Interviewing the Bruins superfan and proud son of a drama professor about his bombastic and sometimes-controversial calls .
Via: NESN / YouTube
Jack Edwards, America's most pleasantly maniacal play-by-play announcer, is a good neighbor. Introducing himself to a family that recently moved in next door, he suggested they buy earplugs, since the NHL playoffs were about to begin. Everybody laughed. But Edwards, whose employer, New England Sports Network, stops airing Bruins games after the first round of the playoffs, was serious. "When there's a big Bruins goal, people think something's going on," he said. "Like there's a murder happening or something."
That Edwards emits terrifying noises during games he's not even calling shouldn't surprise hockey fans. As the local television voice of the Boston Bruins, he's become known nationally for his profoundly theatrical on-air persona. Each emotional burst seemingly tops the last.
For example: on Friday, two days after Bruin Gregory Campbell played a shift with a broken leg in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, Edwards took to the airwaves and, in a four-minute soliloquy delivered on Boston sports radio station WEEI, compared the injured center to both the Allied forces on D-Day and Richard Donahue, the Boston transit officer shot during the manhunt for the Marathon bombing suspects.
Sports Illustrated then ran an item called "Jacked Up," in which Richard Deitsch analyzed a few of Edwards' most hyperbolic calls. One that made the list was from the 2002 World Cup. After the United States beat Portugal in the group stage, Edwards, who at the time was at ESPN, recited the opening line of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.