Green Bay's Kevin Harlan named National Sportscaster of the Year for third time
GREEN BAY – In three weeks, Kevin Harlan will become the only person to call 14 consecutive Super Bowls, one of a number of accomplishments in his busy life. Another was his third National Sportscaster of the Year award.
"The biggest thing about this award is that it is voted upon by your peers. To have that kind of incredible and wonderful recognition is so humbling and incredibly flattering and I can’t put into words what it means," said Harlan, who does football and basketball on television for CBS and Turner Sports, and radio for Westwood One, his home for the Super Bowl.
The awards were announced Jan. 9. Among previous winners are the who's who of sports announcers, among them Vin Scully, Al Michaels, Joe Buck, Bob Costas and Jim Nantz.
Harlan, as local football fans know, is the play-by-play man for Green Bay preseason football games on television and the son of Packers' chairman emeritus Bob Harlan. His familiar voice can be heard narrating the Packers' 10-part "Legacy: 100 Seasons of the Green Bay Packers" documentary.
He's a graduate of Our Lady of Premontre High School in Green Bay, now Notre Dame Academy, where he discovered his love of broadcasting working with the school's 10-watt radio station. "I don't know where I'd be without that exposure," he said.
He was ready for that opportunity because he spent hours alone in his bedroom or in an empty Lambeau Field press box announcing real and imagined games.
Over the next several weeks, in addition to the Super Bowl, Harlan will announce NBA and college basketball games, and one of the NFL championship games on radio. He did last weekend's Buffalo Bills-Kansas City Chiefs game for the radio network.
"I've stuck with football and basketball. My style fits both, and I get my summers off, which is huge," he said.
He looks forward to announcing Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas. It never gets old.
"It is one of the real loves of my life that I get the honor of broadcasting that game," Harlan said. "You could line up any broadcasters in this country and they would die to be in that seat."
More: 'I'm calling both games!' Kevin Harlan did play-by-play at same time for Chiefs and Dolphins wins
Readers can see an NFL Films feature on Harlan and some of his best football calls over the years here. A video of his basketball work can be seen here. And here is a fascinating interview with Rich Eisen.
Harlan, who lives in Kansas City, started doing the play-by-play for Packers' preseason games on television in 2003. He had been doing Chicago Bears preseason games, but someone in the Packers organization decided he should be asked to return to Green Bay. That someone wasn't named Harlan, although he would joke with his analysts over the years, "I know why I'm doing these games. Why are you doing these games?"
In truth, his dad made it clear he'd be glad to have him calling games for the Packers, but he wasn't going to get an insider advantage from the old man. It's an approach Harlan takes with his daughter, Olivia Harlan Dekker, who is a sideline reporter for NFL games and works with her dad on occasion. In 2018, they were the first father-daughter team to call a game, appropriately enough at Lambeau Field when the Packers hosted the San Francisco 49ers.
She was in Kansas City for the wild card playoff game on Jan. 13, officially the fifth-coldest NFL game on record, and they will be first father-daughter pair to call and report a Super Bowl in February in Las Vegas.
"She's a pros pro," her dad said. Radio network Westwood One told Kevin they'd continue to employ her as long as she can do the job to their standards. "They told me point blank, we have hundreds of people lined up to do these jobs if she can't cut it. She's become one of their main sideline reporters."
New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft has tried to lure Harlan away to do Patriot preseason games for years. "I said I’m a Packers broadcaster until they don’t want me," Harlan said.
There's nothing like being with a team and doing their games, and it's the only time the teams have a TV voice, he said, but when he transitions to network games, it doesn't matter who's on the field. "When I do my games for CBS, I do not care who wins."
On Nov. 12, 2023, CBS recognized Harlan, who was announcing the Houston Texans-Cincinnati Bengals game in Cincinnati, for working his 500th NFL game.
In a poll by readers of website Awful Announcing, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were voted the best NFL announcing team in the country for 2023. Harlan and partner Trent Green were third among 17 announcing teams considered.
"Harlan is one of the best announcers in the country across multiple sports, and Green has turned into a pretty strong analyst working alongside him. They always have an entertaining, informative call, and most fans seem pretty happy when they’re calling the local game," Awful Announcing said.
That's especially true of Miami, where Harlan is beloved. The Dolphins win most of the games when Harlan is handling the play-by-play duties.
"We had a couple of their real explosive games," Harlan said. "We also had their 70-point game with Denver. We've kind of been on a streak with them."
The streak hit a speed bump a week ago. Harlan called the Dolphins' 26-7 wild card round loss to the Chiefs in Kansas City.
Harlan hasn't decided how long he'll continue to work. Some broadcasters worked well into their 70s and 80s, but he's not planning to go that long.
"You never want to retire too young, and that is on my mind," he said. "At 63, I know I’m in the last 10 years of my career. My wife and I have too many other things we’d like to do," including spending time with their children and their families. They have four grandchildren with a fifth on the way.
Harlan could have been busier than he is. He turned down an offer to be a St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster early in his career. His father set an example for priorities. Bob Harlan had a job he really liked with the Cardinals in the late 1960s, but baseball is a summer sport with 162 games.
"Just from a family man standpoint, it was probably not the best business to be in," Kevin said.
Harlan does football and basketball so he can spend his summers in Door County with his family.
Harlan was 11 when his dad moved the family from St. Louis to Green Bay to accept a job with the Packers. He was about five years older than ESPN's John Anderson, a graduate of Green Bay Southwest High School, so they didn't cross paths then, but the two are acquainted now. "I was just on his podcast the other day," Harlan said.
Advances in technology provide more opportunities for young, wanna-be broadcasters. "All these different platforms, if used the right way, high school can provide whole other dimensions (of experience)," he said.
But even with new technology, the basics remain.
"My dad (who has a journalism degree from Marquette) always told me, you've got to be as good a writer as a broadcaster," he said. "I use it when I'm doing a broadcast. I think to myself, if I'm going to write an Associated Press lead for this, what would it be for this point of the game?"
With national broadcasting awards in 2017, 2019 and 2023, Harlan's choosing the right words.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay's Kevin Harlan Sportscaster of the Year for third time
