U-C-K.”
It hurt Buck, but he knew it wasn’t wrong.
“While it crushed my soul reading about how off-putting my hiring was, he was right,” Buck said. “I remember crying about it.”
Buck said he felt like he was in a race but was beginning behind the starting line. While recognizing he had the advantages of an apprenticeship from the earliest of ages, he realized he had the job in large part because of his last name.
Over the years, even as Buck has often come across as the most confident guy in the booth, that insecurity drove him — and still does — because he always knew there would be those who felt his accomplishments were due to his dad’s Hall of Fame credentials.
“It was a gift that I got from Dan to be given a window into what people think,” Buck said. “It’s human nature. ‘Oh well, we know how he got the job.’”
Today, with social media, it is even more difficult, Buck said, because everyone’s a critic.
“It makes it really hard to kind of get your legs,” Buck said.
Eagle has done well under the same NBC umbrella as Collinsworth, but it comes from being credible on the broadcast.
“For Noah Eagle, he’s been meteoric, and he’s obviously worked really hard at this and put in the hours,” Buck said. “I think all of us — and it’s a big group — had the advantage of being around it as a kid. I think there’s something to that.”
Noah Eagle first thought he wanted to be a sportscaster at 13. Less than a decade later, he was sitting in front of one of the richest people in the world — Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer — for 90 minutes in a conference room in the Seattle area, overlooking Mount Rainier and Lake Washington, in an attempt to land a job on Ballmer’s broadcast team.
In college, Noah did his best to be his own person — almost too much. Since his father and his mother, Alisa, both attended Syracuse, he was at first reluctant to go there but ultimately decided it was the right place for him. Once he got there, though, he tried to hide his last name. He would introduce himself as just “Noah.”
“I wanted to be like Cher or Madonna or Beyonce, you know. I just wanted to be ‘Noah,’ period,” Noah said.
He didn’t want the perception that any opportunity was because of his father, who is considered one of the best broadcasters in all of sports and will call the Final Four this year.
Halfway through Noah’s time at Syracuse, Ian told his son that he should embrace who he is, not run from it.
“I respected the fact that Noah wanted to be his own person when he got to Syracuse but reminded him to be proud of his last name,” Ian said.
“For Noah Eagle, he’s been meteoric, and he’s obviously worked really hard at this and put in the hours,” fellow broadcaster Joe Buck says. (James Black / Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
By his senior year, Noah had the respect of Olivia Stomski, an Emmy Award-winning sports producer who heads Syracuse’s Newhouse School’s sports media center. She had a contact with the Clippers, who were looking for candidates after longtime TV play-by-play voice Ralph Lawler retired.
Stomski recommended Eagle and Drew Carter, Eagle’s classmate, who is now part of the Boston Celtics’ broadcast crew. The Clippers liked each of their tapes but preferred Eagle’s and invited him out to Los Angeles for an initial interview.
Stomski said the Clippers knew this was Ian’s son, but it was Noah they were deciding on.
“I would say very little, if any,” Stomski said when asked Ian’s impact. “I know for a fact they didn’t call Ian. Ian didn’t call anyone else. If anyone was pushing, it was probably me.”
After Noah Eagle aced the first interview, he advanced to meet Ballmer, the Clippers’ owner. The two went back-and-forth with Eagle even having the chops to disagree on some points with Ballmer.
Eagle ended up receiving the radio job, not the TV one. It allowed him to have four years of play-by-play in the second-biggest market in the country.
This has led to calling Nickelodeon’s well-received Slimetime broadcasts, including for this year’s Super Bowl, and then landing NBC’s top college football job. He’s also called games for Fox Sports.
The four years of 82 games on radio and the playoffs gave Eagle the reps for the national stage. He then handed the Clippers job off.
“My biggest goal was that I would do a good enough job that other people would be more willing in the future to hire younger people,” Eagle said. “I would basically go out there and they would know a 22-year-old can get this done. And so the most pride that I’ve had, it literally did not come from the four years that I was there. It came from the fact that they hired another 22-year-old after me.”
At 22, Carlo Jiménez, right out of USC, succeeded Eagle as the radio voice of the Clippers. Jiménez’s dad is a professor at Santa Clara, teaching ceramics, and works in academic advising, while his mother is chief revenue officer for a tech startup. With an assist from Eagle, Jiménez has quickly leveled the playing field and is honing his craft on a big stage.
“I think it gives you a tremendous advantage,” Buck said of being the son of a famous sportscaster. “But then the question is, ‘What do you do with it?’”
(Top photo of Jac Collinsworth: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
DENVER — What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
With a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champions lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead, letting the Rockies tee off for 15 hits.
Nor could the Dodgers keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park — though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning, when Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double and the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. Then the new guy, Ryan Ward, made the final out in his big league debut, robbed of a hit and a chance to keep chipping away by a diving Troy Johnston in right field.
Before that, the Rockies — who beat the Dodgers twice in 13 meetings all of last season — chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Díaz, who came on in the eighth and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs before being pulled with the Dodgers trailing 8-4.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings Sunday against the Rockies in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
“They both weren’t sharp,” said manager Dave Roberts, who had theories but not many answers — though he did have real concern, especially about Díaz, who recently had his right knee checked out by the medical staff.
Roberts said the closer wanted to pitch after nine days off, even though it wasn’t a save situation. But his velocity was slightly down (95.4 mph vs. 95.8) and so, “today was a tough evaluation,” the manager said.
“It really was,” Roberts said. “Because, you know, I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really.”
And losing for the second time to the Rockies, who are now 9-13? Being in danger of losing their four-game series, after arriving in Denver without having lost to a National League opponent, against a club that hasn’t made the postseason since 2018?
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning, lining a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0 and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
“When I was on first base, I got to see them all jumping around up there,” Ward said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
He also singled in the sixth and swung on the first pitch in his first at-bat, a fly out in the third inning.
The Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead in the third. Alex Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim, and Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland — and extended his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers history.
Sasaki went 4-2/3 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out two and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Mickey Moniak.
The result likely will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story years from now about getting the call after first baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list.
The Dodgers’ No. 19 prospect and reigning Pacific Coast League MVP spent the last seven years in the minors. Last season, he hit 36 home runs and drove in 122 runs with a .937 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for triple-A Oklahoma City, and he has a 1.020 OPS and four homers this year.
Ward made it a point to improve his chase rate, draw more walks and get on base more frequently, everything the Dodgers asked of him. He also passed the broadest patience test.
“The plate discipline, being a better hitter … he’s done all that,” Roberts said. “He’s improved his defense. But honestly, for me, just not to let his lack of opportunity in the big leagues deter him. That’s easy when you get frustrated and let it affect performance, and he hasn’t done that.”
If anything, Ward said, the waiting made him better.
“I used it to keep going. ‘OK, if I’m not there yet, what do I have to do to get there?’” he said. “‘What part of my game do I need to work on to keep getting better?’
“I used it as fire to keep working.”
That will be the Dodgers’ assignment too.
In the finale of the four-game series Monday, the Dodgers are expected to start left-hander Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) against Colorado left-hander Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63).
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
It’s time to reveal memories, laughs and crazy times from Randy Rosenbloom’s 55 years as a TV/radio broadcaster in Los Angeles. He’s hopping in a car next Sunday with his wife, saying goodbye to a North Hollywood house that’s been in his family since 1952 and driving 3,300 miles to his new home in Greenville, S.C.
“When I walk out, I’ll probably break down,” he said.
He graduated from North Hollywood High in 1969. He got his first paid job in 1971 calling Hart basketball games for NBC Cable Newhall for $10 a game. It began an adventure of a lifetime.
“I never knew if I overachieved or underachieved. I just did what I loved,” he said.
Randy Rosenbloom (left) used to work with former UCLA coach John Wooden for TV games.
(Randy Rosenbloom)
John Wooden, Jerry Tarkanian and Jim Harrick were among his expert commentators when he did play by play for college basketball games. He called volleyball at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games for NBC and rowing in 2004. He’s worked more than 100 championship high school events. He did play by play for the first and only Reebok Bowl at Angel Stadium in 1994 won by Bishop Amat over Sylmar, 35-14.
“There were about 5,000, 6,000 people there and I remember thinking nobody watched the game. We ended up with a 5.7 TV rating on Channel 13 in Los Angeles, which is higher than most Lakers games.”
He conducted interviews with NFL Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Johnny Unitas and boxing greats Robert Duran, Thomas Hearn and Sugar Ray Leonard. He’s worked with baseball greats Steve Garvey and Doug DeCinces. He called games with former USC coach Rod Dedeaux. He was in the radio booth for Bret Saberhagen’s 1982 no-hitter in the City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium. He was a nightly sportscaster for KADY in Ventura.
Randy Rosenbloom, left, with his volleyball broadcast partners, Kirk Kilgour and Bill Walton.
(Randy Rosenbloom)
He was the voice of Fresno State football and basketball. He also did Nevada Las Vegas football and basketball games. He called bowl games and Little League games. He was a public address announcer for basketball at the 1984 Olympic Games with Michael Jordan the star and did the P.A. for Toluca Little League.
Nothing was too small or too big for him.
“I loved everything,” he said.
He called at least 10 East L.A. Classic football games between Garfield and Roosevelt. He was there when Narbonne and San Pedro tied 21-21 in the 2008 City championship game at the Coliseum on a San Pedro touchdown with one second left.
Probably his most notable tale came when he was doing radio play-by-play at a 1998 college bowl game in Montgomery, Ala.
“I look down and a giant tarantula is crawling up my pants,” he said. “My color man took all the press notes, wadded them up and hit the tarantula like swinging a bat.”
Did Rosenbloom tell the audience what was happening?
“I stayed calm,” he said.
Then there was the time he was in the press box at Sam Boyd Stadium and a bat flew in and attached itself to the wooden press box right next to him before flying away after he said, “UNLV wins.”
Recently, he’s been putting together high school TV packages for LA36 and calling travel ball basketball games. He’ll still keep doing a radio gambling show from his new home, but he’s cutting ties to Los Angeles to move closer to grandchildren.
“I’m retiring from Los Angeles. I’m leaving the market,” he said.
Hopefully he’ll continue via Zoom to do a weekly podcast with me for The Times.
He’s a true professional who’s versatility and work ethic made him a reliable hire from the age of 18 through his current age of 74.
He’s a member of the City Section Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He once threw the shot put 51 feet, 7 1/2 inches, which is his claim to fame at North Hollywood High.
One time an ESPN graphic before a show spelled his name “Rosenbloom” then changed it to “Rosenblum” for postgame. It was worth a good laugh.
He always adjusts, improvises and ad-libs. He expects to enjoy his time in South Carolina, but he better watch out for tarantulas. They seem to like him.
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