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This ‘maniacal sports fan’ from Jersey is the quarterback of NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’

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This ‘maniacal sports fan’ from Jersey is the quarterback of NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’

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EAST RUTHERFORD – There will be three quarterbacks inside MetLife Stadium whose resumes will be tested Sunday night.

Daniel Jones, the quarterback of the New York Giants, whose performance seemingly becomes a referendum on his future both here and in the league every week.

Joe Burrow, the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals whose responsibility is to find a way to carry a 1-4 team back into the win column while playing the best football of his career.

Jones and Burrow will be in the spotlight in what stands as the biggest window for NFL football every week.

The third signal caller is responsible for making sure it finds them at the right time.

Drew Esocoff, quarterback of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast, is the director of prime time’s No. 1 television show in all key metrics for an unprecedented 13th consecutive year. The New Jersey native who grew up a “maniacal sports fan” was born and raised in Elizabeth, and a childhood dream of becoming the next Marv Albert morphed into four decades of broadcasting excellence that includes working with legends such as John Madden and Al Michaels.

“If I’m the quarterback and the producer is the general manager, that means the producer can yell at me, but I shouldn’t yell back,” Esocoff said with a laugh. “Basically, the producer lays out the blueprint for the broadcast and the director executes the game plan. My role is what I was meant to do: I have to make the audio you hear matches the video you see. Am I telling both sides of the story? For every moment of celebration for one team, there is a moment of dejection for the other, and I am responsible for telling both sides.”

Esocoff, 67, lives in Connecticut, so Sunday night represents a “home game” for the Jets fan who adopted Gang Green as his team because his now brother-in-law would take him as a season ticket holder to watch Joe Namath at Shea Stadium. His passion was taken to another level in 1970 when the New York Knicks of Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley and Dave DeBusschere won the NBA title, igniting the torch to his fandom.

“Drew Esocoff should go down in the annals of broadcasting history as the best sports-television director ever,” said Al Michaels, who worked with Esocoff for many years on both Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football. “If he doesn’t, it’s 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.”

After graduating from Colgate University in 1979 with a degree in political science, Esocoff landed a job on Wall Street. He dramatically changed the direction of his life nine months later, and finally got his first fulltime opportunity in the sports broadcasting industry in 1983. He started out working on studio shows for ESPN and then directed episodes of “SportsCenter” and “Baseball Tonight” until 1985, when he moved to the live-remote-events division.

“There simply is nobody better,” NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said of Esocoff, whose fandom also includes the Yankees and the Rangers. “Often, 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.”

At the Sports Emmy Awards in May, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognized Esocoff with Silver Circle honors for 25 years of “distinguished service within the television industry, setting standards for achievement, mentoring, leadership and professional accolades.”

Two summers ago, Esocoff was honored as a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 for career-long excellence in the sports TV and media industry.

Behind the scenes for the biggest moments

A career highlight is Michael Phelps’ amazing run to eight gold medals in the Bejing Summer Olympics in 2008.

Esocoff has directed seven Super Bowls, among the best the event has ever produced:

  • Arizona and Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLIII featuring James Harrison’s remarkable interception return, Larry Fitzgerald’s heroics and Santonio Holmes’ toe-tapping, game-winning catch
  • Super Bowl XLVI between the Giants and Patriots with the Eli Manning-to-Mario Manningham stunner
  • The Malcolm Butler game between the Patriots and Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX
  • The Philly Special in Super Bowl LII

“The last one we did was Cincinnati and the Rams, it was such a good game,” Esocoff said. “But you don’t remember it as much because of how special the other ones were.”

Esocoff puts the Arizona-Pittsburgh Super Bowl at the top of his list for several reasons, the most significant being that it was the last game in the booth for the late Hall of Famer John Madden.

“John came down from the booth and he goes, ‘That was the best show I’ve ever been a part of,’” Esocoff recalled. “So that means a lot to me.”

Esocoff had a great professional rapport with Madden, but their personal friendship ran deep, too. They used to watch boxing matches in the Madden Cruiser, for example. Or those times spent in the lobby of countless hotels – people watching was a Madden hobby – and Esocoff still laughs at the many invitations Madden and Co. received from couples on their way to get married.

“When we would go to practice during the week, our production crew would play the home PR department in a touch football game,” Esocoff said. “John was not only our coach, but the referee, and he’d make every call for us. We’d get accused of cheating to win, and he’d just laugh.”

When the Giants and Bengals take the field Sunday, Esocoff and his crew have one goal in mind: paint the picture.

Like in Super Bowl XLVI when Eli Manning hit Manningham with the best throw of his career along the left sideline, that’s when Esocoff had to step up to the moment, too.

Michael Phelps’ run to eight gold medals in Bejing 2008

“You talk about the legacy of that play, when you have a play like that, when you’re the viewer, the first thing you want to see: what I’m thinking at home, was he in or was he out?” he said. “I can get to all the other shots – Manningham’s reaction, Eli’s reaction, Tom Coughlin’s reaction, [Bill Belichick’s] reaction, the defensive backs’ reaction after getting beat, the fans – but was he inbounds, nothing else matters before that. The most important thing is getting the defining look up as soon as possible.”

Whatever transpires between the Giants and the Bengals, there is always that challenge of meeting the moment – one that Esocoff and his team has embraced for nearly four decades and counting.

“I never head to a game not being excited about going,” Esocoff said. “I’ve worked with legends. Here’s what I’ve been able to accomplish: I’ve been able to put myself on great teams for 40 years. the success of our shows have very little to do with me and a lot to do with the team we’ve built.”

There may be truth in that sentiment, but also a reality for any team the maniacal sports fan from Jersey has been on:

You don’t win without a good quarterback, and for “Sunday Night Football,” that’s Drew Esocoff.

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