Kevin Harlan Pulls Back the Curtain on His Famous Calls

The CBS play-by-play announcer has had many memorable calls over the years, but can he recall them based on a short clip?

Kevin Harlan has had a number of memorable calls in his career. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

1. Kevin Harlan has had many memorable calls over the years, but can he recall them based on a short clip?

This is the last Traina Thoughts until next week when the NFL FINALLY returns with the Ravens and Chiefs kicking off the season on Thursday night.

Therefore, I want to leave you with something NFL-related, and this clip is perfect.

The return of the NFL means the return of CBS’s Harlan, his iconic voice and great calls.

Harlan recently played snippets of some of his memorable calls to see if he could correctly remember the situation surrounding each one. The experiment was not only a fun trip down memory lane, but an insightful look at how a play-by-play announcer's brain works.

Plus, it’s four minutes of Harlan going wild. What more could you want to get ready for the start of the football season?

Can Kevin Harlan identify his iconic NFL calls based on a single snippet of sound?

This is NAME THAT CALL 🗣️🎙️ pic.twitter.com/TvL2nnc38g

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) August 26, 2024

2. Nobody in the history of professional sports was more known for their disdain for the media than Bill Belichick. I’m not saying Belichick hated the media, although he probably did. I’m saying Belichick wished the media didn’t exist.

Amazingly, the future Hall of Fame coach just added a FIFTH media job to his 2024 season.

Belichick will appear every Monday night with Jim Gray and SiriusXM’s Let’s Go. Peter King and Maxx Crosby are also new additions to show. Tom Brady is out now that he has the little broadcasting gig on Sundays with Fox.

Belichick’s other media jobs: a weekly guest spot on the Pat McAfee Show; appearing during the first quarter of all 10 ManningCast episodes; panelist on the CW’s Inside the NFL; and his own weekly show on Underdog Fantasy.

3. Jason and Travis Kelce just landed a three-year, $100-million deal for their New Heights podcast.

Jason and Travis Kelce are kicking off a rich new deal with Amazon’s Wondery, which has exclusive ad-sales and distribution rights to their “New Heights” podcast.

The deal between the Kelce brothers and Wondery is worth more than $100 million. https://t.co/MHeLeHEnTn

— Variety (@Variety) August 27, 2024

Despite having some pretty big built-in advantages, in a world that now has a billion podcasts, this is a pretty impressive feat.

And not to brag—actually, totally, 100% to brag—in late 2022, before the Kelce brothers’ show took off and before the podcast got the Taylor Swift bump, I named New Heights the Podcast of the Year. I was so ahead of my time.

4. Speaking of Jason Kelce, you can fully expect ESPN to push him hard this season on Monday Night Countdown. Kelce, who replaces Robert Griffin III on the show, is the star of the network’s new promo (that also features Scott Van Pelt and Marcus Spears) for the Monday Night Football pregame show.

5. RGIII has finally spoken publicly about his termination from ESPN. He told Rich Eisen he was “surprised” that ESPN let him go and he had already been assigned a college football team for broadcasting games this season.

💻 @RGIII

The former ESPN analyst talked candidly with us about his recent departure from the network and how it was quite the surprise: pic.twitter.com/JNboMQE7Ja

— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) August 26, 2024

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with ESPN College GameDay panelist and Thursday Night Football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit.

Herbstreit discusses getting used to the grind of doing college football on Saturday and the NFL on Thursdays, what his in-season schedule is like and if he sees himself continuing with both gigs.

Other topics covered with Herbstreit include what it’s like to work with Al Michales on Amazon Prime and the backlash Michaels received last season, what Pat McAfee brings to College GameDay and how McAfee made Herbstreit reassess whether he wanted to stay with the show, the massive changes across the college football landscape, and how the expanded playoff will affect the regular season.

Herbstreit also addresses Ryan Leaf’s recent attack against him, and whether ESPN has ever confronted Herbstreit about tweets or podcast appearances.

Following Herbstreit, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week's topics include a big change to NFL Sunday Ticket, NFL betting, a new Sopranos docuseries and much more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: With Bill Belichick becoming entrenched as a sports media figure, we look back at some of his memorable moments on the other side of things.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.