News: NBC Big Ten team, Twellman, CFP theme, Bills voice

NBC announces its broadcasting booth for next season’s primetime Big Ten matchups. Plus: ESPN’s lead soccer analyst moves on; ESPN tabs a legendary composer for the new College Football Championship theme; the Buffalo Bills play-by-play voice suffers a stroke.

NBC’s Big Ten team will be Todd Blackledge and Noah Eagle

NBC Sports will pair longtime ESPN college football analyst Todd Blackledge and up-and-coming play-by-play voice Noah Eagle on its primetime Big Ten college football games next season, the New York Post reported Friday. Blackledge, 61, was ESPN’s No. 2 analyst after Kirk Herbstreit. Eagle, 26, is the voice of the Clippers and has worked NFL games for FOX and NFL Network. He is also the son of CBS Sports’ Ian Eagle, making him the third son of a famed broadcaster to be hired by NBC, joining Jac Collinsworth and Chris Simms. Blackledge and the younger Eagle will handle the Saturday primetime Big Ten slot, with the studio coverage hosted by Maria Taylor. (Marchand 1.6)

Taylor Twellman leaves ESPN

ESPN lead soccer analyst Taylor Twellman announced via his Twitter account Friday that he is leaving the network. Twellman spent 13 years at ESPN following his retirement from professional soccer in 2010. In addition to soccer, he had also recently branched out into non-soccer studio shows such as hosting SportsCenter and contributing to Get Up. The move comes amid ESPN losing additional soccer rights. This year will mark the first time the network will not air any MLS games. It also lost USMNT and USWNT rights to Turner Sports last year, Italian league Serie A to CBS Sports in 2021, and the largest international tournaments, the World Cup and the UEFA European Championships (Euros), to Fox Sports.

Twellman did not announce where he was headed to next, but it will likely be to either Apple, who now owns MLS rights, Fox Sports, Turner Sports or some combination of the three. (Twellman/Twitter 1.6)

John Williams writes the new theme for the College Football Championship

Famed Oscar-winning composer John Williams has composed a new theme for ESPN’s coverage of Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship, Variety reported Friday. Titled Of Grit and Glory, the 3 1/2 minute piece marks the first time Williams has composed a television theme since 2009. Williams, 90, has written several notable sports-related compositions, including NBC’s Olympic and Sunday Night Football themes. According to the Variety report, Of Grit and Glory is ESPN’s largest-scale musical commission ever. Currently there are no plans for a commercial release following the game, although ESPN could use it in future broadcasts. (Variety 1.6)

Buffalo Bills play-by-play man John Murphy suffers stroke

Buffalo Bills play-by-play announcer John Murphy suffered a stroke this past weekend and is said to be recovering at his home. Murphy missed Monday’s abbreviated Bills-Bengals game — halted after Bills S Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the field — due to “feeling under the weather,” as reported at the time by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Murphy has held the play-by-play role since 2003 and the Bills expect him to return at some point in the future. (Bills/Twitter 1.6)

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Adam Gostomelsky

Adam Gostomelsky is an Indianapolis based writer and recent graduate from Northeastern University. While at Northeastern, Adam helped co-found and manage The Red & Black, the Northeastern campus athletics magazine. A hybrid between The Players' Tribune and Sports Illustrated, the magazine has a distribution list of over 1,000 people and was featured on an episode of NESN's TV series, “Tales of the Howlin’ Huskies," in February 2020. Adam can be contacted at adamgostomelsky@gmail.com.

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Comments 1

Nate Johnson says:

3 years ago

Blackledge to NBC is very good for NBC. He’s been one of my favorite College Football analysts and no doubt about it one of the top analysts in the sport which is why NBC went after him. He did an exceptional job with CBS and blended well when he called games for ESPN (Amazing how 17 seasons of his work there could look so soon). Great game (Fiesta Bowl) to end his ESPN career on in which I believe he was absolutely tremendous, both he and McDonough.

Them getting Noah Eagle is no surprise to me. NBC didn’t quite have a play-by-play voice in house that could easily take this gig. I enjoyed listening to Eagle call a few football games this season and I believe he’ll do well for the network especially with Blackledge working along the side. Lastly on Eagle, this does give him an opportunity to call the Saturday NFL Wildcard match-up on NBC later this decade or towards the end of the deal in the early 2030s (depending on when Al Michaels is finished calling games). Even though Eagle has a home at NBC, I still believe he’ll be the lead voice for the Clippers at the start of his new role.

Two Questions:

1.) Who replaces Blackledge as #2 on ESPN? I have two that immediately comes to mind, and then a 3rd one that is a distant one, but I can’t rule out. I see Louis Riddick or Robert Griffin III as the top two favorites. Riddick has made it obvious that he wanted to call games and has done so on MNF for two seasons and was replaced by Troy Aikman. The fact that he called lower profiled games on Friday Nights tells me in his media career that’s where he wants to be and he’s willing to do whatever he can to be excellent at it. On top of that, I believe he would be more approved at that role than Greg McElroy who would be the next man up after Blackledge on the current depth chart.

While Robert Griffin III did receive backlash on his self calling out Eagles QB Jalen Hurts naysayers, in a way I do get a sense that he is well liked on social media and a lot has to do with his borderline NSFW phrases he uses during the game or on Twitter. He simply brings a spark that not many men of his peers can say they could. That is why I can see him in position to take that #2 role. As Griffin gets older, he’ll tone down the phrases and unorthodox style if he wants to be a #2 or greater in-game analyst in his media career. So that’s why I could see ESPN be willing to bite the bullet on him and have him call more higher profile games.

Dan Orlovsky to me is the distant 3rd analyst. The main reason why I don’t have him in the conversation with Riddick and Griffin III is because I doubt he would want to relinquish going on Get Up and NFL Live.

2.) Who will become the sideline reporter for NBC B1G Ten games? It’s a no-brainer answer which is Kathryn Tappen. That would be the “bigger role” for her after not replacing Tafoya for the sideline reporter gig after being led on (quotations marks because of what NBC said the plans were for Tappen after taking her off the golf coverage). It would be stunning if it’s not Tappen on the sidelines Saturday Primetime next season on NBC.