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When New Orleans Saints wide receiver Deonte Harris gathered a pass from Drew Brees near the far sideline and took off for a first down, play-by-play broadcaster Noah Eagle referenced his favorite Nickelodeon show “Drake and Josh.”

“This dude is hotter than a Peruvian puff pepper,” Eagle said on the air.

In the NFL’s first-ever broadcast on Nickelodeon, Eagle — a 2019 Syracuse graduate — meshed football with kids entertainment. Utilizing his energetic personality that CBS executives seeked, Eagle spearheaded the one-of-a-kind telecast on Sunday, which included SpongeBob SquarePants goal posts, a “slime zone,” and child actor Iain Armitage of the show “Young Sheldon” explaining penalties. Together on the Nickelodeon broadcast, Eagle, Nate Burleson and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green drew two million viewers, according to CBS.

Usually, NFL broadcasters — like Eagle’s dad, Ian, who’s been a professional sportscaster for nearly 30 years and is also an SU graduate — spend their week chatting with players about schemes, matchups and game plans. Ian is in his 27th season as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Brooklyn Nets, and he calls NFL games for CBS. For the Saints-Bears Wild Card playoff game, Eagle spent nearly 25 hours ensuring all technical bases were covered, but with a kid-friendly twist. He studied football, Nickelodeon and even rapper Cardi B.

In a broadcast vying to introduce a younger audience to football, Eagle and Burleson agreed before kickoff that if it sounded like they were enjoying themselves on the air, viewers would do the same at home.

“One of the biggest takeaways was how we did retain the attention spans of little kids, of people who never watch football,” Eagle said. “All these people who reached out saying, ‘Well I initially tuned in just to see a drive or two and I stayed for the full half.’”

At one point, Green explained a play to viewers using her Cardi B impression. Burleson, the color commentator, and Eagle tried the impression too, attempting Cardi B’s signature “Okurrr.” It didn’t go well for Eagle.

“Of course I struggled at the first moment doing it, and they laughed at me, which I loved,” Eagle said.

To Eagle, broadcasting is not only about entertaining, but performing. In preparation for Sunday’s game, he asked players such as 24-year-old Marcus Davenport and 34-year-old Jimmy Graham about their favorite Nickelodeon characters. He watched hours of clips from Nickelodeon shows dating back to “All That” — the theme song of which he briefly sang on a phone call with The Daily Orange.

“It’s okay to have fun and people like to have fun,” Eagle said. “Sports are supposed to be fun, even in an NFL playoff game.”

Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner said on Twitter that his son, who had never watched an NFL game with him before, loved the broadcast so much that he did. Warner’s son is 31, and he experienced a traumatic brain injury at 4 months old and is legally blind.

Noah Eagle (right) joins Nate Burleson (left) and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green (center) in the Nickelodeon broadcast booth.Courtesy of Noah Eagle

“Those were the messages and those were the reactions that really meant the most to us,” Eagle said.

Two years ago, Eagle landed the Los Angeles Clippers’ play-by-play job at age 22, and he still works there today. He’s also a member of the Tennis Channel and SiriusXM broadcasting crews.

At Syracuse, Eagle called football games, including during his senior year, when the Orange went 10-3 and made their first bowl game appearance in five years. He hadn’t called a football game until the one on Nickelodeon, but he was excited that his first experience calling an NFL game suited his personality. It allowed him to be himself while also watching NFL action.

“My wife Alisa and I are very proud of Noah and thrilled that the broadcast was well received,” Ian said in a message to The D.O. “I thought they did a fantastic job of balancing football with the lighter moments. This was tailor-made for someone who watched a lot of (Nickelodeon) as a kid.”

Ian said the only thing missing was that his son wasn’t slimed at the end of the broadcast. Eagle cited his Jordan 4 sneakers and “other auxiliary reasons” for why it didn’t happen.

On the air, Eagle relies on his love for entertainment outside the sports world to aid his play-by-play performances and boost his personality in the booth. In another broadcast, when a player missed off the backboard from straight on two consecutive possessions, Eagle said, “He missed it like Philip Seymour Hoffman in ‘Along Came Polly.’” The analogy made Eagle’s engineer crack up mid-broadcast, he said.

Hanging behind Eagle while speaking with The D.O. were three posters from his favorite movies: “The Prestige,” “Django Unchained” and “The Princess Bride.”

As the play-by-play broadcaster, Eagle said he’s always the fall guy if something in the broadcast goes awry. So in his first NFL broadcast, on the first game on Nickelodeon, with a color commentator he’d met just one week prior and two child actors who had never been to a football game before, Eagle had every right to be nervous.

“Everyone would feel the butterflies. But I took a deep breath, centered myself, moved forward basically and went into it,” Eagle said.

The Nickelodeon broadcast took months of diligent preparation from an entire crew, Eagle said, and though he wants to see it happen again, it’s not the sort of product that can be turned around in one week.

Sunday’s broadcast was impactful because of the novelty of it, Eagle said. With the proper time and preparation, it’ll happen again. And when it does, without a doubt, Eagle wants to be part of it.

Digital managing editor KJ Edelman contributed reporting to this story.

Published on January 14, 2021 at 12:46 am

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt