Eli Gold Gets Big Break on NBC
Steve Robinson
Monday January 27, 2003
Gold has spent the past few seasons calling play-by-play for AFL games for The National Network (TNN). But with NBC taking the reins of the sport solely for the first time, Gold was among four play-by-play men and four color analysts the network hired to cover the action.
 Eli Gold Image courtesy of TNN |
Gold, 49, has been thrilling listeners and viewers with his calls of numerous sporting events and teams over the years – everything from calling minor league baseball to play-by-play of NHL’s St. Louis Blues. For 15 seasons, he has been the radio voice of the Alabama Crimson Tide, a job he maintains when not called in by other networks.
His peers have come to respect and honor his achievements with awards and honors. Gold is a four-time Alabama Sportscaster Of The Year winner as voted by his peers in the National Sportscasters And Sportswriters Association. He was twice selected Alabama Sportscaster Of The Year by the Associated Press and once earned the same honor from United Press International.
In addition, other networks have Gold’s 2003 calendar almost booked already. For openers, Gold hosts MRN’s “NASCAR Live.” And this fall, his Sunday afternoons will be occupied as play-by-play man for NFL games aired by Sports USA Radio Network.
Players On “National Stage”: Gold said NBC has given their announcers a “mandate” to help viewers make a connection with the players and the teams. “You want, through your story-telling, to make people care about guys who, quite honestly, might be on a national stage for the first time and might be considered an unknown athlete.”
“We’ll have conference calls in the middle of the week with the head coaches. We’ll be at practices on Friday and Saturday. We will be talking to the players, talk to the coaches again (beforehand).”
Gold’s game analyst in the booth this season is NFL Hall-Of-Famer John Riggins, who was a standout player in his days with the Washington Redskins.
Gold said his job is not just literally recounting each play as it happens. It also involves doing some homework on the players and coaches in order to make a connection with the fans to them. “(My job also includes) the ability to dig out the stories on these players, and help the viewer make a connection with those athletes,” Gold explained. “Doing that gives the fans something a little more intimate (to connect to the player).”
Being a play-by-play man is not just a one-day gig of showing for the event, using the vocal cords to earn pay and then move on to the next game. Gold said there is more to be done behind-the-scenes that goes into what his job entails that we see once he is on air.
IT’S NOT THE XFL: NBC lost its bid to cover NFL American Conference games in the early 1990s to rival CBS. To counter the losses it suffered from that blow, the network considered creating its own football league in an effort to put football back on their airwaves.
They did not have to resort to that when World Wrestling Federation chief Vince McMahon approached the network about a different kind of football league – his invention – the Extreme Football League (XFL). The XFL was filled with gimmicks like a 50-yard dash between two teams’ fastest runners to the ball at mid-field to determine first possession, and partially undressed cheerleaders.
The AFL, unlike the XFL, Gold said, “is a proven product. This is a proven league. You don’t have to hype it, you don’t have to guess about this and that. You just have to call (play-by-play) straight and do it very legitimately.
“(You do it that way) because you are talking about a 17-year-old product with tons of NFL guys (involved), who have numerous Super Bowl rings, so you can’t compare one to the other.”
Steve Robinson, a freelance writer since 1984, has written about the Peoria Pirates since the Pirates were members of Indoor Football League, beginning in 1999. He covers the Pirates currently for the Bloomington IL Pantagraph.
