Bradley Ray Nessler (born June 3, 1956) is an American sportscaster, who currently calls

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

and

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

games for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

Career

Early assignments

Nessler began his professional broadcasting career sharing play–by–play radio duties with Al Ciraldo on

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

basketball on WGST from 1980–81 through 1984–85 and handled the play–by–play for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

from

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

on WGST and WSB before assuming the same position for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

during the 1988 and

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

seasons. He also called preseason telecasts for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

for several years and has done play–by–play of

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

football and basketball telecasts for

Jefferson-Pilot Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...

CBS Sports

In 1990 and 1991, Nessler worked for

, calling

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

games,

and

(both men's and women's college basketball).

ESPN and ABC Sports

Nessler's career with ESPN began in 1992 with college basketball games, and also Big Ten and Thursday night football contests, and expanded with the addition of

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

assignments in 1997. Nessler has also appeared annually as a commentator in

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

' ''

NCAA Football series ''NCAA Football'' is an American football video game series developed by EA Sports in which players control and compete against current Division I FBS college teams. It served as a college football counterpart to the ''Madden NFL'' series. The ser ...

''. Also, his voice (and that of his broadcast partner,

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster fo ...

) was featured in

' ''

NCAA March Madness The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

'' video game series.

College football

When Nessler began calling college football for ABC in 1997 he was regarded as the #3 play-by-play man behind

Keith Jackson Keith Max Jackson (October 18, 1928 – January 12, 2018) was an American sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality, known for his career with ABC Sports (1966–2006). While he covered a variety of sports over his career ...

and

Brent Musburger Brent Woody Musburger (born May 26, 1939) is an American sportscaster, currently the lead broadcaster and managing editor at Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN). With CBS Sports from 1973 until 1990, he was one of the original members ...

. He was promoted to #2 upon Jackson's scaling back to West Coast games in 1999, and was the #1 Saturday afternoon play-by-play man from 2006 until the 2008 season. In July 2009,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

announced that Nessler would move to the top play-by-play man for ESPN's coverage of college football, being primarily responsible for ESPN's ''Saturday Primetime'' game airing at 7:45 PM Eastern Time. He originally worked with

Gary Danielson Gary Dennis Danielson (born September 10, 1951) is an American college football commentator and former professional American football player. Danielson was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Detroit Lions from ...

as his college football color man when he began working for ABC in 1997, but from 1999 to 2008 called games alongside

Bob Griese Robert Allen Griese (pronounced ; born February 3, 1945) is a former American football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins. Gries ...

(who traded positions with Danielson). Starting in 2006,

Paul Maguire Paul Leo Maguire (born August 22, 1938) is a former American professional football player and television sportscaster. Early sports career Maguire attended Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Ohio where he was an All State wide receiver and ...

joined Nessler and Griese as a third color commentator for the Saturday afternoon college telecasts. Upon the announcement of Nessler's move to ESPN's ''Saturday Primetime'' telecasts, it was also announced that he would be teamed with former

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

quarterback

Todd Blackledge Todd Alan Blackledge (born February 25, 1961) is a former American football quarterback in both the NCAA and National Football League. In college, he led the Penn State Nittany Lions to a national championship. A member of the famed Class of 19 ...

and sideline reporter

Erin Andrews Erin Jill Andrews (born May 4, 1978) is an American sportscaster, television personality, and actress. She rose to prominence as a correspondent on the American cable sports channel ESPN after joining the network in 2004. She later joined Fox Sp ...

beginning with the 2009 college football season; this crew also called the January 1, 2010

Capital One Bowl The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Cheez-It Bowl and Florida Classic. The gam ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

NBA and college basketball

From 2002 to 2004, Nessler was a broadcaster for the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

, including calling the

2003 NBA Finals The 2003 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2002–03 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs played the Eastern Conference cham ...

. During this particular period, Nessler was accused (particularly by

Richard Sandomir Richard Elliot Sandomir (born September 4, 1957) is an American journalist who is an obituary writer for ''The New York Times''. He wrote about sports, male-pattern hair loss and television; he is the author of several books including ''Bald Like ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'') of not knowing game strategy well, lacking rhythm and enthusiasm in his game call, not bringing out the best in his partners (i.e.

Bill Walton William Theodore Walton III (born November 5, 1952) is an American television sportscaster and former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for coach John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins, winning three consecutive national ...

and

Tom Tolbert Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

), too often ignoring the score, and tending to stammer. Starting in 2006, Nessler had provided play-by-play for SEC games on ''

Super Tuesday Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating co ...

'' and

Thursday Night Showcase ''ESPN College Basketball'' is a blanket title used for presentations of college basketball on ESPN and its family of networks. Its coverage focuses primarily on competition in NCAA Division I, holding broadcast rights to games from each major c ...

, alongside

Sean Farnham Sean Travis Farnham (born September 16, 1977) is an American sports analyst who covers college basketball for ESPN. Farnham typically calls games featuring the Southeastern Conference as part of ESPN's Super Tuesday and Thursday Night Showcase pa ...

(and formerly

Jimmy Dykes James Joseph Dykes (November 10, 1896 – June 15, 1976) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a third and second baseman from through , most notably as a member of the Philadelph ...

) and sideline reporter

Heather Cox Heather Cox (born Heather Schoeny on June 3, 1970) is an American sportscaster who is a sports reporter for NBC. As Heather Schoeny, she played college volleyball at University of the Pacific. Biography High school Cox attended Capistrano ...

. He also covered Saturday afternoon games for

during the regular college basketball season, and previously appeared on

''Monday Night Football''

On September 11, 2006, ESPN began its coverage of ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

'' with a Week 1 doubleheader. Nessler teamed with

Ron Jaworski Partner owner , highlights= * Pro Bowl (1980) * Bert Bell Award (1980) * Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame ;NFL record * Longest touchdown pass: 99 yards (tied) , statlabel1= TD– INT , statvalue1=179–164 , statlabel2=Yards , statvalue2=28,19 ...

Dick Vermeil Richard Albert Vermeil (; born October 30, 1936) is a former American football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles for seven seasons, the St. Lou ...

, and

Bonnie Bernstein Bonnie Lynn Bernstein (born August 16, 1970) is an American sports journalist and executive. She has been named one of the most accomplished female sportscasters in history by the American Sportscasters Association. Bernstein is Vice President, Co ...

to call the second game, featuring the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

and

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

. On September 13, 2010, Nessler again worked a ''Monday Night Football'' game, teaming with

Trent Dilfer Trent Farris Dilfer (born March 13, 1972) is a former American football quarterback and analyst who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He is best known as the starting quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens during their Su ...

and

Suzy Kolber Suzy Kolber (; born ) is an American football sideline reporter, co- producer, and sportscaster for ESPN. She was one of the original anchors of ESPN2 when it launched in 1993. Three years later, she left ESPN2 to join Fox Sports, and rejoined ...

to call the

and

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

in the second game of that night's Week 1 doubleheader. On September 12, 2011, Nessler and Dilfer called the

and

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

in the second game of the Week 1 doubleheader; the game included a 63-yard field goal kicked by Oakland's

Sebastian Janikowski Sebastian Paweł Janikowski (; born March 2, 1978) is a Polish former American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. He played college football at Florida State ...

, which tied the NFL record at the time.

NFL Network

In May 2011, Nessler was hired by

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...

to call its ''

Thursday Night Football ''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to 20 ...

'' telecasts, on which he was teamed with analyst

Mike Mayock Michael Francis Mayock (born August 14, 1958) is a former American football executive and former player who served as the general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) from 2019 to 2021. Mayock was a safety with ...

for an eight-game package. He continued to call the game package in 2012 and 2013, expanded to thirteen games, before

took over responsibility for the package in the

2014 NFL season The 2014 NFL season was the 95th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 49th of the Super Bowl era. The season began on Thursday, September 4, 2014, with the National Football League Kickoff game, annual kickoff ga ...

Return to CBS

announced on May 31, 2016 that Nessler would return to the network to serve as lead play-by-play announcer for SEC college football games beginning in the 2017 season, replacing the outgoing

Verne Lundquist Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. (born July 17, 1940) is an American sportscaster. Biography Early life and career Lundquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, before attending Texas Lutheran Un ...

. He was then reunited with Danielson, who he worked with at ESPN and ABC from 1992–1999. The duo are joined weekly by

Jamie Erdahl Jamie Erdahl (December 3, 1988) is an American reporter for NFL Network and CBS Sports. She currently serves as one of the hosts of Good Morning Football on NFL Network. She was formerly the lead sideline reporter for the '' SEC on CBS'', teaming ...

, and former NFL referee

Gene Steratore Eugene Joseph Steratore (; born February 8, 1963) is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from 2003 until his retirement from the NFL in June 2018. He also worked as a National Collegiate Athletic Association ...

. He also provides play-by-play for

for the network, usually teaming with analyst

Bill Raftery William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American basketball analyst and former college basketball coach. High school and college years Raftery attended Saint Cecilia High School in Kearny, New Jersey, where he starred in basketball an ...

. Nessler's first SEC game for CBS was

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

on November 5, 2016. He assumed duties as CBS' lead college football announcer for the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

one month later. In 2018 Nessler called his first

on TBS.

Personal life

Nessler is a graduate of

Minnesota State University, Mankato Minnesota State University, Mankato (MNSU, MSU, or Minnesota State) is a public university in Mankato, Minnesota, United States. It is Minnesota's second-largest university and has over 123,000 living alumni worldwide. Founded in 1868, it is t ...

. He now lives in the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

area with his wife and family.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nessler, Brad 1956 births Living people American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Atlanta Falcons announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets basketball Miami Dolphins announcers Minnesota State University, Mankato alumni Minnesota Timberwolves announcers Minnesota Vikings announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers NFL Europe broadcasters Olympic Games broadcasters People from St. Charles, Minnesota Women's college basketball announcers in the United States