If I told you that Kenny Albert would be calling a football game on Thursday night, you’d probably be wondering what happened to Joe Buck. But Buck is fine, and will be calling Thursday Night Football (as usual) with Troy Aikman this week. So where’s Albert going to be calling a game on Thursday? That would be a New Jersey high school.
Per Darren Cooper of NorthJersey.com, Albert will be calling Thursday’s game between NV/Demarest and Dumont, which will be live streamed.
Albert currently has a daughter at NV/Demarest and said he’d been receiving emails about the school’s livestream showings of different sports. He said to Norsemen athletic director Greg Butler that if there were ever a Thursday night football game, he’d be happy to lend his voice.
That opportunity arose this week as COVID-19 continues to shuffle schedules around and the Norsemen were given a Thursday slot.
Typically, the live streams are announcer-free, but this week, viewers will get to hear Albert, working with Eli Nachmany, an alum of NV/Demarest.
And despite the extra assignment, Albert still has an NFL on Fox games this week. Him and Jonathan Vilma will call the Bengals-Steelers matchup in the late window.
If you’re one of the kids playing in this game, it must be so cool to have an honest to God NFL announcer calling one of your high school games. A lot of the players involved probably won’t go on to play in college, let alone professionally, and this seems like an opportunity they’ll never get again. Kudos to Albert for taking time out of his schedule to do a solid for the school and give the players, their families, and their friends a special experience.
