In the span of nine years, Noah Eagle has gone from making the morning announcements at West Essex High School to broadcasting the NFL’s first regular-season game in Brazil, played on Sept. 6.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers played in Sao Paolo as the NFL continues to expand its international footprint.

“When we were talking to the players and coaches, I felt like they put it best. They said, ‘This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity,’” he told NJ Spotlight News in an interview this week. The NFL estimates the football league has 36 million Brazilians fans, and Eagle says its first game in the country brought out “a wide net of fandom.”

“Everybody showed up. Everybody showed their support,” he said. “The fact that this is a game that’s becoming more and more global, and the addition of flag football in the Olympics in 2028 only adds to that. But it was cool to see it up close and personal.”

Eagle, an Essex Fells native, has quickly risen through the ranks of broadcasting since graduating from West Essex High School in 2015. He has become the voice of NBC’s Saturday Night Big Ten Football games after spending four years doing radio play-by-play for the Los Angeles Clippers. This year, he provided play-by-play commentary for French Open tennis and for Team USA basketball at the Paris Olympics.

Watch the full interview: