October 11, 2022 • 20 mins
This week Dannie is solo on the pod! She answers fan questions sent in on Twitter for behind-the-scenes on broadcasting and reporting for the Detroit Lions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the bye week edition of Off the Record
with Danny Rogers. I am soloing this podcast and I've
been looking forward to doing this for weeks. So essentially,
I sent in a tweet earlier this week and I asked, fans, hey,
give me all of your questions. They can be random,
they can be about football, they can be about journalism, broadcasting, whatever,
(00:21):
and you guys delivered. So I'm so excited to share
some of these fan questions, answer them for you, and
you guys can get to know me a little bit better,
or don't or click off this. It's totally up to you. Okay,
Michael Katie sent in a few questions and I appreciate
all of them. First one, how cool is it to
get to talk to all of the coaches and players?
(00:42):
This is my favorite part of the job. Whether it's
talking to coaches and players for a story or a
nugget or an update on the week, it doesn't matter
as long as I'm being able to communicate with coaches
who are extremely good at their job, players who are
playing at the highest level of the NFL like and
all the stories that come with it, Like these guys
(01:03):
have some of the greatest stories, stories of adversity and
how they made it to where they are in their lives.
So this is the best part of my job, hands down.
Nothing even comes close to it. So thank you for
that question. This is my girl, Lauren. She was currently
a student at IU. She was on the ground here
with the Hard Knocks crew and she crushed it, So
shout out to you, Lauren. She asked, as the Detroit
(01:24):
Lions reporter, how much freedom do you have to create
content with the team? For example, did you come up
with your podcast in TV show concepts? I love this question.
I will say I have all the freedom in the
world to pitch anything that I would like to pitch,
and I know it's listened to listen to rather and
not every time does an idea come to fruition. However,
(01:47):
in my job interview, why did I interviewed for this
job in June of twenty twenty one, and of course
they asked what new ideas could you bring to the
new media team here at the Detroit Lions, And I said, look,
I have seen other NFL teams with podcast and the
video component. Here we are. It took us this season,
but I am so pumped, so I have a lot
of freedom TV show concepts TV show she is referring
(02:11):
to his Inside the Pride airing every Wednesday, has a
little bit of different airtimes across the state, but mainly Wednesday,
and I got to have my hand in a lot
of that conceptualization along with executive producer Dustin so he rocks.
So shout out to everyone on that. It takes about
ten people to produce that show, by the way, so
(02:31):
please watch it. Vinnie, our intern, is running the camera
right now. He even helps with it, so it's it's
a very big deal. Neil Larson, when are you and
Tim Twentyman going to swap podcast for an episode, not
as guest, but replacing each other as host? I will
preface this by saying Neil is the man who set
up this entire set along with Vincenzo, and he's one
(02:52):
of our media producers here. He's very good what he does.
Tim Twentyman has what is it Twentymen in the Huddle
podcast that breaks down like the football side of stuff
off the record is pretty much everything not football related,
and I would love to Tim hit me up, Come on,
bring it, let's swap. Who's your next guest? For off
the record, I want to hear it. Okay. Next up,
(03:12):
another one from my girl Katie overseas is do you
do all the editing work for the podcast and the
Inside the Pride episodes? Yes for the podcast, No for
Inside the Pride, because that is a thirty minute show
that no one should have to do by themselves, and
thankfully we do not. How closely do you work with
the media team. I am the I am a part
of the media team. My official titles team reported I
(03:32):
fell under the new media category, so that's us. Have
you had ideas for content that you really want to
make with the Lions that they just won't agree to yet? Um? Honestly,
the biggest one was the podcast with videos, So we're here,
We're we're We're here, We're doing We're doing the dang thing.
So no, not yet, which is good. H Maxwell Han,
(03:54):
I will I will say that when I was getting
on the flight to New England, our producers from the
media team decided to bombard my twitter Maxwell Han. Max
is another talented producer we have here, and he sent
his in can you get Michael Haa on your pod?
Specifically so he can toss his notebook again and there's
a running joke Michael Haa. We were talking about something
(04:14):
and he just tossed his notebook in disgust. I think
about something and it was a great It was a
great TV moment. I think it was during the draft.
I don't even know what got him so worked up,
but my chill. He is one of the goats here
with the Detroit Lions. Ooh one pride at one Lion's
lover asked, what's the day in the life look like
(04:35):
for you on game day? Also? Where'd you get that white,
blue and white flannel that I was runing on my
Instagram story? You know exactly what we're talking about. I
got it at a Los Angeles I want to say,
Los Angeles H and M when we played the Rams
last season. So I don't know if it's still there,
but thank you. What does a day in the life
look like for you on game day? So it changes
(04:56):
whether it's a home game or an away game. I'll
start with home game. My responsibilities have just been upped
a lot this season, which has been amazing. That's more
reps for me. That's more time than I get to
spend getting used to know the game of football. Honestly so,
and it's more time, like I guess, I hate to
spend like in front of fans, so you guys can
get to know me a little bit better. The game day,
I wake up, I'm to the stadium by like nine
(05:19):
nine thirty am. I get there. I usually curl my
hair there or else it will fall out. I'm looking
for a new curliner and currently. But I get ready
and then I spend about an hour and a half
hour like just finishing the rest of my prep for
the pregame show that airs eleven thirty am inside Ford Field.
My host is Anthony Billino, So we have a thirty
(05:39):
minute show. We go over and act is what to
expect for that game. We do some cool packages, and
we have our fantasy football segment, which I'm not winning currently.
So that's eleven thirty to noon. After that, I usually
haven't eaten yet, so I'll grab some food. I'll go
down and make my rounds on the field. When you're
in this industry, I don't know. I've been a part
(06:01):
of the NFL since I was twenty one years old,
so going on four or five years. You know people
from just about every team that which is awesome. So
in that little window, I get to go down and
say hello to coaches or players that I've come across
to my career, which is one of my absolute favorite
things on game day, and then I am still trying
to figure this out where I sit on game day.
(06:22):
I change it up every game. Honestly, it has to
do a game good Wi Fi so I can look
over the live stats. But then I get ready to
do some in game hits at the desk that go
on the big video board. So we have halftime highlights
that cover the first half of Detroit Lines versus Whoever.
And then we also have scores around the league and
highlights around the league, so we also we also catch
(06:43):
up on that. So that's my halftime, that's my third quarter.
The rest of it, I am preppy my postgame questions
in case we win. That's when I get to do
my postgame interviews. I would like to do twelve more
of those this season. We got one down. We want
to do twelve more. And then I get ready for
my postgame show, Detroit Live with v one in only
Loomis Brown, and we do that show for about thirty
(07:04):
thirty to forty five minutes postgame where we cover all
the pressers and all the nuggets from that game. Away games,
honestly are a little more chill. I have a pregame
hit that I do with Fox two on their Lions
Live show that starts at ten am Eastern goes ten
to eleven. So they do an awesome job on there,
and that's new for me this year. So I've been
(07:25):
so excited to work with the likes of Dan Miller
and my girl Jen Hammond over there, TJ Lang, Jeff photographer,
He's the goat. And then essentially I spend the whole game.
I'll watch warm up, see who's warming up, if there's
any questionable, see if they're warming up, and then I
will watch the game and tweet as I go, report
as I go, and keep track of everything. So I
(07:48):
am brushed up and ready to go for a postgame
interview if we win, and the same thing postgame show. Okay,
that was wow. We do a lot of game day.
We're getting our money's worth on game day. Back to
my girl, Katie, what's the difference between working local teams
like you did with BCSN. She knows, she knows what
BCSN is and a national team. Was this always what
you wanted to work with? Do you follow any other sports?
(08:13):
This is a great question. Shout out to BCSN in Toledo, Ohio.
I secured that job I think, I don't know five
days after graduating Michigan back in December of twenty seventeen,
and so two weekly end up to graduation, had no
job offers. Somehow got a call from BCSN. Spent about
two and a half years doing everything imaginable under the sun,
(08:35):
and it has prepared me extronmalt, I'm not even try
that word. It has prepared me for jobs like this.
So BCSN was local TV sports. We were doing a
thirty minute live show every night. So that is very
different from working with a national team like the NFL
the Detroit Lions, because you're actually only working for one team,
(09:01):
so you're covering one sport. Granted, if you've seen my Instagram,
you'll notice that I do a lot of other sports
like basketball, college football, we do a law, we do
a lot. We don't really stop at any point. So
the biggest difference is that you're only covering one team
that one team pays you. And then in local TV
(09:22):
and local sports. You're working for a new station and
you have got to be on your game with a
variety of sports topics athletes, So it's a very big difference.
I will say this job is harder, way harder. What
was this always what you wanted to work with? Do
you follow any other sports? I grew up playing basketball,
so new basketball a lot better. But in college when
(09:44):
I was at Michigan, I interned under Jim Harbaugh, so
I kept just going back to the football side of things,
which was great. That's kind of why I went to
Michigan so I could work with the program like the Wolverines.
So it was always kind of just I was always
kind to paven that way to go to football. So
when Detroit Lions called, I was working with the University
(10:06):
of Arizona football team. Go Wildcats. I'm really proud of
what they've been able to do this season. So and
then I had also interned for the Los Angeles Rams
when I was in college, so a lot of football experience,
so there's no surprise that this is where I am now.
Do I follow any other sports? Yeah? Like I mentioned basketball,
college football, plates offball growing up, so I love I
(10:26):
love watching that We dabble, We dabble. Another one from
a girl Katie. If someone wanted to endo sports journalism,
what is the most important thing to know? Okay, the
most important thing that I have learned is you don't
always have to share like the nuggets that you get
from players or coaches. It will hurt nothing if you
(10:47):
don't tweet something. It could hurt more if you do
tweet something. So what I mean by that is I
would I would focus on building up trust more than
heading straight to Twitter and trying to break a story
or a shared and not get that no one else knows.
I keep a lot of that close to the best
so that I'm building up trust and no one has
(11:07):
to worry about, oh, she's going to tweet something and
that she shouldn't. And so that's what I would advice.
I'd get to sports poadcasters, journalists the whole thing. Babba
Dave sixty four and wants to know if I'm on
the phone twenty four seven, like just on the phone
in general, or like speaking on the phone taking phone calls.
I am on my phone a lot. It is not good.
I need to lower the hours minutes I spend on
(11:31):
my phone on social media. Of course a week it
is not good. Do you get off the record info? Yeah? Sure,
and these and these two questions kind of go hand
in hand. Or is the team only business with you?
So as an NFL team reporter, it's a very interesting
dynamic and it's a little bit of a balancing act
that you have to do because yes, I get off
(11:53):
the record info because these I've had some coaches players
who really trust me with information, which is like the
best compliment I could have ever gotten is oh, you're
telling me things that that is off the record? Or
is the team business only with you? So the balancing
act comes in with knowing some of these nuggets that
not everyone knows, because coaches and players trust you with
(12:14):
oh what what can I share? So it's for me
making sure that honestly I don't go on like go
searching for things because it's harder for me to decipher
what I should know and shouldn't know. So I kind
of air on the side of Okay, if a player
coach comes to trust me with some information, some nuggets,
(12:38):
I'm going to mainly keep them to myself and probably
never share them and just use that as as a
trust builder. Going through for the rest of my career.
But yeah, there is. There are certain points where the
team does keep it business with me where I don't
have special access. I'm still a part of the media,
so it's a little bit of a yeah, like I mentioned,
a balancing active a being with the media but also
working for the team, making sure you don't know too
(13:00):
buch information so you don't have to decipher what you
can and can't share. It's interesting. I will say that, Um,
what's your going to Thanksgiving meal? Since Canadian folk celebrate
on Monday, this is a great question. I'm not a
big turkey girl. It can be very dry. Sometimes I
hate cranberry sauce. No, I'm not the Scrooge of Thanksgiving.
Oh my god, Vinnie cannot believe that I just said
(13:21):
no cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce or turkey. Which one bothers
you more? So you love cranberry sauce. It does nothing
for me. Listen, if I'm gonna have some turkey or
a turkey like, I'm gonna have to pour in a
whole bottle of Frank's Red Hot sauce onto it. It's
it's not gross, it's it makes it flavorful, spicy. I'm
(13:42):
a spicy rol That's why I've had heartburn since the
age of sixteen. Um yeah, um, people sneaking in and out,
but yeah, what is it punk? I'll do a little
bit of pumpkin pie. Have to have cool whip on it.
But if you like, if you put like an I
sort of like filet in front of me, that's filet. Thanksgiving.
(14:03):
I think my mom did crab legs one year because
we're like, Mom, please, like we're going on a quarter
of a century, please change it up right now. Thanksgivings
look a lot different. I usually get to the dinner
when it's done, so I'll just kind of eat up
myself and family will gather around like, um, I didn't
miss out on an entire holiday. But we are used
to that, so I'm honestly boring. I'll eat a salad
for every meal in my entire life. Tim Tebow thought
(14:26):
I meant questions for Dan Cammell and I was calling
him Danny. I can confirm that I've never heard a
single soul call anyone Dan Cammebell Danny real Danny right here.
Your role as a team reporter seems pretty unique. I've
said that, yes, how would you comp How would you
compare it to pass jabs jobs you have had or
seen around the industry. It's super unique because, like I mentioned,
you're working for the same team that you cover. So
(14:51):
it's once again it's a balancing act, knowing information, knowing
what to share, what to keep to yourself. U a
network reporter can be a little more risque with their
comments and a little more critical. I'm not here to
criticize these coaches and players. They have enough stress pressure
on their plates. We'll deliver the stats and facts and
(15:13):
you guys can form your own opinion. So I'm not
here too. I'm not here to criticize, but I will
say I'm not here to be a teerleader on the sidelines.
We're here to learning football, to share stories of these
players and coaches and just open them up to the
public so you guys can know and love these lines
(15:33):
as well. What is your prep work like? What templates
do you like to use. I don't use a template, well,
not like a physical template. I have a physical or
a more mental template in my head. It has grown
exponentially every single year with sometimes each event, the prep
(15:54):
work changes because I just figure out what works, what doesn't,
what helps me be a better reporter. Half of it
comes down to literally organizing your notes in an efficient
way so that you can find it faster than the
speed of light. What I mean by that is because
if a player goes down, you have to be able
to pull that nugget, whether it's in the back of
(16:15):
your head or it's somewhere in your notes, like as
quick as umly possible, because if you let five ten
seconds go by, it may not be relevant anymore. So
that is a big part of this job is just
being to work on the fly, know your stuff so
well that you really don't have to renference a couple
of notes, and know your stuff so well that you
can say it like three or five different ways. Honestly,
(16:37):
that's what I've learned. Don't memorize things, just be able
to say them a lot of different ways. Prep work,
Like I'll go back to our preseason games for the
Detroit Lions. I would spend the week going up to
players and coaches and getting nuggets through nuggets from them
throughout the week, and season two looked a lot different
from season one because I was able to follow storylines
a little bit better. I had a better sense of
(16:58):
who was kind of making the team, what stories were
more relevant than season one, where I had no idea
what I was doing. Had sciplined probably about seventy college
basketball games in high school football games, but never NFL,
and not in this kind of environment where the coaches
and athletes are here in the same building. So I
spend the week gathering nuggets. Then we would includes press conferences,
(17:22):
play or interviews, everything, everything helped, and then what was it,
probably Friday or Saturday, we'd have a production meeting with
head coach Dan Campbell. Week one, we had it with
coach and all the coordinators, which was amazing. I think
we spent two hours in that room just getting all
of the greatest nuggets from these coaches. And then I
spent a lot of time writing down all those notes,
(17:44):
forming them into stories, bullet pointing them, organizing them. So
I didn't skip a beat. So we knew our stuff
very well. And I can definitely tell you preseason season
number two a lot better than preseason number one, and
that just comes with a lot of reps and just
having more experience. Let's see if there are any more
(18:05):
questions that I missed. Okay, this is a fun one.
Neil EN's back. Factually, boys are insting. I really don't
even know if I can come to de termined with
this one. It's a very difficult question. I have to
make sure there's my little can is not out there
for branding purposes. I think I'm gonna go with Backstreet Boys.
(18:27):
I think that was more my era ninety five babies.
You guys know what I'm talking about. Another one from
neil En. Great questions, neil why did you settle for
on off the record? If everything is very much on
the record, did you have other names you were tossing around?
What was one? Was it Tuesdays with Danny on any
(18:49):
given There's like an any given? What is it? What
is the title? Any given? Any given Sunday? So they
wanted me to name the show Dating Given Sunday on
a Tuesday because the show airs on Tuesday. Yeah, I'll
say I'll say it here. That was dump you, guys,
(19:09):
But thank you for the Everyone kind of put their
like two cents into it, and I'm like, actually, everyone,
just please stop right now. This is not okay. Let's
see if there are any more that I miss We
just crushed through a ton. Those are the ones that
I felt the need to pull Minnie, did you send
any questions in an even pique your mind right now
(19:32):
as your phone's going off? Dude, you're so popular? Dude?
Was it your mom calling you anyway? Okay, I think
that wraps it up. Hopefully that gives you guys just
more behind the scenes take on what I do on
a daily basis. I feel like I just talked for
an hour. Hopefully it wasn't that. Hopefully it was more
like twenty minutes. That's your bye week edition. I would
(19:53):
like to say we're chilling here this week. I got
my little sweatshirt on, but we are not chilling. But
I hope you guys have been joined off the record
so far. Plenty of more guests to come. As always,
let me know if there is a certain guest within
the NFL Detroit Lions the Detroit community that you would
like to hear from, and I'll do my little, my
little stalkward business on social media and see if they'd
(20:14):
be a good fit. But I appreciate you guys also
much for sending in your questions for following me. It's like,
I know what I'm saying, sometimes you guys validate me.
Sometimes some of you guys are mean, but that's okay.
You all can't be nice. I appreciate you guys. That
is a rap for this episode of Off the Record,
Stay tuned next Tuesday, a whole new episode drops
Welcome to the bye week edition of Off the Record
with Danny Rogers. I am soloing this podcast and I've
been looking forward to doing this for weeks. So essentially,
I sent in a tweet earlier this week and I asked, fans, hey,
give me all of your questions. They can be random,
they can be about football, they can be about journalism, broadcasting, whatever,
(00:21):
and you guys delivered. So I'm so excited to share
some of these fan questions, answer them for you, and
you guys can get to know me a little bit better,
or don't or click off this. It's totally up to you. Okay,
Michael Katie sent in a few questions and I appreciate
all of them. First one, how cool is it to
get to talk to all of the coaches and players?
(00:42):
This is my favorite part of the job. Whether it's
talking to coaches and players for a story or a
nugget or an update on the week, it doesn't matter
as long as I'm being able to communicate with coaches
who are extremely good at their job, players who are
playing at the highest level of the NFL like and
all the stories that come with it, Like these guys
(01:03):
have some of the greatest stories, stories of adversity and
how they made it to where they are in their lives.
So this is the best part of my job, hands down.
Nothing even comes close to it. So thank you for
that question. This is my girl, Lauren. She was currently
a student at IU. She was on the ground here
with the Hard Knocks crew and she crushed it, So
shout out to you, Lauren. She asked, as the Detroit
(01:24):
Lions reporter, how much freedom do you have to create
content with the team? For example, did you come up
with your podcast in TV show concepts? I love this question.
I will say I have all the freedom in the
world to pitch anything that I would like to pitch,
and I know it's listened to listen to rather and
not every time does an idea come to fruition. However,
(01:47):
in my job interview, why did I interviewed for this
job in June of twenty twenty one, and of course
they asked what new ideas could you bring to the
new media team here at the Detroit Lions, And I said, look,
I have seen other NFL teams with podcast and the
video component. Here we are. It took us this season,
but I am so pumped, so I have a lot
of freedom TV show concepts TV show she is referring
(02:11):
to his Inside the Pride airing every Wednesday, has a
little bit of different airtimes across the state, but mainly Wednesday,
and I got to have my hand in a lot
of that conceptualization along with executive producer Dustin so he rocks.
So shout out to everyone on that. It takes about
ten people to produce that show, by the way, so
(02:31):
please watch it. Vinnie, our intern, is running the camera
right now. He even helps with it, so it's it's
a very big deal. Neil Larson, when are you and
Tim Twentyman going to swap podcast for an episode, not
as guest, but replacing each other as host? I will
preface this by saying Neil is the man who set
up this entire set along with Vincenzo, and he's one
(02:52):
of our media producers here. He's very good what he does.
Tim Twentyman has what is it Twentymen in the Huddle
podcast that breaks down like the football side of stuff
off the record is pretty much everything not football related,
and I would love to Tim hit me up, Come on,
bring it, let's swap. Who's your next guest? For off
the record, I want to hear it. Okay. Next up,
(03:12):
another one from my girl Katie overseas is do you
do all the editing work for the podcast and the
Inside the Pride episodes? Yes for the podcast, No for
Inside the Pride, because that is a thirty minute show
that no one should have to do by themselves, and
thankfully we do not. How closely do you work with
the media team. I am the I am a part
of the media team. My official titles team reported I
(03:32):
fell under the new media category, so that's us. Have
you had ideas for content that you really want to
make with the Lions that they just won't agree to yet? Um? Honestly,
the biggest one was the podcast with videos, So we're here,
We're we're We're here, We're doing We're doing the dang thing.
So no, not yet, which is good. H Maxwell Han,
(03:54):
I will I will say that when I was getting
on the flight to New England, our producers from the
media team decided to bombard my twitter Maxwell Han. Max
is another talented producer we have here, and he sent
his in can you get Michael Haa on your pod?
Specifically so he can toss his notebook again and there's
a running joke Michael Haa. We were talking about something
(04:14):
and he just tossed his notebook in disgust. I think
about something and it was a great It was a
great TV moment. I think it was during the draft.
I don't even know what got him so worked up,
but my chill. He is one of the goats here
with the Detroit Lions. Ooh one pride at one Lion's
lover asked, what's the day in the life look like
(04:35):
for you on game day? Also? Where'd you get that white,
blue and white flannel that I was runing on my
Instagram story? You know exactly what we're talking about. I
got it at a Los Angeles I want to say,
Los Angeles H and M when we played the Rams
last season. So I don't know if it's still there,
but thank you. What does a day in the life
look like for you on game day? So it changes
(04:56):
whether it's a home game or an away game. I'll
start with home game. My responsibilities have just been upped
a lot this season, which has been amazing. That's more
reps for me. That's more time than I get to
spend getting used to know the game of football. Honestly so,
and it's more time, like I guess, I hate to
spend like in front of fans, so you guys can
get to know me a little bit better. The game day,
I wake up, I'm to the stadium by like nine
(05:19):
nine thirty am. I get there. I usually curl my
hair there or else it will fall out. I'm looking
for a new curliner and currently. But I get ready
and then I spend about an hour and a half
hour like just finishing the rest of my prep for
the pregame show that airs eleven thirty am inside Ford Field.
My host is Anthony Billino, So we have a thirty
(05:39):
minute show. We go over and act is what to
expect for that game. We do some cool packages, and
we have our fantasy football segment, which I'm not winning currently.
So that's eleven thirty to noon. After that, I usually
haven't eaten yet, so I'll grab some food. I'll go
down and make my rounds on the field. When you're
in this industry, I don't know. I've been a part
(06:01):
of the NFL since I was twenty one years old,
so going on four or five years. You know people
from just about every team that which is awesome. So
in that little window, I get to go down and
say hello to coaches or players that I've come across
to my career, which is one of my absolute favorite
things on game day, and then I am still trying
to figure this out where I sit on game day.
(06:22):
I change it up every game. Honestly, it has to
do a game good Wi Fi so I can look
over the live stats. But then I get ready to
do some in game hits at the desk that go
on the big video board. So we have halftime highlights
that cover the first half of Detroit Lines versus Whoever.
And then we also have scores around the league and
highlights around the league, so we also we also catch
(06:43):
up on that. So that's my halftime, that's my third quarter.
The rest of it, I am preppy my postgame questions
in case we win. That's when I get to do
my postgame interviews. I would like to do twelve more
of those this season. We got one down. We want
to do twelve more. And then I get ready for
my postgame show, Detroit Live with v one in only
Loomis Brown, and we do that show for about thirty
(07:04):
thirty to forty five minutes postgame where we cover all
the pressers and all the nuggets from that game. Away games,
honestly are a little more chill. I have a pregame
hit that I do with Fox two on their Lions
Live show that starts at ten am Eastern goes ten
to eleven. So they do an awesome job on there,
and that's new for me this year. So I've been
(07:25):
so excited to work with the likes of Dan Miller
and my girl Jen Hammond over there, TJ Lang, Jeff photographer,
He's the goat. And then essentially I spend the whole game.
I'll watch warm up, see who's warming up, if there's
any questionable, see if they're warming up, and then I
will watch the game and tweet as I go, report
as I go, and keep track of everything. So I
(07:48):
am brushed up and ready to go for a postgame
interview if we win, and the same thing postgame show. Okay,
that was wow. We do a lot of game day.
We're getting our money's worth on game day. Back to
my girl, Katie, what's the difference between working local teams
like you did with BCSN. She knows, she knows what
BCSN is and a national team. Was this always what
you wanted to work with? Do you follow any other sports?
(08:13):
This is a great question. Shout out to BCSN in Toledo, Ohio.
I secured that job I think, I don't know five
days after graduating Michigan back in December of twenty seventeen,
and so two weekly end up to graduation, had no
job offers. Somehow got a call from BCSN. Spent about
two and a half years doing everything imaginable under the sun,
(08:35):
and it has prepared me extronmalt, I'm not even try
that word. It has prepared me for jobs like this.
So BCSN was local TV sports. We were doing a
thirty minute live show every night. So that is very
different from working with a national team like the NFL
the Detroit Lions, because you're actually only working for one team,
(09:01):
so you're covering one sport. Granted, if you've seen my Instagram,
you'll notice that I do a lot of other sports
like basketball, college football, we do a law, we do
a lot. We don't really stop at any point. So
the biggest difference is that you're only covering one team
that one team pays you. And then in local TV
(09:22):
and local sports. You're working for a new station and
you have got to be on your game with a
variety of sports topics athletes, So it's a very big difference.
I will say this job is harder, way harder. What
was this always what you wanted to work with? Do
you follow any other sports? I grew up playing basketball,
so new basketball a lot better. But in college when
(09:44):
I was at Michigan, I interned under Jim Harbaugh, so
I kept just going back to the football side of things,
which was great. That's kind of why I went to
Michigan so I could work with the program like the Wolverines.
So it was always kind of just I was always
kind to paven that way to go to football. So
when Detroit Lions called, I was working with the University
(10:06):
of Arizona football team. Go Wildcats. I'm really proud of
what they've been able to do this season. So and
then I had also interned for the Los Angeles Rams
when I was in college, so a lot of football experience,
so there's no surprise that this is where I am now.
Do I follow any other sports? Yeah? Like I mentioned basketball,
college football, plates offball growing up, so I love I
(10:26):
love watching that We dabble, We dabble. Another one from
a girl Katie. If someone wanted to endo sports journalism,
what is the most important thing to know? Okay, the
most important thing that I have learned is you don't
always have to share like the nuggets that you get
from players or coaches. It will hurt nothing if you
(10:47):
don't tweet something. It could hurt more if you do
tweet something. So what I mean by that is I
would I would focus on building up trust more than
heading straight to Twitter and trying to break a story
or a shared and not get that no one else knows.
I keep a lot of that close to the best
so that I'm building up trust and no one has
(11:07):
to worry about, oh, she's going to tweet something and
that she shouldn't. And so that's what I would advice.
I'd get to sports poadcasters, journalists the whole thing. Babba
Dave sixty four and wants to know if I'm on
the phone twenty four seven, like just on the phone
in general, or like speaking on the phone taking phone calls.
I am on my phone a lot. It is not good.
I need to lower the hours minutes I spend on
(11:31):
my phone on social media. Of course a week it
is not good. Do you get off the record info? Yeah? Sure,
and these and these two questions kind of go hand
in hand. Or is the team only business with you?
So as an NFL team reporter, it's a very interesting
dynamic and it's a little bit of a balancing act
that you have to do because yes, I get off
(11:53):
the record info because these I've had some coaches players
who really trust me with information, which is like the
best compliment I could have ever gotten is oh, you're
telling me things that that is off the record? Or
is the team business only with you? So the balancing
act comes in with knowing some of these nuggets that
not everyone knows, because coaches and players trust you with
(12:14):
oh what what can I share? So it's for me
making sure that honestly I don't go on like go
searching for things because it's harder for me to decipher
what I should know and shouldn't know. So I kind
of air on the side of Okay, if a player
coach comes to trust me with some information, some nuggets,
(12:38):
I'm going to mainly keep them to myself and probably
never share them and just use that as as a
trust builder. Going through for the rest of my career.
But yeah, there is. There are certain points where the
team does keep it business with me where I don't
have special access. I'm still a part of the media,
so it's a little bit of a yeah, like I mentioned,
a balancing active a being with the media but also
working for the team, making sure you don't know too
(13:00):
buch information so you don't have to decipher what you
can and can't share. It's interesting. I will say that, Um,
what's your going to Thanksgiving meal? Since Canadian folk celebrate
on Monday, this is a great question. I'm not a
big turkey girl. It can be very dry. Sometimes I
hate cranberry sauce. No, I'm not the Scrooge of Thanksgiving.
Oh my god, Vinnie cannot believe that I just said
(13:21):
no cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce or turkey. Which one bothers
you more? So you love cranberry sauce. It does nothing
for me. Listen, if I'm gonna have some turkey or
a turkey like, I'm gonna have to pour in a
whole bottle of Frank's Red Hot sauce onto it. It's
it's not gross, it's it makes it flavorful, spicy. I'm
(13:42):
a spicy rol That's why I've had heartburn since the
age of sixteen. Um yeah, um, people sneaking in and out,
but yeah, what is it punk? I'll do a little
bit of pumpkin pie. Have to have cool whip on it.
But if you like, if you put like an I
sort of like filet in front of me, that's filet. Thanksgiving.
(14:03):
I think my mom did crab legs one year because
we're like, Mom, please, like we're going on a quarter
of a century, please change it up right now. Thanksgivings
look a lot different. I usually get to the dinner
when it's done, so I'll just kind of eat up
myself and family will gather around like, um, I didn't
miss out on an entire holiday. But we are used
to that, so I'm honestly boring. I'll eat a salad
for every meal in my entire life. Tim Tebow thought
(14:26):
I meant questions for Dan Cammell and I was calling
him Danny. I can confirm that I've never heard a
single soul call anyone Dan Cammebell Danny real Danny right here.
Your role as a team reporter seems pretty unique. I've
said that, yes, how would you comp How would you
compare it to pass jabs jobs you have had or
seen around the industry. It's super unique because, like I mentioned,
you're working for the same team that you cover. So
(14:51):
it's once again it's a balancing act, knowing information, knowing
what to share, what to keep to yourself. U a
network reporter can be a little more risque with their
comments and a little more critical. I'm not here to
criticize these coaches and players. They have enough stress pressure
on their plates. We'll deliver the stats and facts and
(15:13):
you guys can form your own opinion. So I'm not
here too. I'm not here to criticize, but I will
say I'm not here to be a teerleader on the sidelines.
We're here to learning football, to share stories of these
players and coaches and just open them up to the
public so you guys can know and love these lines
(15:33):
as well. What is your prep work like? What templates
do you like to use. I don't use a template, well,
not like a physical template. I have a physical or
a more mental template in my head. It has grown
exponentially every single year with sometimes each event, the prep
(15:54):
work changes because I just figure out what works, what doesn't,
what helps me be a better reporter. Half of it
comes down to literally organizing your notes in an efficient
way so that you can find it faster than the
speed of light. What I mean by that is because
if a player goes down, you have to be able
to pull that nugget, whether it's in the back of
(16:15):
your head or it's somewhere in your notes, like as
quick as umly possible, because if you let five ten
seconds go by, it may not be relevant anymore. So
that is a big part of this job is just
being to work on the fly, know your stuff so
well that you really don't have to renference a couple
of notes, and know your stuff so well that you
can say it like three or five different ways. Honestly,
(16:37):
that's what I've learned. Don't memorize things, just be able
to say them a lot of different ways. Prep work,
Like I'll go back to our preseason games for the
Detroit Lions. I would spend the week going up to
players and coaches and getting nuggets through nuggets from them
throughout the week, and season two looked a lot different
from season one because I was able to follow storylines
a little bit better. I had a better sense of
(16:58):
who was kind of making the team, what stories were
more relevant than season one, where I had no idea
what I was doing. Had sciplined probably about seventy college
basketball games in high school football games, but never NFL,
and not in this kind of environment where the coaches
and athletes are here in the same building. So I
spend the week gathering nuggets. Then we would includes press conferences,
(17:22):
play or interviews, everything, everything helped, and then what was it,
probably Friday or Saturday, we'd have a production meeting with
head coach Dan Campbell. Week one, we had it with
coach and all the coordinators, which was amazing. I think
we spent two hours in that room just getting all
of the greatest nuggets from these coaches. And then I
spent a lot of time writing down all those notes,
(17:44):
forming them into stories, bullet pointing them, organizing them. So
I didn't skip a beat. So we knew our stuff
very well. And I can definitely tell you preseason season
number two a lot better than preseason number one, and
that just comes with a lot of reps and just
having more experience. Let's see if there are any more
(18:05):
questions that I missed. Okay, this is a fun one.
Neil EN's back. Factually, boys are insting. I really don't
even know if I can come to de termined with
this one. It's a very difficult question. I have to
make sure there's my little can is not out there
for branding purposes. I think I'm gonna go with Backstreet Boys.
(18:27):
I think that was more my era ninety five babies.
You guys know what I'm talking about. Another one from
neil En. Great questions, neil why did you settle for
on off the record? If everything is very much on
the record, did you have other names you were tossing around?
What was one? Was it Tuesdays with Danny on any
(18:49):
given There's like an any given? What is it? What
is the title? Any given? Any given Sunday? So they
wanted me to name the show Dating Given Sunday on
a Tuesday because the show airs on Tuesday. Yeah, I'll
say I'll say it here. That was dump you, guys,
(19:09):
But thank you for the Everyone kind of put their
like two cents into it, and I'm like, actually, everyone,
just please stop right now. This is not okay. Let's
see if there are any more that I miss We
just crushed through a ton. Those are the ones that
I felt the need to pull Minnie, did you send
any questions in an even pique your mind right now
(19:32):
as your phone's going off? Dude, you're so popular? Dude?
Was it your mom calling you anyway? Okay, I think
that wraps it up. Hopefully that gives you guys just
more behind the scenes take on what I do on
a daily basis. I feel like I just talked for
an hour. Hopefully it wasn't that. Hopefully it was more
like twenty minutes. That's your bye week edition. I would
(19:53):
like to say we're chilling here this week. I got
my little sweatshirt on, but we are not chilling. But
I hope you guys have been joined off the record
so far. Plenty of more guests to come. As always,
let me know if there is a certain guest within
the NFL Detroit Lions the Detroit community that you would
like to hear from, and I'll do my little, my
little stalkward business on social media and see if they'd
(20:14):
be a good fit. But I appreciate you guys also
much for sending in your questions for following me. It's like,
I know what I'm saying, sometimes you guys validate me.
Sometimes some of you guys are mean, but that's okay.
You all can't be nice. I appreciate you guys. That
is a rap for this episode of Off the Record,
Stay tuned next Tuesday, a whole new episode drops
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