September 13, 2022 • 22 mins
On this episode of Off the Record with Dannie Rogers, Dannie highlights Indianapolis Colts Team Reporter, Larra Overton. The former Indiana University track and field captain competed at two national championships with a competitive mindset stemming for her parents, who were both coaches while she was growing up. Larra talks getting her start in the industry with Big Ten Network and working her way up to Indianapolis where she would meet her husband and continues to build her career for the last decade. Off the Record with Dannie Rogers is a new Lions podcast where Detroit Lions team reporter Dannie Rogers shares the stories of people in and around the NFL and Lions franchise.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Off the Record with Danny Rogers, a new
Detroit Lions podcast airing online social media platforms along with
Wherever You Listen to Podcast. I'm your host, Danny Rodgers,
and I'll be introducing you to some guests with pretty
amazing stories, to network reporters and writers, chefs, and some
of the Detroit Lions very own on how they've gotten
to where they are, the good and the not so good.
(00:21):
Tune into Off the Record, airing every Tuesday. Today, I'm
featuring Lara Overton, the team reporter for the Indianapolis Colts,
during the Lions joint practices in India before preseason game
number two this year, I sat down to pick the
former Indiana University track and field team captain on her
role in the NFL, her reporting with ESPN, and her
(00:43):
journey through local TV that brought her to Indianapolis, where
she would meet her husband and complete her daily mile
in very stylish shoes. Here is Lara's story, joined by
the Indiana Girl. Lara, we just talked about how unique
your name is. Dad's name is Larry, so that's kind
of where it comes. Causes a lot of confusion, it does.
(01:06):
Indiana Girl through and through, but we talked about it.
You're from New Albany, which is very close to Louisville, Kentucky. Right, Am,
I saying Louisville, Right, you got it? Okay, everyone Louisville, Louisville,
Like everyone has trouble with it. The best way to
say it is like you have mashed potatoes in your mouth,
will like it just merges together. I love that. Any
Southern accents in the family, Oh my gosh, yes, if
you hear my mom, you would hear for a sure
(01:27):
from her. But my dad's whole family is from Tennessee,
and my Grandma's been in the Midwest, like in Indiana
from the last sixty plus years. Still has the thickest,
like thick as molasses, Tennessee accents. So when I go home,
if I'm home for forty eight hours, I'll come back
and my husband's like, I tell you've been at home,
because everything's drawn out, everything's a little slower. It's one
(01:49):
of the things like in TV. You had to try
to train against it and be very neutral in your speech.
So I combat it. But every once in a while
there are certain words will slip out, so I'll drop
a few y'alls in there from time to time. You
mentioned the hobby. Where is he from? He grew up
here in Indianapolis and we met right when I moved
to indian moved here in two thousand and ten, and
so we've it's been amazing to grow our careers and
(02:13):
get We got married two years ago, full pandemic wedding.
I don't suggest that for anyone, but I will really
test the strength of how much you want to be
with someone when you're battling all of that amid like
trying to like throw this, you know, big party and
begin a marriage and do all those things. Yeah. I
did see the pandemic wedding and I noticed the date
twenty twenty. Yeah, we'll get we'll get to that. I
(02:33):
want to start off your track and field girl, yeah
country girl. So did that kind of spur you into
the sports reporting world? Absolutely? So. My mom and dad
were both coaches when I was growing up. My mom
coached cheerleading at the University of Louisville. My dad coached
track and field, and so when we would tag a
lot with my mom to football and basketball games, we'd
sit on the snideline. So I just kind of thought
that was a very common place to be a kid
(02:55):
who was just at the end of the bench, you know,
hanging out and watching everything firsthand. So I think that's
where my love of live sporting events began. And then yes,
ramtrack and cross country at Indiana, interned at ESPN and
the process. Interned at a couple of local stations, and
when I got out of college, I started working in
Louisville at one of the affiliates, forty one down there.
(03:19):
I've been at two different Fox affiliates, so always have
to confuse them, because it was forty one in Louisville
and fifty nine in Indianapolis. So I was working there
and working as an associate producer on the morning show
because I was like, get a foot in the door
wherever you can. Would go in at two thirty in
the morning, finish at ten thirty am. But it opened
up my nights and weekends to work with the sports department,
filled with incredible guys who taught me how to shoot
(03:41):
and edit and turn packages and do all of that.
And I was able to put together enough of a
resume tape that had a lot of IU football on it.
Because I would just drive myself up to Bloomington, one
man band, turn a package to those types of things
that I eventually was able to get into the hands
of Big Ten Network shortly after the network was launching.
From my background running track having the connections within the
(04:04):
Big Ten. The very first time I was live on
television was doing an i U football game. I did
in one weekend, an IU game on Thursday, Yeah, Purdue
game on Saturday. So it was totally like baptism by fire,
and I quickly realized as much as I loved doing
live events, I so badly needed the reps. I was
so green, and so I ended up taking a position
(04:24):
at one of the local affiliates in Tarahote, Indiana as
a weekend sports anchor and sports reporter. That really helped
just build my confidence, build experience. I'd a lot to grow,
you know how that is, especially in those very early opportunities,
you're just figuring it all out, and that's the best
way to do it is getting that hands on experience,
whether it's through internships, or it's through seasonal opportunities, or
(04:46):
it's a full time position. That really helped me, and
then I put myself in a position to continue with
Big Ten network, and that's what ultimately led me here
It's Indianapolis, and then from there, when I moved to Indie,
I did not have a full time job. I was
just doing all the freelance I possibly could do, and
fortunately the Indiana Pacers brought me in to do some
things there, so I was like personal training and doing
(05:07):
like a lot of fitness coaching things during the day,
and then I would go and have my media jobs
at various media jobs in the evening, and from there
everything built on top of that and continue to do
track and field with Big ten Network and Fox Sports
and ESPN, and the ultimately July of twenty nineteen, I
was hired with the Indianapolis Colts after six years at
the Fox affiliate here in Indianapolis, both on the morning
(05:30):
show and in the sports department. Okay, to go back
first to that first sideline job. There's a lot did
you have you ever watched that game back? Oh? Yeah,
you do. Oh, I will watch very well. No, it's
taken off of YouTube. No one can ever see it. Yes,
that's one of the good things is it was early
enough that I have seen it, but it's not like
it's readily available. You have to do a little digging
(05:52):
for it. But yeah, I just it's one of those
things where nothing you do really prepares you for exactly
what a siline role entails. You just have to learn
by doing it. I mean, it's not a class. It's not.
I mean, unless you're doing an internship where you're doing
live events production. It's just so hard to know. And
(06:12):
everyone also has such a unique way in how they prepare.
Oh yeah, I hadn't. Like it was. I had all
the notes, i'd done, all the preparation, I had an
abundance of it. I just didn't know how to prepare
the right things in the right way, if that makes sense.
And that's really what when you spend time, everyone carves
out their own way of doing things. And this is
what I always tell people who are starting out in
(06:33):
the business. Is one of the most frustrating things is
that there's no like roadmap you can follow. Everyone's journey
takes a completely different route. I mean, we have a
group text of thirty different women are yes, thirty women
who have all either are currently NFL reporters or have
been previous team reporters in the league. Because once you're
in it, you don't leave it. You're part of that
(06:54):
sorority forever. And if you looked at every single one
of those women, you know we're kind of all in
the same spot, or at least comparable positions. You know,
everyone's route would be completely unique in getting there, and
that can be really frustrating, but it can also be
really empowering knowing that you can't compare your journey to
anyone else's because it's just not meant to be the
exact same for anyone. It's not anything you would go
(07:16):
back and change about your journey to getting here. I
think that the one I wouldn't necessarily say I would
change anything, but I wish that. And this is my
advice to a lot of young people is obviously you're
so eager and ambitious, and you just keep thinking a
step ahead and you're thinking about the next thing coming exactly.
I would have really tried to enjoy the stops I
(07:37):
made a little bit more and not been so worried
about looking forward, being more present. The old thing, be
where your feet are, because when you're telling those stories,
wherever it is, whatever market you're working in, whatever role
you're working in, the person's story you're telling is the
most important story to that person, and they deserve that attention.
You shouldn't be oh, it's just a package on whatever
(07:59):
this is, and I just have to turn around and
get it done. It shouldn't be a just get it
done approach to anything. You should approach each and every
opportunity with care, because that's not only part of your responsibility,
it's also what you know that team, that player that coached,
that person's story deserves. Right. Is there a story that
sticks out to you that you loved telling at one
(08:19):
point that you really haven't forgotten about? Oh, my gosh,
I know it's a loaded question. That is such a
great question, and there have been just tons of them. Well,
recently we've launched a series with the Colts in that
we have gone back into the archives and talked with
some of the scouts about how certain guys ended up
as Colts. Really so one of them that I have loved.
(08:42):
We've done one on Edwin James the Scouting Report and
Reggie Wayne Scouting Report. One of the ones that I
loved so much, we caught up with the scout who
drafted Robert Mathis and he had this VHS tape that
Robert Mathis had edited himself to send to teams. So
because out of college, yeah, he went to a smaller school,
HBCU guy And the scout still has the tape and
(09:05):
we popped it in and played it and it was
just so raw, and it's this grainy film that you're
able to watch and you know, those guys, those gems
that you're able to find is so much of what
makes the scouting process so intriguing. Like it's it's easy
to know, I shouldn't say easy, but you know, finding
the first round guys like they flash, right, But how
(09:26):
do you find a guy who goes in rounds four, five,
and six who ends up being the league's all time
leader in strip sacks. That's a film on a grainy
film that and it just shows you the ambition that
he had to put this tape together and to you know,
try to provide himself that opportunity, how motivated he was
to defy all of the odds, coming out of a
(09:46):
small school, coming out of a tough background, to rise
above all of the challenges and create that. And so
that was just recently one of it's been the most
fun because it's such an underdog story and it's such
an inspiring story for so many beautiful I know you
tackle a lot of stories while you're here with the cold, Yes,
while you're doing your freelance stuff, which I think we're
so lucky that we get to do that outside of
(10:08):
our full time NFL jobs. But I see you getting
on those those track and field sidelines. Yeah, with ESPN
and you're out there. What an organ all the time. Yeah.
So at the University of Oregon hosted NC double As
this year and then also hosted the World Championship. So
it's an incredible year out there, which of course that
is hallowed ground for track and fields, So there a
(10:29):
lot of different places that have been able to go.
For me, it's University of Texas has hosted NC double As.
We've been to Oregon a number of times, a place
I competed as an athlete, so getting to go back
there and see the evolution of Hayward field has been incredible.
We're just recently all miss for SEC so it's been
really fun too. When you spend the majority of your
(10:49):
job in the NFL in professional sports, to have those
opportunities to go back and go to college sports and
connect with the athletes there, and there's so much significance
to those stories into what they're trying to achieve, especially
when there's something about college athletics championships, Right, that's just
(11:09):
it is like the purest form. I love it, So
would you compete it in? Right? Yeah? Yeah, I did.
I went to I did. I went to two national
championships in track and two and cross the events. So
I ran the fifteen hundred. That was my I know,
I was a middle distance runner. I really thought I
was an eight hundred runner, and I may ran the
eight hundred a lot, and then my coach was like
she was only really doing that to like, now we're
(11:30):
gonna move up to the fifteen hundred. I remember being like,
we're going from two laps to three and three quarters lass. Yeah,
that was a lot different, and it was in the
sense that there's a lot more time in the fifteen
hundred than there isn't the eight just to think and strategize.
And I was always like I wanted to go out
to the front and just run from front and run
from a head, and you can't quite do that because
you give everyone the opportunity that's really in. From there,
(11:51):
you're basically like the rabbit out there, you know, up front,
So it took a lot of learning, and I think
that I wish that I had And this kind of
is the consistency across my professional career mathletics career. I
wish I'd had more patience early on, you know, just
like in those early reporting roles. I wish I had
a little bit more patience, a little more poise, because
(12:12):
you're just like so eager and anxious, and that's how
I would race. So there are a lot of parallels
between those two aspects of my life. I think how
much did having two parents, yeah, as college coaches influenced
that mindset and kind of that competitiveness behind everything. Oh,
have a hundred percent I did. And because you saw
(12:33):
how they would coach their athletes and met they were
great about allowing me to do my thing. And I'm
very fortunate too that I had phenomenal coaches in high
school and in college, and my parents never tried to,
you know, overstep any of that, but I was I've
always been a bit of a daddy's girl in particular,
so I really like strived to want to like achieve
(12:53):
and impress him and do all of those things. Right like,
because we had such a tight bond through track and
field and through everything. I just called my dad to
day and he's ranting about, you know, the White Sox,
and he's asking about our depth linebacker right now in
different things. So he's always had that connection. So it
was one of those things where I think that I
saw how much he saw potential in his athletes and
(13:15):
how they would respond or how they didn't respond, and
the impact that that had when they would underachieve. So
it's always been one thing that has been a common
thread in the course of our family is being highly competitive,
of being really invested in sports, but also really being
the biggest cheerleaders for one another. And when you have
(13:38):
people who are so invested, you want to do the
best you know for them, friends, family, co workers, whoever
it is. So that's certainly been something that I've carried
into this aspect of my career as well. In addition
to everything you do for Colts, ESPN, Box Sports, Bay
To Network, can we talk about the shoe game. The
shoe game is very strong. The Instagram page is flooded
with the shoegate. It is marvelous. I thank you, thank you.
(14:00):
I did something that I would say that is an
influence for sure of working in the league when you
see so many guys who have incredible shoes. Jacoby Brissett
would always have these really unique shoes when he was
the quarterback here, and I was always in all of
Jacoby's shoe game, and he told me a bit of
information that I value, and I also hate him for
(14:22):
he told me about the Goat app. And so now
I'm addicted to the goat app and finding, you know,
shoes and different things. And so Jacobe, I love you,
I appreciate you. You've helped my shoe game, You've hurt
my pocketbook. But yeah, so I it was one of
those things where I'm really self conscious. I'm pretty petite,
so I was self conscious on the sidelines about being short.
(14:42):
So I needed I would always wear wedges on the
sidelines so I would have a little, yeah, extra elevation,
especially when you're talking to DeForest Buckner or you know,
you've seen what our tight ends look, yeah, coaches like
six or six five, Yeah, exactly. So then it was like, Okay,
if I'm gonna be dressed up on game day, you've
got you know, suits, whatever it is. You're in professional wear.
(15:04):
I eventually needed to wear tennis shoes, and I just
didn't want to wear average, you know, just my regular
You can't. I can't put my like running shoes on
every day, right, No, we can't do that. So it
was like the Initially, I like, my gateway was the dunks.
I've got a pair of blue and white dunks. Love
the dunks. So there's those, and I was like, oh,
(15:24):
I'm a big Airmax girl. I'm wearing wearing airs are
beautiful little um so from from training camp. And then
it was like, okay, Airmax. And now I've gotten into
the Jordan's, which is what it might be my downs?
Which ones? The ones are my favorite, the Jordan Ones.
I just got my first pair. They're such a variety
of colors, so it works. But I figured it was like, Okay,
I gotta come in with strong shoot game because you
(15:45):
wanted to compliment the outfit. Well, then guys would start
asking what shoes You're gonna wear, and now I'm like,
oh no, there's an expectation that I gotta come strong.
You do earn some credibility, you know, you do, as
long as they're tied, right. Apparently mine weren't tied right
the other day, Danny, you hear it from your players,
you do, You're gonna need to tie that up one
more whole. Absolutely, And it's kind of rude, but I
respected they're just looking out for us, Okay. Yeah, shoegame
(16:07):
is amazing. And then another part of your social media
which I see every single day, didn't the spug off
of you. We're literally like next to a farm, so
your field tractors over there. Yeah, forest is over there.
There's like cows right down the street. This is Indiana.
You can't swell anything though. Yeah. Yeah, it's really great. Yeah,
very wholesome. Here, I have to say every day and
(16:27):
you're on our Instagram store you post the daily mile. Yeah,
what day are you at right now? I am on
one thousand and twenty four consecutive days over three full years,
almost three years. So I started in twenty nineteen. November
one of twenty nineteen was my first day. Why that
is the fantastic question, probably what I've asked myself one
thousand and twenty four times. So I've always been a runner,
(16:50):
that's you know my background. I actually had three knee
surgeries when I was in college. So I wasn't sure.
There was one point where I didn't even know if
once I was done competing, I would be able to
tenue running or walk or walk? Yeah, exactly. There is
a guy who I follow who is a fitness instructor
in Chicago. He's a Lulu Lim and global ambassador. Shout
out to Jeremy Walton. He's one of the most inspiring
(17:12):
motivating people. He was doing the Daily mile and I
saw him doing it, and I figured, Okay, why don't
I try and do it from November first to December
thirty First, I'll go just two months to see I
can do it. So I got through the first two months,
and then I realized if I did one hundred straight days,
it would like run my birthdays in February and basically
carried me into my birthday. And I figured, okay, that's
kind of a good way to go, right, Yeah, like
(17:34):
one hundred days consecutively. Well, I got two hundred days.
I still felt good. I was like, let's go for
two hundred, and so I kept it up. Well, now
we're into twenty twenty and you had nothing else to do, yes,
and like running was one of the things because you
could go outside. Obviously, you were only a few places
you could go right right. So, and I'm very fortunate
(17:55):
that we live in an area that has a lot
of running paths, so I was able to stay distanced
from people and go out and run and kind of
be secluded and all of that. So it was my
sanity through a lot of that, just being able to
have that, And I'm so grateful that I've been able
to stay healthy and go on this as long as
I have. And one person I was just talking to
is I was saying that I think because when I'd
(18:18):
had the injuries that I'd had, I would basically like
run a half marathon and then take two weeks off
and I would go high this kind of yo yo
type of thing. Well, I think with the daily mile
it's helped me stay healthy because it's just been so
much more incremental. Yes, and I feel as good as
I ever have. So we got to go for three
years now, that's the next first. But it's just that
you think about it as it's ten fifteen minutes out
(18:40):
of your entire day, and probably the best calling ten
to fifteen minutes you could have. It's just like taking
time being mindful of taking time for yourself, carving out
that one thing in your day, and really, after the
first month, it becomes habit. And you mentioned social media,
and that's one of the really powerful things and the
positives of it is so many people have jumped on
board and flu and stay, which is really really cool.
(19:02):
So I thought about doing it. You should, but it
would be anything if he doesn't do running well. I looked.
I looked after practice yesterday, three and a half miles
of just walking back. Absolutely, that doesn't count, though, right
I have to be very purposeful and set out for
a mile. You can't. So here's the other beautiful thing,
much like your career in sports media, and that no
person's journey is the same. No person's daily mile journey
is the same. It can be whatever you want. It
(19:23):
can be you know, you just set that certain goal
of what you want to do that day. I've told
people that if running is not your thing, or if
walking is not your thing, you're limited, Like make it
ten minutes of meditation or ten minutes of stretching. Like
I have one friend who did ten minutes of core
work for six months. Oh that was what she did.
So yeah, and it was just because she was having
some back issues in different things, so that was what
(19:43):
she did. So for me, though, the way I do
it is like I walked my dog this morning. That
doesn't necessarily count. Boat. Tugboat is an English large large,
very large, and very sweet. Thinks he's a lapdog, gentle giant.
So I walked him for about a half mile and
then I attack on a mile. Okay, at least a mile.
Some days there are more like yesterday to four, but
(20:05):
today was just just one. So we're in training camps.
You take a load off exactly exactly. I'll get those
ten thousand steps. I love it. Um Okay, before we
wrap it up, I know you just seem like the
queen of balance. So how did you balance a pandemic
wedding with this career and navigating this lifestyle which Hobby
(20:27):
I'm sure is very patient and they're standing with this schedule. Well,
I thank you so much. I appreciate that so much.
Don't believe everything you see, because as it might see
that there's balance. Like yesterday was pure chaos, Like I
left my swipe card, my credential and everything for like
our office here, left that at home I had, I
was I was a full disaster yesterday. Like I will
(20:49):
tell you so, it's not all as it seems always,
but I think most of it is leaning on the
people around you and having a great support system and
having your people at work and having your people at home,
and having those different people who you can call on
to help out. Like I just think about it all
the time. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such
(21:11):
a wonderful team. Of course, like on the field our
players and coaches, but then our production team when it's
like there are times when I've been struggling and you know,
I've my friends who are like, hey, how can I
help you with this? Or you know, if there's so
I think that it's being more comfortable asking for help
and not being so you know, um, I don't want
to say arrogant, but that I can handle everything. Yeah,
(21:33):
I don't need anyone. Yeah, it's like, don't be too proud, yes,
to reach out to those people and to you know,
have those people that you call upon, and also being
able to call upon different people for different things. I
mean I think about you know, just even our group text,
like you know, when it's like, guys, how are we
jruggling wardrobe the most question. You think it's a village,
(21:56):
you know, And I think that just having the reassurance
that you never have to do anything alone, yes, and
that you have those people and it can be, you know,
something as minor as you know, having those people you
call upon to lift you up on a bad day
or when you're really struggling and you need really significant advice.
Just knowing those people who you have in your corner
and knowing that everybody is there for you and supporting you.
(22:18):
So I think that that's the biggest key, is just
never having to carry that whole load on your shoulders
and using the people who are around the round because
they want to be used and they want to support
you and want to see you succeed. You Just listen
to another episode of Off the Record with Danny Rogers.
A new episode drops every Tuesday.
This is Off the Record with Danny Rogers, a new
Detroit Lions podcast airing online social media platforms along with
Wherever You Listen to Podcast. I'm your host, Danny Rodgers,
and I'll be introducing you to some guests with pretty
amazing stories, to network reporters and writers, chefs, and some
of the Detroit Lions very own on how they've gotten
to where they are, the good and the not so good.
(00:21):
Tune into Off the Record, airing every Tuesday. Today, I'm
featuring Lara Overton, the team reporter for the Indianapolis Colts,
during the Lions joint practices in India before preseason game
number two this year, I sat down to pick the
former Indiana University track and field team captain on her
role in the NFL, her reporting with ESPN, and her
(00:43):
journey through local TV that brought her to Indianapolis, where
she would meet her husband and complete her daily mile
in very stylish shoes. Here is Lara's story, joined by
the Indiana Girl. Lara, we just talked about how unique
your name is. Dad's name is Larry, so that's kind
of where it comes. Causes a lot of confusion, it does.
(01:06):
Indiana Girl through and through, but we talked about it.
You're from New Albany, which is very close to Louisville, Kentucky. Right, Am,
I saying Louisville, Right, you got it? Okay, everyone Louisville, Louisville,
Like everyone has trouble with it. The best way to
say it is like you have mashed potatoes in your mouth,
will like it just merges together. I love that. Any
Southern accents in the family, Oh my gosh, yes, if
you hear my mom, you would hear for a sure
(01:27):
from her. But my dad's whole family is from Tennessee,
and my Grandma's been in the Midwest, like in Indiana
from the last sixty plus years. Still has the thickest,
like thick as molasses, Tennessee accents. So when I go home,
if I'm home for forty eight hours, I'll come back
and my husband's like, I tell you've been at home,
because everything's drawn out, everything's a little slower. It's one
(01:49):
of the things like in TV. You had to try
to train against it and be very neutral in your speech.
So I combat it. But every once in a while
there are certain words will slip out, so I'll drop
a few y'alls in there from time to time. You
mentioned the hobby. Where is he from? He grew up
here in Indianapolis and we met right when I moved
to indian moved here in two thousand and ten, and
so we've it's been amazing to grow our careers and
(02:13):
get We got married two years ago, full pandemic wedding.
I don't suggest that for anyone, but I will really
test the strength of how much you want to be
with someone when you're battling all of that amid like
trying to like throw this, you know, big party and
begin a marriage and do all those things. Yeah. I
did see the pandemic wedding and I noticed the date
twenty twenty. Yeah, we'll get we'll get to that. I
(02:33):
want to start off your track and field girl, yeah
country girl. So did that kind of spur you into
the sports reporting world? Absolutely? So. My mom and dad
were both coaches when I was growing up. My mom
coached cheerleading at the University of Louisville. My dad coached
track and field, and so when we would tag a
lot with my mom to football and basketball games, we'd
sit on the snideline. So I just kind of thought
that was a very common place to be a kid
(02:55):
who was just at the end of the bench, you know,
hanging out and watching everything firsthand. So I think that's
where my love of live sporting events began. And then yes,
ramtrack and cross country at Indiana, interned at ESPN and
the process. Interned at a couple of local stations, and
when I got out of college, I started working in
Louisville at one of the affiliates, forty one down there.
(03:19):
I've been at two different Fox affiliates, so always have
to confuse them, because it was forty one in Louisville
and fifty nine in Indianapolis. So I was working there
and working as an associate producer on the morning show
because I was like, get a foot in the door
wherever you can. Would go in at two thirty in
the morning, finish at ten thirty am. But it opened
up my nights and weekends to work with the sports department,
filled with incredible guys who taught me how to shoot
(03:41):
and edit and turn packages and do all of that.
And I was able to put together enough of a
resume tape that had a lot of IU football on it.
Because I would just drive myself up to Bloomington, one
man band, turn a package to those types of things
that I eventually was able to get into the hands
of Big Ten Network shortly after the network was launching.
From my background running track having the connections within the
(04:04):
Big Ten. The very first time I was live on
television was doing an i U football game. I did
in one weekend, an IU game on Thursday, Yeah, Purdue
game on Saturday. So it was totally like baptism by fire,
and I quickly realized as much as I loved doing
live events, I so badly needed the reps. I was
so green, and so I ended up taking a position
(04:24):
at one of the local affiliates in Tarahote, Indiana as
a weekend sports anchor and sports reporter. That really helped
just build my confidence, build experience. I'd a lot to grow,
you know how that is, especially in those very early opportunities,
you're just figuring it all out, and that's the best
way to do it is getting that hands on experience,
whether it's through internships, or it's through seasonal opportunities, or
(04:46):
it's a full time position. That really helped me, and
then I put myself in a position to continue with
Big Ten network, and that's what ultimately led me here
It's Indianapolis, and then from there, when I moved to Indie,
I did not have a full time job. I was
just doing all the freelance I possibly could do, and
fortunately the Indiana Pacers brought me in to do some
things there, so I was like personal training and doing
(05:07):
like a lot of fitness coaching things during the day,
and then I would go and have my media jobs
at various media jobs in the evening, and from there
everything built on top of that and continue to do
track and field with Big ten Network and Fox Sports
and ESPN, and the ultimately July of twenty nineteen, I
was hired with the Indianapolis Colts after six years at
the Fox affiliate here in Indianapolis, both on the morning
(05:30):
show and in the sports department. Okay, to go back
first to that first sideline job. There's a lot did
you have you ever watched that game back? Oh? Yeah,
you do. Oh, I will watch very well. No, it's
taken off of YouTube. No one can ever see it. Yes,
that's one of the good things is it was early
enough that I have seen it, but it's not like
it's readily available. You have to do a little digging
(05:52):
for it. But yeah, I just it's one of those
things where nothing you do really prepares you for exactly
what a siline role entails. You just have to learn
by doing it. I mean, it's not a class. It's not.
I mean, unless you're doing an internship where you're doing
live events production. It's just so hard to know. And
(06:12):
everyone also has such a unique way in how they prepare.
Oh yeah, I hadn't. Like it was. I had all
the notes, i'd done, all the preparation, I had an
abundance of it. I just didn't know how to prepare
the right things in the right way, if that makes sense.
And that's really what when you spend time, everyone carves
out their own way of doing things. And this is
what I always tell people who are starting out in
(06:33):
the business. Is one of the most frustrating things is
that there's no like roadmap you can follow. Everyone's journey
takes a completely different route. I mean, we have a
group text of thirty different women are yes, thirty women
who have all either are currently NFL reporters or have
been previous team reporters in the league. Because once you're
in it, you don't leave it. You're part of that
(06:54):
sorority forever. And if you looked at every single one
of those women, you know we're kind of all in
the same spot, or at least comparable positions. You know,
everyone's route would be completely unique in getting there, and
that can be really frustrating, but it can also be
really empowering knowing that you can't compare your journey to
anyone else's because it's just not meant to be the
exact same for anyone. It's not anything you would go
(07:16):
back and change about your journey to getting here. I
think that the one I wouldn't necessarily say I would
change anything, but I wish that. And this is my
advice to a lot of young people is obviously you're
so eager and ambitious, and you just keep thinking a
step ahead and you're thinking about the next thing coming exactly.
I would have really tried to enjoy the stops I
(07:37):
made a little bit more and not been so worried
about looking forward, being more present. The old thing, be
where your feet are, because when you're telling those stories,
wherever it is, whatever market you're working in, whatever role
you're working in, the person's story you're telling is the
most important story to that person, and they deserve that attention.
You shouldn't be oh, it's just a package on whatever
(07:59):
this is, and I just have to turn around and
get it done. It shouldn't be a just get it
done approach to anything. You should approach each and every
opportunity with care, because that's not only part of your responsibility,
it's also what you know that team, that player that coached,
that person's story deserves. Right. Is there a story that
sticks out to you that you loved telling at one
(08:19):
point that you really haven't forgotten about? Oh, my gosh,
I know it's a loaded question. That is such a
great question, and there have been just tons of them. Well,
recently we've launched a series with the Colts in that
we have gone back into the archives and talked with
some of the scouts about how certain guys ended up
as Colts. Really so one of them that I have loved.
(08:42):
We've done one on Edwin James the Scouting Report and
Reggie Wayne Scouting Report. One of the ones that I
loved so much, we caught up with the scout who
drafted Robert Mathis and he had this VHS tape that
Robert Mathis had edited himself to send to teams. So
because out of college, yeah, he went to a smaller school,
HBCU guy And the scout still has the tape and
(09:05):
we popped it in and played it and it was
just so raw, and it's this grainy film that you're
able to watch and you know, those guys, those gems
that you're able to find is so much of what
makes the scouting process so intriguing. Like it's it's easy
to know, I shouldn't say easy, but you know, finding
the first round guys like they flash, right, But how
(09:26):
do you find a guy who goes in rounds four, five,
and six who ends up being the league's all time
leader in strip sacks. That's a film on a grainy
film that and it just shows you the ambition that
he had to put this tape together and to you know,
try to provide himself that opportunity, how motivated he was
to defy all of the odds, coming out of a
(09:46):
small school, coming out of a tough background, to rise
above all of the challenges and create that. And so
that was just recently one of it's been the most
fun because it's such an underdog story and it's such
an inspiring story for so many beautiful I know you
tackle a lot of stories while you're here with the cold, Yes,
while you're doing your freelance stuff, which I think we're
so lucky that we get to do that outside of
(10:08):
our full time NFL jobs. But I see you getting
on those those track and field sidelines. Yeah, with ESPN
and you're out there. What an organ all the time. Yeah.
So at the University of Oregon hosted NC double As
this year and then also hosted the World Championship. So
it's an incredible year out there, which of course that
is hallowed ground for track and fields, So there a
(10:29):
lot of different places that have been able to go.
For me, it's University of Texas has hosted NC double As.
We've been to Oregon a number of times, a place
I competed as an athlete, so getting to go back
there and see the evolution of Hayward field has been incredible.
We're just recently all miss for SEC so it's been
really fun too. When you spend the majority of your
(10:49):
job in the NFL in professional sports, to have those
opportunities to go back and go to college sports and
connect with the athletes there, and there's so much significance
to those stories into what they're trying to achieve, especially
when there's something about college athletics championships, Right, that's just
(11:09):
it is like the purest form. I love it, So
would you compete it in? Right? Yeah? Yeah, I did.
I went to I did. I went to two national
championships in track and two and cross the events. So
I ran the fifteen hundred. That was my I know,
I was a middle distance runner. I really thought I
was an eight hundred runner, and I may ran the
eight hundred a lot, and then my coach was like
she was only really doing that to like, now we're
(11:30):
gonna move up to the fifteen hundred. I remember being like,
we're going from two laps to three and three quarters lass. Yeah,
that was a lot different, and it was in the
sense that there's a lot more time in the fifteen
hundred than there isn't the eight just to think and strategize.
And I was always like I wanted to go out
to the front and just run from front and run
from a head, and you can't quite do that because
you give everyone the opportunity that's really in. From there,
(11:51):
you're basically like the rabbit out there, you know, up front,
So it took a lot of learning, and I think
that I wish that I had And this kind of
is the consistency across my professional career mathletics career. I
wish I'd had more patience early on, you know, just
like in those early reporting roles. I wish I had
a little bit more patience, a little more poise, because
(12:12):
you're just like so eager and anxious, and that's how
I would race. So there are a lot of parallels
between those two aspects of my life. I think how
much did having two parents, yeah, as college coaches influenced
that mindset and kind of that competitiveness behind everything. Oh,
have a hundred percent I did. And because you saw
(12:33):
how they would coach their athletes and met they were
great about allowing me to do my thing. And I'm
very fortunate too that I had phenomenal coaches in high
school and in college, and my parents never tried to,
you know, overstep any of that, but I was I've
always been a bit of a daddy's girl in particular,
so I really like strived to want to like achieve
(12:53):
and impress him and do all of those things. Right like,
because we had such a tight bond through track and
field and through everything. I just called my dad to
day and he's ranting about, you know, the White Sox,
and he's asking about our depth linebacker right now in
different things. So he's always had that connection. So it
was one of those things where I think that I
saw how much he saw potential in his athletes and
(13:15):
how they would respond or how they didn't respond, and
the impact that that had when they would underachieve. So
it's always been one thing that has been a common
thread in the course of our family is being highly competitive,
of being really invested in sports, but also really being
the biggest cheerleaders for one another. And when you have
(13:38):
people who are so invested, you want to do the
best you know for them, friends, family, co workers, whoever
it is. So that's certainly been something that I've carried
into this aspect of my career as well. In addition
to everything you do for Colts, ESPN, Box Sports, Bay
To Network, can we talk about the shoe game. The
shoe game is very strong. The Instagram page is flooded
with the shoegate. It is marvelous. I thank you, thank you.
(14:00):
I did something that I would say that is an
influence for sure of working in the league when you
see so many guys who have incredible shoes. Jacoby Brissett
would always have these really unique shoes when he was
the quarterback here, and I was always in all of
Jacoby's shoe game, and he told me a bit of
information that I value, and I also hate him for
(14:22):
he told me about the Goat app. And so now
I'm addicted to the goat app and finding, you know,
shoes and different things. And so Jacobe, I love you,
I appreciate you. You've helped my shoe game, You've hurt
my pocketbook. But yeah, so I it was one of
those things where I'm really self conscious. I'm pretty petite,
so I was self conscious on the sidelines about being short.
(14:42):
So I needed I would always wear wedges on the
sidelines so I would have a little, yeah, extra elevation,
especially when you're talking to DeForest Buckner or you know,
you've seen what our tight ends look, yeah, coaches like
six or six five, Yeah, exactly. So then it was like, Okay,
if I'm gonna be dressed up on game day, you've
got you know, suits, whatever it is. You're in professional wear.
(15:04):
I eventually needed to wear tennis shoes, and I just
didn't want to wear average, you know, just my regular
You can't. I can't put my like running shoes on
every day, right, No, we can't do that. So it
was like the Initially, I like, my gateway was the dunks.
I've got a pair of blue and white dunks. Love
the dunks. So there's those, and I was like, oh,
(15:24):
I'm a big Airmax girl. I'm wearing wearing airs are
beautiful little um so from from training camp. And then
it was like, okay, Airmax. And now I've gotten into
the Jordan's, which is what it might be my downs?
Which ones? The ones are my favorite, the Jordan Ones.
I just got my first pair. They're such a variety
of colors, so it works. But I figured it was like, Okay,
I gotta come in with strong shoot game because you
(15:45):
wanted to compliment the outfit. Well, then guys would start
asking what shoes You're gonna wear, and now I'm like,
oh no, there's an expectation that I gotta come strong.
You do earn some credibility, you know, you do, as
long as they're tied, right. Apparently mine weren't tied right
the other day, Danny, you hear it from your players,
you do, You're gonna need to tie that up one
more whole. Absolutely, And it's kind of rude, but I
respected they're just looking out for us, Okay. Yeah, shoegame
(16:07):
is amazing. And then another part of your social media
which I see every single day, didn't the spug off
of you. We're literally like next to a farm, so
your field tractors over there. Yeah, forest is over there.
There's like cows right down the street. This is Indiana.
You can't swell anything though. Yeah. Yeah, it's really great. Yeah,
very wholesome. Here, I have to say every day and
(16:27):
you're on our Instagram store you post the daily mile. Yeah,
what day are you at right now? I am on
one thousand and twenty four consecutive days over three full years,
almost three years. So I started in twenty nineteen. November
one of twenty nineteen was my first day. Why that
is the fantastic question, probably what I've asked myself one
thousand and twenty four times. So I've always been a runner,
(16:50):
that's you know my background. I actually had three knee
surgeries when I was in college. So I wasn't sure.
There was one point where I didn't even know if
once I was done competing, I would be able to
tenue running or walk or walk? Yeah, exactly. There is
a guy who I follow who is a fitness instructor
in Chicago. He's a Lulu Lim and global ambassador. Shout
out to Jeremy Walton. He's one of the most inspiring
(17:12):
motivating people. He was doing the Daily mile and I
saw him doing it, and I figured, Okay, why don't
I try and do it from November first to December
thirty First, I'll go just two months to see I
can do it. So I got through the first two months,
and then I realized if I did one hundred straight days,
it would like run my birthdays in February and basically
carried me into my birthday. And I figured, okay, that's
kind of a good way to go, right, Yeah, like
(17:34):
one hundred days consecutively. Well, I got two hundred days.
I still felt good. I was like, let's go for
two hundred, and so I kept it up. Well, now
we're into twenty twenty and you had nothing else to do, yes,
and like running was one of the things because you
could go outside. Obviously, you were only a few places
you could go right right. So, and I'm very fortunate
(17:55):
that we live in an area that has a lot
of running paths, so I was able to stay distanced
from people and go out and run and kind of
be secluded and all of that. So it was my
sanity through a lot of that, just being able to
have that, And I'm so grateful that I've been able
to stay healthy and go on this as long as
I have. And one person I was just talking to
is I was saying that I think because when I'd
(18:18):
had the injuries that I'd had, I would basically like
run a half marathon and then take two weeks off
and I would go high this kind of yo yo
type of thing. Well, I think with the daily mile
it's helped me stay healthy because it's just been so
much more incremental. Yes, and I feel as good as
I ever have. So we got to go for three
years now, that's the next first. But it's just that
you think about it as it's ten fifteen minutes out
(18:40):
of your entire day, and probably the best calling ten
to fifteen minutes you could have. It's just like taking
time being mindful of taking time for yourself, carving out
that one thing in your day, and really, after the
first month, it becomes habit. And you mentioned social media,
and that's one of the really powerful things and the
positives of it is so many people have jumped on
board and flu and stay, which is really really cool.
(19:02):
So I thought about doing it. You should, but it
would be anything if he doesn't do running well. I looked.
I looked after practice yesterday, three and a half miles
of just walking back. Absolutely, that doesn't count, though, right
I have to be very purposeful and set out for
a mile. You can't. So here's the other beautiful thing,
much like your career in sports media, and that no
person's journey is the same. No person's daily mile journey
is the same. It can be whatever you want. It
(19:23):
can be you know, you just set that certain goal
of what you want to do that day. I've told
people that if running is not your thing, or if
walking is not your thing, you're limited, Like make it
ten minutes of meditation or ten minutes of stretching. Like
I have one friend who did ten minutes of core
work for six months. Oh that was what she did.
So yeah, and it was just because she was having
some back issues in different things, so that was what
(19:43):
she did. So for me, though, the way I do
it is like I walked my dog this morning. That
doesn't necessarily count. Boat. Tugboat is an English large large,
very large, and very sweet. Thinks he's a lapdog, gentle giant.
So I walked him for about a half mile and
then I attack on a mile. Okay, at least a mile.
Some days there are more like yesterday to four, but
(20:05):
today was just just one. So we're in training camps.
You take a load off exactly exactly. I'll get those
ten thousand steps. I love it. Um Okay, before we
wrap it up, I know you just seem like the
queen of balance. So how did you balance a pandemic
wedding with this career and navigating this lifestyle which Hobby
(20:27):
I'm sure is very patient and they're standing with this schedule. Well,
I thank you so much. I appreciate that so much.
Don't believe everything you see, because as it might see
that there's balance. Like yesterday was pure chaos, Like I
left my swipe card, my credential and everything for like
our office here, left that at home I had, I
was I was a full disaster yesterday. Like I will
(20:49):
tell you so, it's not all as it seems always,
but I think most of it is leaning on the
people around you and having a great support system and
having your people at work and having your people at home,
and having those different people who you can call on
to help out. Like I just think about it all
the time. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such
(21:11):
a wonderful team. Of course, like on the field our
players and coaches, but then our production team when it's
like there are times when I've been struggling and you know,
I've my friends who are like, hey, how can I
help you with this? Or you know, if there's so
I think that it's being more comfortable asking for help
and not being so you know, um, I don't want
to say arrogant, but that I can handle everything. Yeah,
(21:33):
I don't need anyone. Yeah, it's like, don't be too proud, yes,
to reach out to those people and to you know,
have those people that you call upon, and also being
able to call upon different people for different things. I
mean I think about you know, just even our group text,
like you know, when it's like, guys, how are we
jruggling wardrobe the most question. You think it's a village,
(21:56):
you know, And I think that just having the reassurance
that you never have to do anything alone, yes, and
that you have those people and it can be, you know,
something as minor as you know, having those people you
call upon to lift you up on a bad day
or when you're really struggling and you need really significant advice.
Just knowing those people who you have in your corner
and knowing that everybody is there for you and supporting you.
(22:18):
So I think that that's the biggest key, is just
never having to carry that whole load on your shoulders
and using the people who are around the round because
they want to be used and they want to support
you and want to see you succeed. You Just listen
to another episode of Off the Record with Danny Rogers.
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