Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff was in Chicago on Saturday for the game between the Michigan Wolverines and Northwestern Wildcats. While the game wasn’t certainly the best matchup on paper in the conference, the appeal of the Wrigley Field setting made it a much more interesting spectacle on television. And it allowed Fox analyst Joel Klatt to show off a new set of skills to the country.
Klatt has firmly established himself as one of the top college football analysts in the sport over the past several years as the network’s lead analyst alongside Gus Johnson. He’s also not afraid to mix it up and give opinions on the state of the sport as a whole.
But most college football fans might not know that he was a two-sport athlete, which he was able to show while taking batting practice at Wrigley Field before the Michigan-Northwestern game.
Take a look at this fantastic swing where Joel Klatt almost hit it out of the ballpark for a home run during batting practice. While it looks like warning track power, Gus Johnson noted that home plate was moved back, so it could have left the yard on a normal day… or as Klatt pointed out, with any wind helping him out.
“No wind” in the Windy City is crazy, @joelklatt 🤣👏
43 comes at you fast. pic.twitter.com/ANHwwwzXEu
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 15, 2025
While Joel Klatt set 44 school records at Colorado and was named honorable mention All-Big 12 as a quarterback after starring as a walk-on, he had better pro prospects as a baseball player. Klatt was drafted in the 11th round of the 2000 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres. But after spending a couple years in the minors, he decided to pursue football instead.
And while it may not have panned out for a professional career in the NFL, it was certainly the right decision for what followed in his media career with Fox Sports.
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