Saturday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals wasn’t a particularly competitive matchup on the field. But fans still happened to find the broadcast entertaining thanks to both Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge on the call of the NBC broadcast.
The broadcast duo of Eagle and Blackledge are traditionally used for NBC’s broadcasts of Big Ten college football games. But even in that role, they have typically been a broadcasting team that viewers are largely entertained by.
In our 2023 college football announcer rankings consisting of over 20,000 votes, Eagle and Blackledge ranked as the fifth-best college broadcast team across all major networks. They were also far and away the best-ranked broadcasting team for NBC.
With the NFL adding in more Saturday games down the stretch of the season, NBC has seemingly gotten creative with its broadcasting assignments, leading to Eagle and Blackledge getting the assignment for the Steelers and Bengals matchup.
It seems like the pairing had viewers equally entertained at the NFL level, as many fans thought that they did a great job on Saturday night.
So does Noah Eagle get a #1 job before he’s 30? Talk about being born to do this.
— Jeff Snyder (@RealJeffSnyder) December 23, 2023
Noah Eagle just turned 26 years old and he’s phenomenal as a football play-by-play voice.
Doing a great job on this Steelers/Bengals game.
— Jason Romano (@JasonRomano) December 23, 2023
I really like Todd Blackledge. I enjoy the sarcasm he throws in here and there – it’s needed in a blowout.
— Neal Coolong (@NealCoolong) December 24, 2023
Tonight’s broadcast has been awesome. @NoahEagle15 & @Todd_Blackledge are amazing together.
Hope we get to hear them do more #NFL games together.
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) December 24, 2023
Noah Eagle is of course the son of legendary broadcaster Ian Eagle, who is one of the most respected play-by-play personalities in all of sports. Many fans added that Noah Eagle is already well on his way to following in his father’s footsteps.
Ian Eagle and Noah Eagle https://t.co/egyTflVTYC pic.twitter.com/HVlH8d2nGm
— Sam Hays (@WichitaChiefSam) December 23, 2023
Noah Eagle sounds exactly like his dad.
— NFL Fashion Advice (@fashion_nfl) December 23, 2023
https://twitter.com/buckmansports/status/1738711443585855936
Considering all of the positive feedback that NBC is receiving about Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, it will be interesting to see if the pair get additional opportunities to call big NFL games for the network in the future.
They at least did enough to be given a postseason game this year for the network. NBC announced earlier this month that Eagle and Blackledge will call one of the three playoff games for the network, while Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will be calling the other two.
[Photo Credit: NBC]
