Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer Tim Brando is signing a multi-year extension with Fox Sports, Front Office Sports has learned.
A longtime fixture of college sports coverage, Brando will continue calling college football and basketball games for Fox and FS1, sources say. Fox Sports declined to comment.
Brando confirmed his decision in a telephone interview with FOS. He’s been with Fox since 2014. After collaborating for two decades with longtime partner Spencer Tillman, he’s worked the last two seasons with analyst and former Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner. Fun fact: Did you know Brando was the original host of ESPN’s iconic College GameDay with Lee Corso and Beano Cook back in 1987?
We talked to the outspoken broadcasting veteran about the key to his longevity and why the Shreveport, La., native originally left CBS for Fox.
Some quotes have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Front Office Sports: So Tim, we hear you are re-upping with Fox?
Tim Brando: Yes, it’s great news for me. I’m excited about it. They didn’t have to do it so quickly. My deal was not up until August. Normally, I think it’s 90 days. They could have waited a little while. But they got right in touch with me. I’m thoroughly pleased. Not only pleased, but my level of gratitude is through the roof with them. It’s going to be 15 years with Fox [at the conclusion of the new deal]. How time flies, right?
FOS: What will your assignments include?
TB: Same thing. College football and college basketball primarily. They use me from time to time on the NFL if they have, like, seven or eight regions. Or if somebody can’t make it, they bring the old left-hander out of the bullpen.
FOS: Fox has a reputation as being talent-friendly. You’ve worked for almost everybody. Your thoughts?
TB: Without question, they are the most talent-friendly company I’ve ever worked for. I don’t even think it’s close. It’s a little smaller company than when I first went to work there. You don’t have this deluge of middle management. You know who you’re dealing with. You know who the people are that have to sign off on stuff…Their credo is: “We don’t want assholes here.”
FOS: Did you confuse some folks with your X/Twitter post about not working the Big East tournament this year?
TB: I got a little nostalgic. I didn’t do the Big East tournament this year. People were hitting me up, “What’s the deal?” I knew I was in a contract year. I wanted to be clear. I do see a finish line—but I don’t see it happening anytime soon. I’m on my game. If I weren’t on my game, I wouldn’t be continuing. I’ve got enough friends in this business, at my network and others, that if I weren’t, somebody would have given me a nudge. That has not happened. In fact, the opposite. If they need somebody, I’m the guy they call at the 11th hour. So I got a little nostalgic and said I’m going to miss being at the Big East tournament.
FOS: After that Big East tweet, some people thought you were retiring?
TB: Yeah! I guess that’s the price you pay for being glib today. You get a little candid and sentimental, all of a sudden, people are taking you out to pasture. If you Google me now, it will say, ‘Oh, Tim’s stepping back.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ Far from it. I don’t know what happened with Ernie [Johnson Jr.] and why he didn’t host [early NCAA studio coverage]. But they were doing pretty much the same thing with Ernie when it was announced he wasn’t going to the studio in New York for the first few weeks of the tournament. He’s the same age as I am. So I guess when you hit that magical 7-0, and it shows up in Google, people are ready to retire you. To the contrary, I’m really having more fun now than I ever had. Certainly enjoying the position I have and the people I work for.
FOS: It’s amazing to think you’ve been in TV/radio since the 1970’s. What’s the key to your staying power?
TB: I love the audience. I love the games. I love the relationships of everyone that’s within the games in the sports that I’m now covering. In the early days of my career, I literally did every sport in every league, wherever I could get a job.
FOS: You were a mainstay of CBS sports coverage for 18 years, covering the NCAA tournament, SEC on CBS and hosting College Football Today. But you parted ways in 2014. What happened?
TB: What really happened with CBS is my radio show, that they wanted to televise on their cable network, they abruptly took off the air. They were dying to put on my show for a long time. Then they took it off. It was a choice that they made when Boomer Esiason’s show became available… they took it. It was cheaper for them to produce because he was in New York. It was a solid decision on their part.
It was shocking to me. I was being told kind of abruptly. The bottom line is I didn’t react well to it—and it led to my exit. It had nothing to do with what I was doing at CBS. I decided, ‘Tim, you were doing too much, burning your candle at too many ends.’ I never fashioned myself as a bloviator or an “embrace debater” or any of those things. Because of what I was doing, that’s kind of what was happening. So when I went to Fox I said, “Listen, I just want to call ball. I don’t want to do studio shows anymore. I’ve done it.”
Part of my problem in my early years is that maybe because of my versatility, instead of an attribute, I wasn’t being considered as the kind of play-by-player, because of my impact in the studio, that I wanted to be. But in our job, not everybody’s going to be in Jim [Nantz’s] position or [Mike] Tirico’s position or Joe Buck’s position. So the rest of us have to be working actors. We have to be able to do a lot of things to have the successful career that we want to have. Kevin Harlan is a contemporary of mine. See how many places he works and how many games he does? He is the definition of a working actor in play-by-play. He’s amazing. That’s what he’s done.
I became a guy who was doing so much on so many mediums, whether it was a national radio show or one that was being webcasted on cable, I was working a lot. So when I went to Fox, I told them when we met: “I just want to call ball. I want to be the best play-by-play guy for you I can be.”
FOS: You say Verne Lundquist inspired you? How?
TB: My mentor was Curt Gowdy. The guy that I had such adulation coming up as a professional was Dick Enberg. But the guy I probably learned the most from was Verne Lundquist. Verne was never the No. 1 guy. He was always the No. 2 guy. But when the No. 1 guy couldn’t go, whether it was [Pat] Summerall at one point, or [Jim] Nantz at another, they could plug Verne in and Verne could give them an A+ performance. That was the key to his longevity.
So I said to Fox, “I don’t see anyone quite like that on your roster. So I would say in 10 years, I will be telling you, ‘Let me be your Verne.’” I think that was the hook. Not only did I want to continue doing it, but I had a game plan to do it for a long time. And here’s how I could be of greater value to you… So I said to them, “Let me be your Verne.”
FOS: With Jason Benetti joining NBC, will you become Fox’s No. 2 college football play-by-play announcer after Gus Johnson?
TB: Mike, I’m not going to presume anything. That’s for them to decide. There’s been no discussion about it. Jason’s exit is something they’ll have to address. They’ll get to it when they get to it.
I know they love Devin a lot, and they’d love Devin to succeed. He and I have really hit it off. But what they’re going to do with replacing Jason, I have no idea. When you’re an executive, you don’t get a lot of praise when you plug in a guy with my age or has my experience. You get a lot of praise when you discover a younger talent. That’s one of the reasons I was really scared about not getting where I wanted to go after CBS and I separated. I’d been at it a long time. By that time, I’d worked for Turner, ESPN and CBS. What executive is going to take a victory lap for hiring me? A safe hire? That’s why I was so excited it worked out the way it did with me with Fox.
I was blessed to have that opportunity come my way. I don’t know what they’re going to do. Your guess is as good as mine. I just know that I’m really happy and pleased to know I’m going to be doing this until at least I’m 73. At that time, you’re talking about 45 years of doing this nationally. That’s a cool thing for me.
