It’s been a familiar story for young people throughout the 2010s, and now into the 2020s: Moving back home to live with parents after finishing college, losing a job, or in the case of Noah Eagle, having his job suspended while the NBA season is postponed.
Noah, 23, debuted as the Los Angeles Clippers’ play-by-play broadcaster this season for the team’s flagship station, KLAC-AM (570). But with the NBA suspending its season on March 11 due to the COVID-19 crisis (and the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert testing positive for the novel coronavirus), team broadcasters (and all personnel) suddenly had some unexpected time off.
As is the case with many families during the COVID-19 outbreak, the Eagles are staying together in quarantine to mitigate the spread of the virus. While Noah is again sharing a home with his father, Ian, the two broadcasters recorded a video for CBS Sports.
Essentially, the video serves as a follow-up to Noah interviewing Ian in 2018 before the two each called play-by-play a Syracuse-Miami college basketball game. The senior Eagle was broadcasting for CBS while his offspring took the mic for Syracuse’s WAER-FM.
Ian and Noah Eagle have been temporarily reunited under one roof. With many families going through a similar situation, the Eagles wanted to check in and provide an update on what it's been like for them. pic.twitter.com/ZbXRgFPTOM
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 7, 2020
Like many parents whose children return to the nest, Ian had to break it to young Noah that his old bedroom is being repurposed for other uses.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” Ian explained, “but while you were gone for an extended period of time, we were looking to make your room into something very different. Either a yoga studio, a meditation room, or a man cave. It’s not the room that you left behind.”
Noah scoffed at the man cave idea, pointing out that his father has never that type of guy. Maybe he’s also thinking that a room with TVs, framed jerseys and photos hanging on the walls, an armchair, and maybe a bar in the corner doesn’t seem like a place to sleep. A meditation room might be more in line with a restful place. Besides, if someone else comes in to use the room, he or she will be quiet, right?
Here’s the father-son interview that aired on CBS from Coral Gables, Florida in 2018:
Eagle interviewing Eagle?
Before calling @Cuse_MBB vs. Miami for CBS, Ian Eagle was interviewed by someone he probably knows well: his son Noah, who is calling the game for Syracuse’s WAER-FM. pic.twitter.com/uTkUNgcYjR
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 17, 2018
Two years later, Ian took the opportunity to interview his son, asking him about sleeping until noon and eating all the food in their house. Many parents have surely had similar conversations with their adult children who have moved back home. (Is Ian secretly rooting for the NBA season to resume, preferably with a long playoff run by the Clippers? He’s surely too polite to say publicly.)
Some might point out that there needs to be a little more social distancing between Ian and Noah there, but circumstances are a bit different among family at home. (And for all we know, maybe both Eagles have been tested and are OK.) Has Noah had to keep Ian from leaving the house while we’re supposed to be isolating ourselves? Children have to watch out for their parents during these uncertain times.
This could be sports media’s most entertaining family sitcom in the weeks and months to come.
