The Pro Football Hall of Fame has selected Howard Katz as the recipient of the 2022 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. Katz will receive his lifetime achievement award during Hall of Fame week in August in Canton, Ohio.
Katz has spent nearly two decades with NFL media, helping the league became the most popular television programming in America.
“I cannot think of a more deserving recipient,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “Quite simply, the NFL would not be where we are today without Howard Katz.”
Katz joined the NFL in 2003. He has served as chief operating officer of NFL Films and currently works as senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations, overseeing the formation of the league’s schedule and the selection of primetime games.
Last season, 24 of the top-25 broadcasts for national ratings were NFL games.
“This reflects the work and foresight Howard and his team put into the overall schedule,” Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said in a statement. “And they create the marquee primetime matchups without sacrificing what football fans also can enjoy in the 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. slots each weekend. This has always been important to Howard.”
Katz, a Colgate graduate, broke into television in 1971 as a production assistant at ABC Sports and worked the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, as well as Monday Night Football and Wide World of Sports. In 1993, he became ESPN’s executive vice president of production and helped the network launch ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Radio, ESPN International, ESPN Classic and the ESPY Awards.
He returned to ABC six years later and revived Monday Night Football by hiring John Madden before joining the NFL.
