On Monday, Nov. 11, Pizza with the Pros welcomed the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies Postgame Live host for NBC Sports Philadelphia Michael Barkann.

Barkann grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey. In high school, he was an amazing long-distance runner in track and cross country. Although, he realized at a young age that he wasn’t going to become a professional athlete, this opened his mind to other things he could achieve in the sports industry.

“I decided that I wanted to be an on-air broadcaster when I realized that I would never be a professional athlete, which was at seven, eight, or nine,” said Barkann. “It was not pretty to watch me throw a baseball or shoot a basketball. Everyone, I think, if you love sports, wants to do it for a living.”

Before graduating from East Brunswick High School in 1978, Barkann’s parents begged him to attend Rutgers, since it was close to home. However, he had different plans, wanting to attend Syracuse University, the school where both his parents attended. The only problem was that Barkann didn’t get admitted to the school. Instead, he decided to attend the Newhouse School of Communications.

After transferring to Syracuse after his first semester, he graduated from the school in 1982 with a degree in broadcast journalism from Newhouse. Barkann was ready to start his professional career. He worked as a desk assistant at NBC News in Washington, D.C., then did off-camera work at New Jersey Network in Trenton. Trying to make his way to the top, Barkann was just waiting for his opportunity. On February 11, 1983, this opportunity came.

When Trenton got hit with a huge blizzard, Barkann was asked to help on-camera, specifically to do a live weather report. Exceeding everyone’s expectations, he ended up hosting a program called Weather Watch, giving weather reports for the station. After a few years, he would finally be given a role in sports, doing backup games for the network.

After finally getting some experience in sports, Barkann transitioned to KYW-TV in Philadelphia three months later as a sports reporter. Everything he found was going great until after five years the station decided to not renew his contract. This was a bump in the road for him, but he took it as an opportunity to move on to take on new career opportunities.

Barkann got an upgrade and landed a job with WLVI-TV in Boston as the sports director. After another successful five years, he received a dream opportunity, as NBC Sports Philadelphia asked him to be a host and reporter. At the time he got this offer, the network hadn’t even been on air. On October 1, 1997, Barkann and the network made their live debut, as he hosted the program Daily News Live.

Since then, Barkann has been a host on Comcast SportsNet and NBC Sports Philadelphia. He also had success in national broadcasting, serving as a field reporter for USA Network’s coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship for 18 years and as a TV reporter for CBS at the 1988, 1992, and 1994 Winter Olympics. Barkann has been recognized for his success as one of the best hosts and reporters in the sports industry, being named Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the Year seven times and winning the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award five times.

Next week, Pizza with the Pros will welcome NBC Sports Regional Networks Senior VP of Content and Live Programming Jon Slobotkin.

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