If the New York Jets and Giants play in East Rutherford, New Jersey, then Ian Eagle is going to show you the Garden State. Don’t expect to see shots of Central Park when CBS hits the B-roll.
“Welcome back to a little tour of downtown Hoboken,” Eagle said during Sunday’s Jets-Steelers broadcast. “We’re not going to be the crew that pretends we’re in New York when we’re in New Jersey. We’re going to show you New Jersey.”
“We’re not going to be the crew that pretends we’re in New York when we’re in New Jersey. We’re going to show you New Jersey.” – Ian Eagle. pic.twitter.com/cIITSOcH6K
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 7, 2025
J.J. Watt deferred to his partner, who had apparently been educating the Midwesterner about the area beforehand. Eagle was clearly enjoying himself, though he admitted Watt had eventually reached his limit during their prep conversations.
“You didn’t, at some point, want to hear about it anymore,” Eagle quipped about their earlier discussions. “You were like, ‘I’m good.'”
But Eagle was good on his word. Instead of the usual Manhattan skyline shots that most broadcasts default to, viewers got an actual tour of where the game was being played.
It’s a small thing, but it highlights something most people don’t think about when teams slap a city name on their jerseys. The “New York” Jets and “New York” Giants playing in New Jersey isn’t an accident or oversight; it’s definitely a calculated business decision.
Teams want the biggest market they can claim, not necessarily accuracy. If the Jets called themselves the East Rutherford Jets, they’d lose the cachet of being a “New York” team. They’d be telling millions of potential fans in the city that this isn’t really their team. By keeping the New York name while playing in Jersey, they get both markets.
Look at what the Angels did. They started as the Anaheim Angels, then became the Los Angeles Angels without moving anywhere. Eventually, they settled on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which makes no geographical sense but captures the massive LA market instead of just Orange County. The Dodgers weren’t thrilled about another “Los Angeles” team trying to poach their fans.
It’s smart marketing, but it creates this weird situation where everyone pretends teams play somewhere they don’t. Most broadcasts just go along with it, showing you the Manhattan skyline while calling it a “New York” game happening 10 miles away in a different state.
CBS — and Eagle — decided not to play that game. If you’re broadcasting from New Jersey, show New Jersey. It’s refreshing honesty from a broadcast that could have easily taken the safe route and shown the same generic city shots everyone expects.
It’s sort of the same issue Joel McHale and Kevin Clark have complained about with Seattle broadcasts. Every Seahawks or Huskies game shows the same Pike Place fish market shot of guys throwing fish. McHale has begged broadcasters to show literally anything else about Seattle, the Space Needle, the light rail construction, even condemned bridges. Just something different.
CBS took the opposite approach. Instead of defaulting to the Manhattan money shots that have nothing to do with where the game is actually happening, they showed viewers Hoboken and the actual area around MetLife Stadium.
The irony is that MetLife Stadium sits in one of the most densely populated areas in the country. There’s plenty to show beyond the standard NYC establishing shots.
Turns out, you can make good television without pretending you’re somewhere else.