Kevin Burkhardt (left) and Joe Davisfox sports
In January, hours before the NFC Championship Game kicked off, Fox’s production manager visited the broadcast booth at SoFi Stadium to chat with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Their conversation that day was banal. The trio engaged in typical pre-match banter that lasted a few minutes. Brad Zager, president of production and operations/executive producer of Fox Sports, had made this trip countless times before to catch up with his advertisers.
As Zager left the booth and headed for the production truck, he had no idea this was the last pregame conversation he would have with Buck and Aikman as Fox employees.
“When I was standing in the booth with Joe and Troy, I never imagined they were calling their last NFC Championship game,” Zager said.
Just over a month later, Aikman left Fox for an $18 million a year contract with ESPN. Buck followed Aikman to ESPN a few weeks later with a five-year deal worth his own at between $12 million and $15 million a year.
Their decisions left Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks and Zager with the extremely rare opportunity to choose a new top network voice for two of its major properties.
Fox’s top broadcast booth for the NFL and MLB has been rock solid for the better part of a quarter century. Buck has called all but two World Series since 1996 for Fox and has become the voice of baseball over the past quarter century. Buck replaced Pat Summerall as the NFL’s top play-by-play announcer in 2002. He and Aikman have been hosting games for 21 years.
“These high-profile jobs, especially in the NFL, are Supreme Court justice jobs,” Zager said. “They don’t open very often, and if you do it right you only get one hit.”
What Shanks and Zager discovered, however, was that they weren’t working from a blank slate. It quickly became apparent that two of their own announcers were the ones they wanted to replace Buck on the MLB and NFL, respectively: Joe Davis and Kevin Burkhardt.
Shanks and Zager’s first priority was baseball, as the season began less than a month after Buck and Aikman signed with ESPN. They almost immediately focused on Joe Davis, a 34-year-old announcer who had worked for Fox Sports for about a decade and had impressed superiors when he stood in for Buck on occasion. Before leaving, Buck recommended that Fox choose Davis as the new baseball voice.
More importantly for Shanks and Zager, Davis already had experience replacing a legendary baseball voice. The Dodgers hired him in 2017 to replace Vin Scully for SportsNet LA.
“He respects the game,” Shanks said. “Being recommended by Joe Buck and having to fill Vin’s shoes? When they’re your mentors and you can combine the best of both, it’s really special.
Davis is a lifelong baseball player, having called minor league games as a student for the Schaumburg Boomers and, after graduating from Beloit College, for the Montgomery Biscuits.
Davis was so determined to get a play calling job that when he attended a Chicago Cubs game while in college, he wrote a letter to the team’s announcer Len Kasper, trying to choose his brain. Before he entered the game, the letter fell out of his pocket and was lost.
“I ended up getting a call on the way home from the game, and it was from the owner of the Taco Bell across from Wrigley Field,” Davis said. “She said someone found my letter on the sidewalk. It had a small print on it, but they brought it, and she would make sure it got to Len when they got back from the road trip they were headed on.
Sure enough, two weeks later Kasper emailed Davis and the two began a friendship. Davis would send Kasper tapes from Schaumburg, and Kasper would offer his reviews.
Davis credits Kasper for Montgomery’s work — Kasper called the Chicago-based team owners to recommend Davis.
By chance, an ESPN communications manager named Dan Quinn overheard Davis calling games Biscuits on the internet and introduced him to people who would eventually hire him to call games for ESPN3.
Two years later, in 2014, when Fox launched FS1, Davis decided to take the plunge, primarily due to Fox’s deals to carry the NFL and the World Series. Davis made enough of an impression that Zager recommended him to the Dodgers, where he eventually replaced Scully.
For Shanks and Zager, Davis was an obvious choice to replace Buck as the voice of the World Series, where he will be paired with John Smoltz.
“Following Vin is what makes Dodger’s job so meaningful on a day-to-day basis — knowing the responsibility of sitting in that chair,” Davis said. “And Joe is the guy I grew up listening to. I wanted to be like him and call some of these events a day. Going from that to having him become a friend and a mentor is a big part of what makes him special.
Kevin Burkhardt and Joe Davis (below) recounted their journey to major play-by-play voices for Fox Sports’ NFL and MLB coverage. Would you believe any of them even involved help from a Taco Bell owner? Fox Sports
With the best MLB stand, Zager and Shanks have set their sights on the NFL. Fox is carrying the Super Bowl this season, which added pressure to the decision. But just like with Davis, they had an experienced and likeable announcer calling NFL games in 48-year-old Burkhardt.
One of the reasons they were so high on Burkhardt had nothing to do with how he called NFL games. On the contrary, they felt that his role as host of Fox’s MLB studio show with David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez and Frank Thomas would help him on the NFL stand.
“It’s rare that your NFL play-by-play manager also hosts a studio show with really big personalities the rest of the year,” Shanks said. “It gives him a unique perspective of air traffic control. It’s something other play-by-play guys just haven’t done at this level.
Burkhardt’s journey to Fox’s best NFL booth was very different from Davis’s to the network’s best MLB booth. It was Burkhardt’s ability to excel in off-the-cuff moments that impressed executives throughout his career.
He started out reading updates and hosting early morning and occasional Saturday night shows on New York sports radio station WFAN. Burkhardt said his first big break came when he started doing updates on the station’s popular “Mike and the Mad Dog” weekday show.
It’s the unscripted part of those updates — the way he interacted with hosts Mike Francesa and Chris Russo — that people took particular notice. Curt Gowdy Jr., head of production at SportsNet NY RSN, was one such person. He hired Burkhardt to be a sideline reporter for Mets games.
Once again, it was Burkhardt’s creativity that opened doors for him – sometimes he would call a play during one of his side stories. Gowdy and his lead coordinating producer, Gregg Picker, decided to give him more responsibility, putting Burkhardt on play-by-play on the rare occasion that Gary Cohen missed a game.
Burkhardt enjoyed doing play-by-play and wanted to develop those skills. He accepted any play-by-play assignment offered, which led to another unscripted moment — when Compass Media Networks hired him to be an emergency backup announcer for the Texas Bowl between Missouri and the Navy on December 31, 2009.
His performance led to Compass using Burkhardt as the play-by-play radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys, which put him on Fox’s radar. Additionally, Burkhardt was pushed by the late Bill Webb, a legendary director who worked on MLB television shows for Fox and SNY.
Fox hired Burkhardt in 2013 and paired him with John Lynch on its No. 2 NFL broadcast team. He called a playoff game for Fox that first year.
“When I went to Fox’s football seminar in July, I was with all these people and Joe and Troy and Terry and Howie and Jimmy and Michael and Kurt,” Burkhardt said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is the real deal.'”
It didn’t take long for Fox to choose Burkhardt as Buck’s replacement in the NFL. Greg Olsen will be her broadcast partner this season. Next season, Tom Brady is set to replace Olsen as Burkhardt’s partner in Fox’s top NFL stand.
“When work in the NFL opened, we stepped back to make sure we didn’t miss anything,” Zager said. “At the same time, when you have someone like Kevin on the roster, you don’t want to take that step back too far and miss the opportunity to let him know how much you believe in him. Kevin Burkhardt is ready for that. role.
What is Tom Brady’s salary?
The quarterback’s new contract with the network would be the most lucrative in sports television history. Read also : The study finds that playing video games has no effect on well-being. According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Brady agreed to a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox, which earns him an average of $37.5 million a year.
Who is the highest paid NFL player? The ten highest-earning players are quarterbacks, with the league marquee position sweeping the list for the first time. Brady comes out on top thanks to an estimated $45 million he’s raising off the field, more than double the $22 million total of the NFL’s next best pitcher, Mahomes.
What is Tom Brady’s salary for 2022?
Brady signed a two-year, $50 million deal with the Bucs in 2020 but will earn “only” $15 million in 2022 on a restructured contract with Tampa Bay.
Who’s the highest paid quarterback in the NFL?
Aaron Rodgers earns the most money among NFL quarterbacks. The 38-year-old signed with the Green Bay Packers in March on a three-year contract extension worth over $150 million. This may interest you : The Evolution of Video Game Music: From 8-Bit To The Metaverse And The GRAMMYs. He will earn more than $50 million on average per season.
What is Tom Brady’s salary at Tampa Bay?
Tom Brady has a new one-year contract in Tampa Bay Ultimately, the total value of the agreement is 47 million dollars. There is a minimum base salary for veterans of $1. Read also : Improving to 3-0, Team USA Hockey’s Wyatt Kaiser ‘held the stage’ with a 7-0 win over winless Austria.12 million, then just under $46 million in pro-rated bonuses.
Who threw out the first pitch in Field of Dreams game?
Fergie Jenkins, who played for the Cubs from 1966 to 1973 and again from 1982 to 1983, threw the first pitch before the Field of Dreams game. Jenkins enjoyed a 19-year career and is a Baseball Hall of Famer, three-timer and winner of the 1971 NL Cy Young Award.
What time is the first pitch for the game Field of Dreams? 10, 2021 before the first-ever MLB game at Field of Dreams. It has been updated to reflect details from this year’s game between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds on August 11. FOX’s pregame coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET, and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. AND.
Was the Field of Dreams corn real?
On Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs take to the field next to the legendary “Field of Dreams” filming site in Dyersville, Iowa, surrounded by none other than DEKALB corn. The filming site of Universal Pictures’ iconic 1989 baseball movie continues to make dreams come true.
Did Kevin Costner throw out the first pitch in the Field of Dreams game?
Did Kevin Costner throw the first pitch for Field of Dreams? No, but it looked like it was going to happen. Walking with a baseball in his hands from the cornfield to the diamond, Costner led the Yankees and White Sox teams off the cornstalks. But he never appeared on the mound.
Was Kevin Costner at the Field of Dreams game?
Costner also appeared at the first “Field of Dreams” match, which took place in 2021 after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The August 11 game saw the Cubs take on the Reds at the farm in Dyersville, Iowa, where the film was filmed.
Who will play at the Field of Dreams in 2023?
However, the study projects that about two-thirds of the stadium’s economic impact would come from an annual MLB Field of Dreams game, and the league has not guaranteed a game beyond Thursday, when the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs will play. Photo by Ballpark Digest; rendered courtesy RDG Planning & Design.
Who will play the next Field of Dreams game? Match Field of Dreams MLB 2022: Four things to know with the Cubs, the Reds will end up in Iowa. On Thursday, the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds will meet in Dyersville, Iowa, for the second annual Major League Baseball Field of Dreams game.
How many seats are at the Field of Dreams?
About the game The game is scheduled for , summer 2023 and 2024, (teams and dates TBD); three decades after Field of Dreams debuted in 1989. Aaron Judge and his fellow MLB stars won’t be playing on the same diamond that was created for Kevin Costner’s film. Instead, they will play in a temporary 8,000-seat ballpark.
Who Is Playing Field of Dreams 2023?
Why won’t there be an MLB Field of Dreams Game in 2023? Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, who is part of the resort’s owning group, told the Des Moines Register, in vague terms, why the game will take one season: construction on the site. “There’s a lot going on,” Thomas said, according to The Register.
