‘It’s just crazy’: Eagles-Browns is a milestone game for Fox’s Kenny Albert

Eagles vs. Browns might be just another game for Birds fans, but it’s something of a milestone for a familiar voice in the booth.

Longtime Fox Sports announcer Kenny Albert is calling his 500th NFL game Sunday, joining a small group of elite TV broadcasters that includes Al Michaels, Pat Summerall, John Madden, and Troy Aikman.

“Game one feels like yesterday,” Albert told The Inquirer. “It’s hard to believe that it’s that many games, and that your name’s up there with some of those folks. It’s just crazy.”

It’s Albert’s 31st season calling NFL games for Fox, where’s he’s done play-by-play since the network started broadcasting games back in 1994. While Fox went with two veteran broadcasters in Summerall and Philadelphia native Dick Stockton, it took a gamble on then 26-year-old Albert and three other young announcers — Kevin Harlan, Thom Brennaman, and Joe Buck.

Summerall passed away in 2013, while Stockton retired in 2021. Harlan has been with CBS since 1998, Buck joined ESPN in 2022, and Brennaman was fired in 2020 after a hot mic caught him saying a homophobic slur. Of that original crew of play-by-play announcers, only Albert, 56, remains at Fox.

Albert’s list of broadcast partners is too long to enumerate. He began his NFL broadcasting career alongside former cornerback Ron Pitts, and has shared the booth at times with former Eagles offensive lineman Brian Baldinger, Hall of Famer Anthony Muñoz, former quarterback Tim Green, and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender Ronde Barber, whose pick-six in the 2002 NFC Championship Game — the final Eagles game ever played at The Vet — remains a sore spot among Birds fans. He’ll be calling Sunday’s game alongside former Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets defender Jonathan Vilma, who is in his fifth season as a Fox analyst.

“I think he’s improved from year-to-year, and he really sees the field well, just like when he was playing,” Albert said. “He really picks up well on matchups and strategy.”

Albert’s been calling games so long, he’s seen the Rams move from Los Angeles to St. Louis and back again to Los Angeles. The Tennessee Titans were still the Houston Oilers, and Rich Kotite was still coaching the Eagles. His first NFL game for Fox featured the Arizona Cardinals — still an NFC East team — led by former Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan, who lasted there two years.

“I had the only 8-5 score in NFL history that first year,” Albert said, recalling Jerome Bettis rushing for over 100 years for the Rams in a loss to an Atlanta Falcons that was otherwise a difficult watch.

Not surprisingly, Albert has been on hand to call a number of memorable moments. He was there when Terrell Owens stomped on the Dallas Cowboy’s star, and was subsequently stomped by George Teague. He called a young Michael Vick making his famed 46-yard touchdown scramble in overtime against the Minnesota Vikings. And he was on the call in 2008 when former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb didn’t realize a game could end in a tie.

He’s also a prolific broadcaster. In addition to his NFL job, Albert is the radio voice of the New York Rangers, the lead NHL play-by-play announcer on TNT, a fill-in NBA announcer for the New York Knicks, and calls a handful of MLB games each season for Fox.

“You know how he managed to stay relevant? He works his tail off,” said Fox Sports veteran Fran Morison, who’s been Albert’s producer for the past five seasons. “He cares about every single broadcast, he puts the work in, and it never gets old for him.”

Fox has traditionally had the NFC television package, so it’s not surprising Albert has a long history involving the Eagles. In fact, Albert was on the voice of the Birds’ preseason games, which he called for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, first alongside Ron Jaworski, followed by Todd Blackledge and Mike Mayock.

One memorable preseason game during that stretch was a 2001 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens that was canceled because the field at Veterans Stadium was in such bad shape it was deemed unplayable. Then-Eagles president Joe Banner called it “an embarrassment to the City of Philadelphia.”

The first Eagles regular-season game Albert worked was on the road against the Seattle Seahawks in 1995 in an otherwise unremarkable loss for the Birds. But most Eagles fans old enough to have been football fans in the early 2000s probably remember Albert’s voice on a broadcast that also featured Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa — “Moose and Goose,” as they were affectionally known.

In a unique broadcast arrangement, Siragusa served as an analyst on the sideline, were he had an open microphone and could chime in anytime. There’s was also a Philly connection in Lou Tribuiani, Siragusa’s sideline producer for six seasons before passing away while on the road with the broadcast crew in 2012. With a three-person booth, it can sometimes get chaotic, but Albert said the experience has made him a better broadcaster today.

“As a young play-by-play announcer, you want to prove you did the work. So you might drop in too many nuggets, notes, or stats,” Albert said. “Working with Moose and Goose, I learned how to conserve my words and edit, not say as much... I had to really take a step back, and in the years since, that’s probably been a big help.”

A time-honored tradition among NFL fans is to blame the announcer when things go wrong. One of the most famous announcer jinx happened during the 1998 NFC championship game, when Summerall noted that Vikings kicker Gary Anderson hadn’t missed a field goal all season. Of course, Anderson immediately missed, allowing the Falcons to steal the game and advance to the Super Bowl.

Albert, son of legendary former sportscaster Marv Albert, is here to tell you there is no such thing as an announcer jinx.

“I have a job to do. I’m just stating facts,” Albert said. “I’m hundreds of feet away. I’m not affecting what’s happening on the field or on the ice.”

As for any specific Eagles jinx, Albert wasn’t sure what the exact record was, but according to his records the Birds have won more games than they’ve lost when he’s in the booth calling the game.

“I have a couple of friends who are Eagles fans who have referenced that through the years,” Albert said. “I actually did go back and look at one point, and [the Eagles] have a pretty good record with me calling the game.”