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Ashlyn Sullivan Says Snoring Sound from Eagles Postgame Live was Reuben Frank Trying to Catch his Breath (UPDATED)
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After the Eagles lost to the Commanders on Sunday, it sounded like someone fell asleep and began snoring on NBC Sports Philadelphia’s postgame show:
It sure as hell sounds like snoring. Readers thought it was someone on the panel breathing heavily, but there’s definitely an audible snoring type of sound at the 17 second portion of the clip.
Anyway, the WIP afternoon show brought this up on Monday, called Ashlyn Sullivan, who works at both WIP and NBCSP, and she said the following:
“It was (Reuben Frank), and it wasn’t a snore, it was – we’re scrambling, the game has ended, we start the show, everyone is running to the set, it’s live TV, so it was just Roob a little out of breath, but hey, it happens to the best of us.”
The staff does have to hustle to get in place for the show. They’re broadcasting across from the Linc, inside of NBC Sports Philadelphia studios at Xfinity Mobile Arena, so Roob has to come down from the press box and cross the street (EDIT – see below), while Sullivan and Dave Zangaro get on the elevator and go down to the bowels of the stadium. They do have to scoot because the show begins pretty much right after the game ends.
The thing that’s throwing me is that the panel microphones should not be open during Sullivan and Zangaro’s segment. That’s just Michael Barkann doing a live shot with two people inside of the stadium. So either they had the other four microphones up (Barrett Brooks, Jaws, Jason Avant, and Roob), or Roob was breathing so heavily that you could hear it through Barkann’s mic, across the desk. Roob sits on the opposite side, furthest from Barkann.
Being knackered is one thing, but those aren’t normal breathing sounds. Those are the sounds of someone who needs to see a pulmonologist. Seriously. Reuben is gonna pass out at the desk, or worse, if he doesn’t get checked out. In that case, Ashlyn outing Roob may be for the best. What if she ends up saving this guy’s life?
EDIT 6:35 p.m –
Got some new information from sources “familiar with the situation.” As it turns out, the panel watches the games live in the studio, so no one is coming down from the press box at all. That means nobody should be tired, unless they are exhausted from Kevin Patullo’s play calling.
That’s one thing.
The second thing is that NBC Sports Philadelphia now has the same automation as the TV news stations, which means that microphones aren’t manually opened and closed by a human being moving faders on a soundboard. They are coded into the show through software used to create the rundown, and then they are turned on or turned off when you progress through each portion of the broadcast. In layman’s terms, it’s all pre-programmed, so it’s not like someone in the control room hears heavy breathing sounds and says “let’s turn down microphone four.” Apparently the mics are all open from the top of the show and they would have to re-code the rundown to mute the panel while Barkann is conducting the live shot with Zangaro and Sullivan.
(it might be crass to comment on someone else’s health, but sports journalism is largely a sedentary profession and we’re not exactly the healthiest people in the world. In the last year and a half, Andy Jasner died suddenly in his 50s and Jack McCaffery suffered a stroke in the Wells Fargo Center press box. we’re maxed out on tragedies at the moment and don’t need another one)
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com