\u201cI just don\u2019t think they can do it, Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those were the now infamous last words that NBC Olympics analyst\u00a0Rowdy Gaines<\/strong>\u00a0uttered into his headset to his on-air partner\u00a0Dan Hicks<\/strong>\u00a0as Frenchman Alain Bernard entered the pool to anchor the men\u2019s 4x100m Freestyle Relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.<\/p>\n A gold medal and a world record seemed all but secured for the dominant French squad when American Jason Lezak dove in seconds later and embarked on what some have called the greatest swimming relay leg of all-time and what is, easily, one of the preeminent U.S. sports-television moments of this century.<\/p>\n It was 46.06 seconds of pure television gold as Lezak closed the gap and 107 million Americans (according to Nielsen Media Research) screamed at their screens back home.<\/p>\n Those viewers may not have known it, but they had just the man for the moment on their side. No, it wasn\u2019t Lezak. It wasn\u2019t even the legendary Michael Phelps \u2013 who, in that relay win, secured the second of what would be eight gold medals at those Beijing Games, a record for most golds won by an athlete at a single Olympics. No, the Monday-morning race in China had placed the moment squarely into Sunday-night primetime. Just the night of the week you\u2019d expect the very best from director Drew Esocoff<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cDrew has the one trait every great director embodies: he\u2019s always where he should be, when he\u2019s supposed to be there,\u201d says\u00a0Fred Gaudelli<\/strong>, a 2020-21 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee and Esocoff\u2019s longtime NFL producing partner on both\u00a0Monday Night Football<\/em>\u00a0on ABC and\u00a0NBC Sunday Night Football<\/em>. \u201cHis shots are always the right shots editorially. He\u2019s not off looking for the most cinematic shot; he\u2019s serving the sports fan and giving them what they need to process what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Go back and watch the live cut of that relay, which aired live on NBC that August night. The Lezak leg is clean, simple, old-school storytelling. Esocoff makes just four camera cuts the entire leg, refusing to get in the way of the audience\u2019s ability to not only enjoy but\u00a0visually perceive<\/em>\u00a0the rapidly shrinking gap between the lead swimmers. Just the pure athletic achievement of the swimmer, the shocked emotion of the on-air talent, and the absolute thrill on the faces of the American teammates following the finish. Minimal high-end technology, no advanced analytics needed. Esocoff didn\u2019t even cut to the commonly used underwater camera that followed the swimmers. This was a sports moment speaking for itself.<\/p>\n \u201cI sometimes think, when you try to be overly creative in a sporting event, you lose track of what\u2019s important,\u201d he explains. \u201cPeople are used to watching events a certain way, and I don\u2019t want to disorient viewers. I think what has been primarily responsible for my success is that I am a huge sports fan.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to know what the sports fan wants \u2014 and needs \u2014 to see in a given moment when you are a rabid one yourself. That raw love of sport and a tremendous skill to remain committed to the story in the highest of high-pressure situations have helped cement Esocoff as one of the all-time greats in the director\u2019s chair. A winner of 19 Emmy Awards, his career has included calling the shots on seven Super Bowls, multiple NBA Finals, years of Triple Crown horse races (including Triple Crown winners in 2015 and 2018), and, in what is perhaps his calling card, 23 years (and counting) of directing primetime NFL, including the past 17 on\u00a0NBC Sunday Night Football<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cDrew\u00a0Esocoff should go down in the annals of broadcasting history as the best sports-television director ever,\u201d says\u00a0Al Michaels<\/strong>, veteran play-by-play man and 2013 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, who worked with Esocoff for many years on both\u00a0Monday Night Football<\/em>\u00a0and, of course,\u00a0Sunday Night Football<\/em>. \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s simply because he never tooted his own horn. All he did was go to work 1,000% prepared, bring his artistry to the table every single time, and gain the love and respect of every person he collaborated with.\u201d<\/p>\n Sports television muscled its way into Drew Esocoff\u2019s life rather aggressively when he was young. After graduating from Colgate University in 1979 with a degree in political science, he landed a job on Wall Street. He was miserable. It took only nine months to pull the plug and dramatically change the direction of his life. He retreated to his hometown of Elizabeth, NJ, to work at a radio station and even took a parttime job at Sports Phone, the old service where fans could call a dedicated phoneline for up-to-the-minute scores. He also worked weekends as a runner and researcher on college football for ABC.<\/p>\n It was in 1983 when he finally got his first fulltime opportunity in the industry, working on studio shows for ESPN. Taking advantage of available opportunities, he rapidly rose through the ranks and directed episodes of\u00a0SportsCenter<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Baseball Tonight<\/em>\u00a0until 1985, when he moved to the live-remote-events division.<\/p>\n \u201cI found the second-by-second stuff so much more exciting,\u201d Esocoff says of directing live games. \u201cIf you mess something up, there\u2019s no spell-check in live TV. You correct it, and you move on; I think that the second-by-second deal was just more fun for me. I get more of an adrenaline rush that way. It\u2019s just a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n He directed his first live production at a Top Rank boxing match in Indiana. Soon after, he directed his first live football game: a 23-3 Temple victory over Akron in 1987 at old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. He was soon directing everything at ESPN \u2014 college football, college hoops, even hockey \u2014 before receiving the call to move over to ABC Sports, shooting his career path into the big leagues.<\/p>\n At ABC, Esocoff built a reputation for himself as an elite storyteller, an outstanding selector of camera angles, and a humble, easy-going guy to work with. It earned him marquee assignments, such as\u00a0NBA on ABC<\/em>\u00a0(which included directing the NBA Finals), the Little League World Series (he was at the front bench when a squad from Toms River, NJ, led by future Major Leaguer Todd Frazier won the world championship in 1998), and, eventually, the highest-profile gig of them all:\u00a0Monday Night Football<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a mind-reader,\u201d says Michaels, noting that he has done more than 750 telecasts with Esocoff. \u201cThousands of times, I\u2019d be thinking of something to say, and, as the words start to come out, he has already punched up the shot I\u2019d be looking for. It was almost scary.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2001 at\u00a0Monday Night Football<\/em>, Esocoff joined forces with producer\u00a0Fred Gaudelli<\/strong>\u00a0to form what would become one of the great producer-director tandems in sports-television history. The two sat at the front bench together for 22 straight years of primetime NFL telecasts, six at ABC on\u00a0Monday Night Football<\/em>\u00a0before migrating to NBC Sports together in 2006 to launch NBC\u00a0Sunday Night Football<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cDrew is an incredibly important part of what has made\u00a0Sunday Night Football<\/em>\u00a0such a dominant success story,\u201d says\u00a0Mark Lazarus<\/strong>, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cHis ability as a director and leader has enhanced many NBC Sports events. He is a positive influence on our culture and in sharing his experience to teach others. He also happens to be a Hall of Fame person. It\u2019s a privilege to be his colleague and his friend.\u201d<\/p>\n During Esocoff\u2019s time at\u00a0Sunday<\/em>\u00a0Night<\/em>\u00a0Football<\/em>, the show became one of the most successful properties in sports-media history. It has reigned as primetime TV\u2019s No. 1 show in all key metrics for 11 consecutive years. It has also won the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Sports Series a record 11 times. As for being a key piece of that success, the always humble Esocoff scoffs at the notion.<\/p>\n \u201cYou start out with Al [Michaels],\u201d he says, \u201cwho\u2019s the greatest play-by-play guy of all-time. You add [2010 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer]\u00a0John [Madden]<\/strong>\u00a0who, at that point, was the greatest analyst of all-time. You bring in Freddy [Gaudelli], who is the greatest producer of all time, and that\u2019s a good way to start. The league\u2019s commitment to give us great games, though, is probably the most important thing. I am a very minuscule part of some great teams, and I believe that. I just try to keep the nose of the airplane pointed down the center of the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n His longtime colleagues disagree.<\/p>\n \u201cThere simply is nobody better,\u201d says\u00a0NBC Sunday Night Football<\/em>\u00a0analyst\u00a0Cris Collinsworth<\/strong>. \u201cOften, when I plan to talk about someone, that person is on the screen before I utter their name. It is amazing. When big moments happen and it is up to Drew to paint the picture with multiple shots, I have learned the best thing that I can say is nothing. We just let Drew do his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing [in being a great live sports director] is to be in sync with your talent,\u201d says Esocoff, \u201cwhich in turn means being in sync with your producer. When it\u2019s your time to lead, however, ensure that the talent is following you. I try to be very aggressive with the use of split screens, and, if there\u2019s a couple of images on the screen, I need to make sure that the talent knows what point I\u2019m trying to get across. When they can caption that, that\u2019s even better.\u201d<\/p>\n Be it that epic week of swimming at the Water Cube in Beijing in 2008 or when Santonio Holmes pulled down a toe-tapper for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the waning seconds of Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 or when a goal-line interception for the New England Patriots flipped Super Bowl XLIX on its head in 2015 or, months later, as American Pharoah rumbled to a gate-to-wire victory at the Belmont Stakes to secure horse racing\u2019s first Triple Crown in 37 years, Esocoff has met the moment every single time, not just for NBC but for the American sports-viewing public. And he has done it all while remaining one of the more beloved behind-the-scenes figures in the business.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore I met Drew, I knew his reputation as one of the best directors in television sports,\u201d says\u00a0Michele Tafoya,<\/strong>\u00a0the sideline reporter on\u00a0NBC Sunday Night Football<\/em>\u00a0from 2011 to \u201921, \u201cbut what surprised me when I started working with him was how humble, fun-loving, and unselfish he is. Everyone loves working with Drew because he is collaborative, respectful, and funny.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an honor to be on the same team as Drew Esocoff,\u201d says NBC Sports Chairman\u00a0Pete Bevacqua<\/strong>. \u201cHe is one of the most talented people in our industry, and he is the rare person who can combine endless passion with an amazing and unflinching sense of calm, which sets the tone for all of those that are fortunate enough to work beside him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1633,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[58],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductees\/1632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductees"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductees"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}