This week was relatively dry for the site content-wise, mainly because I pretty much spent all my waking hours at NFL Films. This is because all NFL Films interns were called upon to sacrifice our time and sanity for Broadcast Boot Camp, a yearly event put on by the NFL to give current and former NFL players a crash course on how to be TV or radio broadcasters. The video below, from the Washington Post, gives a detailed look at the magnitude of the event I was helping out with.

My job for the 4-day event was to dress like I worked at Target (red NFL Films polo, khakis, lack of dignity) and assist with one of the four 6-player groups. Another intern and I were assigned to make sure they got to everything on time, as well as get anything they needed (water, Gatorade, tobacco, pretty much just water, Gatorade and tobacco). It certainly is, as the title suggests, a boot camp. Interns generally worked about 14-hour days, give or take a half-hour. Most days I showed up to the facility at 6:45 AM and left anywhere from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM. I spent so much time working I’m still dreaming about it, and waking up panicked that I’m late for something.

Although it might sound like it sucked for me, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. I got to sit in on most of the class sessions, and ended up learning a lot about how broadcasting works. As much as Deadspin’s take on the event might denigrate its worthiness, being a football analyst is much harder than it looks. Tony Wragge’s synopsis of a typical day at Broadcast Boot Camp is accurate; he actually wrote that after the first full day, and it got harder after that.

The best part, for me, about the whole thing was the people I got to meet. During waiting periods and breaks I ended up spending a lot of time hanging out and talking with the players in my group, which consisted of Maurice Jones-Drew, Matt Light, Joe Jurevicius, William Henderson, Danny Clark, and Damien Woody. They were all great guys, and I’ll admit it is pretty damn cool that they know my name.

The experience I had is priceless; I guarantee the worth of getting to meet these guys and spend time with them is exponentially more than any autograph or memorabilia. I got to talk to these guys about things that they wouldn’t tell most writers or random guys on the street. Essentially, I got to be with them on a down-to-earth level, which proved to be an unbelievable blessing and a great time.

I also got to meet some high profile football/media guys, like James Brown, Curt Menefee, Ron Jaworski, Solomon Wilcots, Dick Vermeil, and plenty of writers and TV/radio play-by-play and color guys. I spoke at length with Richard Deitsch from Sports Illustrated about what route he recommended to take to the top of sportswriting now that newspapers are dying.

All in all, I’m not sure words can even describe how amazing those 4 days were for me. I think I still don’t quite realize how cool my experience at NFL Films has been. I’m going to have unrealistic expectations coming into other internships and jobs down the road.

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at chris@thed3experience.com All original material copyright © 2008-2009 Chris Jarmon

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Posted: 06|27|09 at 11:38 am. Filed under: My Life as a D3 Player.
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