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'PHENOMENAL': NFL Fans Praise Broadcaster Who Filled In For Mike Tirico Due To Health Issue

Noah Eagle stepped in for the voice of “Sunday Night Football” after the sportscaster announced he was missing the game hours before kickoff.

NBC Sports’ Noah Eagle filled in for lead “Sunday Night Football” announcer Mike Tirico to call the Chicago Bears’ victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and NFL fans are applauding his efforts following the audible in the booth.

Eagle — who called Notre Dame’s big victory over the No. 1-ranked Miami Hurricanes in nearby South Bend, Indiana, for NBC on Saturday — headed out to the Windy City to fill in for Tirico after the sportscaster announced just hours before kickoff that he would miss calling the NFL game due to a health issue.

Eagle is the son of fellow celebrated sportscaster Ian Eagle, and he once interned with Tirico at a TV station in upstate New York.

Fans showed Eagle love on social media, including content creator Zach Cohen, who declared Noah Eagle was the “biggest winner of the night” on X.

“A good chunk of us sports fans know he’s a great broadcaster, now most of the country does too,” wrote Cohen, quoting a post of Eagle calling Bears’ kicker Cairo Santos’ game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter.

Fantasy football podcaster Brian Drake used the platform to stress that Eagle proved his take on “overpaid analysts”: “You don’t need them.”

“Nobody tunes in for Aikman, Buck, Romo, Nantz, whoever. You watch because it’s football and it’s on TV,” he wrote.

“Eagle is PHENOMENAL. Great young talent. He’s as good as anyone on TV. Have talented, smart people doing games. Don’t overpay for names.”

Others on X described Eagle as a “stud” and “a star like his Pops,” with one predicting that he’ll be in the sportscasting world “for another 40 years.”

And another likened to last-minute substitution to baseball, comparing NBC pulling Eagle from the bullpen to the 2001 World Series-winning Arizona Diamondbacks “scratching Randy Johnson and throwing Curt Schilling instead.”

Eagle — much like Tirico’s earlier statement — acknowledged on the broadcast that Tirico was dealing with a health issue, and looked forward to joining Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark on next weekend’s edition of “Sunday Night Football” between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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