The Cardinals have a new play-by-play voice.
J.P. Shadrick, who has done national radio NFL games for Westwood One Sports since 2022 and called college football for the Touchdown Radio Network since 2017, was named Tuesday as the replacement for Dave Pasch.
Pasch left the Cardinals after 24 seasons when ESPN signed him to an exclusive deal after years when he split time between the network and the team.
The 44-year-old Shadrick will work with analyst A.Q. Shipley, who is headed into his second season in the role, and Dani Sureck, who makes her debut as sideline reporter this season.
"Dave Pasch is one of the great voices in our game and I appreciate the high standard that he left behind," Shadrick said. "I'm eager to work toward matching that but also take it further in my own style. I'm fired up to work with A.Q. Shipley too, his great personality combined with his in-depth knowledge of the game in all aspects makes him a top-tier analyst."
Shadrick has spent the last 14 seasons working with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a senior reporter, anchoring news on Jaguars.com, hosting the head coach's weekly radio show, and working as a pregame and postgame radio host.
He has more than 20 years of play-by-play experience in various sports, a long journey to get to this point.
The Alabama native studied sports broadcasting at the University of Alabama, cutting his teeth as a runner for CBS Sports when they would come to campus for college football telecasts. After his graduation in 2004, Shadrick slowly built his play-by-play resumé with collegiate summer league baseball in North Carolina and with minor league teams in Virginia, South Dakota, Jacksonville and Oklahoma City.
He returned to Jacksonville for the Jaguars, first for a PR position and then into the digital space. Given his full-time job and attending Jaguars games, it made his efforts to work some football play-by-play more difficult, but he eventually got work with the Touchdown Radio Network as a studio host and then a gig announcing the Arkansas-Alabama game in 2017.
That eventually led to college work with Westwood One Network in 2022 and an invitation to do Westwood One's radio broadcast for a Jaguars game in London. That meant Shadrick did Jaguars pre- and postgame radio for the Jags that week, and in-between did the game for Westwood One.
He also did Westwood One NFL games on various holidays as he chased a spot like the one that opened up with the Cardinals when Pasch departed.
Shadrick emphasized he couldn't thank the Jaguars, from Shad and Tony Khan on down, enough for setting him up for success.
"They were really fair about adjusting schedules where necessary and giving me a chance to grow," Shadrick said. "They were nothing but gracious."
But Shadrick is also thrilled to have finally landed a play-by-play job with an NFL team, a 20-year dream that he knows he is blessed to have. Shadrick had interviewed with teams before. He knew he was good enough.
"Then sometimes you just never know," Shadrick said. "Who knew that this was the moment when Dave Pasch was going to go ESPN (full-time) and a week or two later, I'm talking to (director of radio and audio) Jim (Omohundro) and then a week or two after that I'm on with all the executives, and then two days later, there's an offer. It's like, really?
"I've got to pack this house now. Those are the emotions. Anybody who gets these gigs, everybody is fighting for the same stuff. It's gonna be so rewarding, man."
