Episode 63: MIKE WATTS, American soccer announcer, NWSL, MLS, USL, SEC

MIKE WATTS is a veteran American soccer announcer, covering everything from college to MLS, to providing world-feed play-by-play of the 2026 World Cup. Watts is the lead voice of the marquee Friday night NWSL broadcasts on Amazon Prime. He does MLS and SEC Network soccer as well. He is a Cleveland native who went to college at Fordham. In this conversation we talk about working with and for all those varied entities, growing up not far from the Kelces, getting Taylor Swift lyrics (lots of them) into a broadcast and much more. Recorded September 18, 2026 THE SHOW: American soccer’s frontline storytellers interviewed by Emmy Award-winning John Shrader. It includes insight from the editors of Soccer America, the nation’s longest-running soccer publication, founded in 1971. New episodes released weekly. You can get more information on the program, produced by the John Shrader Media Group, at https://shradermedia.com/ John Shrader's 30 years of TV and radio sports broadcasting included MLS, NBA, NFL and NHL. He is professor of Broadcasting and Sports Media & Communication at the University of Nebraska.