Visual History with Drew Esocoff

Born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, sports director Drew Esocoff credits his success in broadcast to his lifelong love of sports, which started as a child listening to Marv Albert calling Knicks and Rangers games. After he graduated from Colgate University, Esocoff found work as a runner at ABC Sports on the weekends through his Colgate connections. He moved to ESPN in 1983 after he secured a production assistant position on SportsCenter. It was on his first day at ESPN, standing in back of a control room, that he decided to be a director. Since ESPN was a new station, he was given the opportunity to learn all aspects of production, and quickly rose to direct segments, programs and remote broadcasts, including college basketball, college football, hockey, boxing; and programs such as SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight. He then transferred to ABC Sports in August of 1990.

At ABC Sports (1990-2006), he helmed marquee assignments, such as NBA on ABC, the Little League World Series, and Monday Night Football. In 2006, Esocoff moved to NBC Sports, launching NBC Sunday Night Football, and is currently directing his 26th season of NFL primetime games. At NBC Sports, Esocoff has directed seven Super Bowl broadcasts, Triple Crowns, and segments of the Olympic games, including the swimming telecast of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.

Esocoff has won 19 Sports Emmy Awards and in 2022 was inducted in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

He has been a member of the Guild since 1990.