Ian Eagle was having a lot of fun calling the Carolina Panthers-Seattle Seahawks game, alongside Charles Davis, on Sunday. When he wasn’t talking about Pete Caroll chomping on his gum, he was chiding fans for being on their phones during the game.
Perhaps Eagle’s best moment came in the second half of Seattle’s 37-27 win over Carolina. After Seahawks running back DeeJay Dallas took a direct snap for eight yards, Eagle didn’t marvel over the run, but he was fascinated by a different aspect of the fourth-year player out of Miami.
“DeeJay Dallas might have the No. 1 promotional photo in the NFL right now,” Eagle said ahead of the second down play, in which Dallas took another direct snap under center. “His photo on his bio…another level.”
Davis asked Eagle if he was essentially calling Dallas “photogenic,” but you’d have to see the picture to understand why the “Bird” had such high praise for the photo.
“When you’re doing your prep and you start looking around and DeeJay absolutely leaned into the photo thing, eyes wide open,” Eagle explained. “And went for a certain look.”
Which you can see below:
Deejay Dallas’ picture LMAOOOO pic.twitter.com/ieA72Yh5Zn
— Video from: @TSV__1 (@TSV__1) September 24, 2023
“There it is!” Eagle exclaimed.
Eagle and Davis couldn’t contain their laughter.
“That’s like when you take your driver’s license picture and you take one of those just in case,” Davis said, as he chortled at his own joke.
“That’s like one of those where you’re like tell me when…What? What? On 3, but you took it on 2,” said Eagle.
As it turns out, as several others pointed out on X, Dallas’ photo choice pays direct homage to a fellow Seattle athlete in Kraken forward Brandon Tanev. The raised eyebrows look that Dallas has gone with is the one that made Tanev an internet sensation with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He later explained that he saw a ghost during said photo shoot.
Eagle is certainly not going to be the only broadcaster to bring up the photo choice this season, especially when it certainly speaks a lot louder than what Dallas, who is primarily a special teams player, does on the field.
While Eagle told the story as only he could, maybe he’ll be tipped off to the legend that is Tanev, if he and Davis are on the call for another Seahawks game at some point this season.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.