David Baker podcast, Pro Football Hall of Fame President & CEO

NEW PODCAST: David Baker - Pro Football Hall of Fame President & CEO

By Jason Romano Feb 19, 2020

Hall of Fame President David Baker (AP Photo/Bill Feig)

THIS IS EPISODE 456 OF THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST

Since 2014, David Baker has been the president and CEO of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At 6-foot-9 and 400 pounds, Baker is an imposing figure, but he’s also the one guy every former NFL player loves during Super Bowl week, as Baker is the guy who knocks on the door and congratulates the new inductees every year to the Hall.

In 2018, the Pro Football Hall of Fame was voted the “Best Attraction for Sports Fans” in the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest.

Before his football governing days, Baker played professional basketball in Switzerland and worldwide with a Christian basketball team that beat the best in the world. He was elected mayor and councilman of Irvine, Calif., the country’s first master-planned city, and served for 12 years as the commissioner of the Arena Football League.

Baker is the father of two boys — Ben, who is the director of broadcasting at NASCAR, and Sam, who played left tackle for the Atlanta Falcons and currently serves as a coach for the JSerra High School (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) football team. David and his wife, Colleen, also have a daughter, Leyla, and a son, Michael, and are the proud grandparents of eight beautiful grandchildren.

On this episode of the podcast, we talk to Baker about the parallels of football and Scripture, his job of telling football players that they’re in the Hall of Fame, and the experience of telling Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher in person on a live broadcast that they were going to Canton. He’s a strong leader and shares how his walk with the Lord guides his work each day.

“Worth the wait.”

The moment @SteveAtwater27 got “The Knock” from the @ProFootballHOF: pic.twitter.com/O9pSIDkXeR

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) February 1, 2020