Chris Fowler may be known most for anchoring ESPN’s College GameDay or being the voice of EA Sports’ College Football 25, but the veteran announcer has found the most wisdom from the tennis athletes he covers calling the Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian Open finals for the worldwide leader. For Fowler, those lessons are embodied best by the legendary Rafael Nadal, who Fowler recently called “the most admired athlete” he’s gotten to cover in his three-plus decades as a broadcaster.
Fowler went deep on the lessons he’s learned from Nadal in a recent interview with Dan Le Batard on South Beach Sessions released Friday.
“I don’t get that in college football, their career arc is about two, two and a half years,” Fowler said. “In tennis, I’ve had the chance, and in other sports I’ve covered too, to be able to see the growth of an athlete as a person and a player and I don’t take that for granted.”
Fowler was at Roland Garros in Paris for Nadal’s first French Open win at age 19, and has carried that memory with him while covering Nadal for the rest of his career.
“Half of his life, he’s been winning the French Open, and I was there to see the first one and quite a few others since then,” Fowler said. “And then just watched on TV and tried to put into words how I felt about that.”
Fowler believes Nadal is the embodiment of what makes a great tennis player and a great athlete. The 22-time major tournament winner has spectacular endurance and focus, fighting through countless injuries to become one of the best to ever play his sport.
Asked what makes Nadal special, Fowler said, “what he has brought to every performance he’s given on the court. The grit, the competitive spirit, the fight, the willingness to suffer, to dig deep within himself to do whatever it takes, the humility. He’s grounded, he’s a family guy. He practices the way you’re supposed to practice. He’s done a lot to grow the sport by the way he’s acted off the court. Just all of those things … everybody who’s covered him would say that.”
As a determined announcer in a competitive industry, Fowler said he has tried to temper his perfectionism and intensity with age. That’s another area in which he has borrowed from Nadal.
“There’s no perfecting because you don’t chase perfection, because I don’t think that’s possible. You just chase constant improvement,” Fowler said. “Perfectionism is not a path to happiness. You can’t be a very happy person if you hold yourself to a standard of perfection.”
Of course, in order to be great on the court, Nadal has strived for perfection. But off the court, Nadal has worked to grow the sport of tennis in Spain and raised money for several humanitarian causes including fighting malaria, planting trees, and providing access to electricity in impoverished regions.
Fowler said in working with tennis legend John McEnroe for years at ESPN, he learned the power of detaching from perfectionism. Tennis is inherently about the difference of millimeters. Fowler said McEnroe learned to let that go once he retired, and Fowler tries to sit back and relax himself.
Other sports Fowler covers like football and soccer are more aggressive and physical, but through Nadal and tennis, Fowler has found valuable lessons on sports and life.