01CenturyLink

My New NFL & MLB Broadcast TV Crew Gigs

If you’d told 9 year old me (who collected MLB baseball caps and miniature NFL football helmets for each team) that, one day, I’d work in such close proximity to major league professional sports, I would have flipped out. And if you’d told teenage me, who had lost interest in sports entirely in lieu of cinematic filmmaking, I would have said “no way.”

But here I am, loving every minute of it!

Seattle LOVES the Seahawks. “We are 12!” is something I didn’t understand until I moved here and now I’m right down on the field on GAMEDAY. It’s kinda surreal—not to mention, this gig comes with some serious bragging rights.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS @ SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, August 9, 2018

My first professional taste of live NFL action came at downtown Seattle’s spectacular CenturyLink Field, during the Seahawks’ 2018 preseason opener. I was assigned to the visiting Indianapolis Colts’ broadcast crew, positioned primarily along the their sideline. While wrangling cable, I just managed to avoid getting blindsided by ‘Hawks dynamic QB Russell Wilson as he was pushed out of bounds after one of his signature scrambles. INCOMING!

Later this year, I’m also booked for a few days during the NFL regular season, where I’ll be working for the NFL Network at CenturyLink and I’m already looking forward to that. Here are some shots from my sideline point of view during the Colts-Hawks game.

NEW YORK YANKEES @ SEATTLE MARINERS, September 8, 2018

This month, I also worked on NHK Network broadcasts of Mariners’ games with both the Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees—in the heat of the American League Wild Card / Pennant race—literally down the street from CenturyLink, at still-beautiful Safeco Field. Unfortunately for M’s fans, they’d had already faded out of the Wild Card hunt by early September, but the game with New York meant ALOT to the Yankees, who were still harboring illusions of catching the runaway Boston Red Sox.

Throughout the night, I was stationed right alongside the Yankees’ dugout (see photo gallery below) so, naturally, surrounded by lots of “delightful” Yankees fans. Considering I come from a family of Mets fans, this was not a location I would have chosen. One thing I learned first-hand is that Yankees fans are LOUD. It was satisfying though to hand a baseball to a kid after a Yankee tossed one to the crowd, but it bounced off the new safety netting and landed right at my feet. I think that ball made the kid’s night.

When I have a few more pro sports gigs under my belt, I hope to be sharing great images from those games as well. Not only is this a mighty fine way to see a game—I’m actually getting paid for it!

Meanwhile, here are some spectacular panoramic views of Safeco Field early on gameday, along with behind-the-scenes snaps of our pre-game camera setup process, some in-game shots of the fantastic NHK crew in action, the raucous crowd and, last but not least, an up-close peek at the Yankees in the third base dugout. ENJOY!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,