The Big Lead

Kenny Albert and a Former Member of the Trump White House Are Calling a High School Football Game Tomorrow Night

By Kyle Koster

Weigh-In For The Inaugural BKB, Big Knockout Boxing Event At Mandalay Bay
Weigh-In For The Inaugural BKB, Big Knockout Boxing Event At Mandalay Bay / Bryan Steffy/Getty Images
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Kenny Albert, one of the top play-by-play announcers with access to a working microphone, will lend his voice to an extremely non-titanic matchup between some North Jersey football teams tomorrow night because his first job is being a dad.

Albert will handle livestream duties for the Northern Valley/Demarest Norsemen-Dumont Huskies matchup. Both teams are 1-5 on the year and feature less talent at the skill positions than either the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, who will be featured in his Sunday broadcast.

"Albert currently has a daughter at NV/Demarest and said he’d been receiving emails about the school’s livestream showings of different sports. He said to Norsemen athletic director Greg Butler that if there were ever a Thursday night football game, he’d be happy to lend his voice. That opportunity arose this week as COVID-19 continues to shuffle schedules around and the Norsemen were given a Thursday slot."

"NV/Demarest has been livestreaming games with one camera and no announcers, just relying on the public address announcer to clue watchers on the action. Albert will be joined Thursday by NV/Demarest alum Eli Nachmany doing color commentary."

Alright, so a significant upgrade. And a nice little story. But here's where things really start to get interesting. Because that color commentator's name sounded awfully familiar.

Nachmany's brief but incredibly eventful political career is neatly summed up by this piece from Yahoo last year. To say it's a wild ride is a non-partisan statement. It chronicles how Nachmany came to work in at Office of American Innovation, overseen by Jared Kushner, and what, exactly, he might be doing there. Well worth the read.

So look, you probably did not have Kenny Albert and a former member of the Trump White House working together to call a high school football game featuring a combined 2-10 records on a previously unvoiced livestream on your bingo card. But if this year's taught us anything, it's to expect the unexpected and then barely bat an eye when it comes to pass.