NBC’s Arlo White will call a rare English Premier League doubleheader this Saturday

It’s rare for a network’s lead announcer to call two games in one day. This Saturday, February 4, NBC’s Arlo White will call two English Premier League, Chelsea vs. Arsenal and then Tottenham Hotspur, both games in London. It’s something that White suggested with two big games being played on the same day.

To make sure White gets to call both games, NBC will make sure he will have some rather unique transportation from Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s home to White Hart Lane, Tottenham’s stadium. It’s a 14-mile journey, but with London traffic, it’s a trip that can take an hour and ten minutes according to Google Maps.

NBC will utilize motorcycle taxis to get White along with analysts Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux from one end of London to the other. London is well known for its traffic. The Chelsea-Arsenal game will air at 7:30 a.m. ET or at 12:30 p.m. London time and end at 9:30 a.m./3:30 p.m.. Tottenham-Middlesbrough will be played at 12:30 p.m. ET or 5:30 p.m. in London. It’s going to be rather tight.

White told the New York Times that he’s never been on a motorcycle taxi and Saturday will mark his first time riding one:

“Motorbike taxis are a familiar way of getting around London if you want to get anywhere in some reasonable amount of time,” said White, who noted that Dixon regularly arrives at stadiums on the back of one. “But I have fastidiously avoided them my entire life. I’m terrified of them, frankly.”

Announcing doubleheaders are rare, but they have occurred in the past.

We saw Joe Buck pull a rare NFL/MLB doubleheader back in 2012 when he called the New York Giants-San Francisco 49ers game at the old Candlestick Park and then Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at AT&T Park on the same day on October 14, 2012.

In addition, Keith Jackson also pulled college football/MLB doubleheaders in 1978 and 1980, but they weren’t in the same city.

Vin Scully called a NBC Game of the Week/Los Angeles Dodgers doubleheader in 1989 calling the St. Louis-Chicago Cubs game for NBC which went into extra innings and then flew to Houston to call the Dodgers-Astros game which also went into extra innings and lasted 22 innings.

If traffic prevents White, Dixon and Le Saux from getting to White Hart Lane on time, NBC can tap into the world feed until their announcers get to the stadium, but the Peacock is betting that the motorcycle taxis will get them to their destination well before kickoff.

[New York Times]