Episode 19: Good Morning Jamie Erdahl

Jamie Erdahl of 'Good Morning Football' joins Cassie Calvert to talk about getting into the sports journalism business, being a working mom, being the new member on GMFB, covering the NFL in Munich, and much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
What is up? Bravens Fans, Welcome back to the Purple
Chair Podcast, where we amplify women in and around the game.
Got a big treat for you this week as we're
joined by the host of Good Morning Football, Jamie Urdall.
She's covered some of your favorite NFL players from the
SEC to the NFL and now she talks about the
NFL for three hours on live television every day, which

(00:30):
is no small feat. So without further ado, let's dive in. So, Jamie,
where are you from originally? Where did you go to school?
How do at what point did you know? This is
kind of the path you we're going to take. I
am from Bloomington, Minnesota. It's a big suburb outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
I went to a small college in Minnesota. For my
first two years out of high school. I didn't really

(00:51):
know what I wanted to do. I had done a
few sports media things when I was in high school. Um,
you know, to paint a broad brushstroke. I was like
a tom boy. I played sports to play basketball and
softball in college. I had done a sports talk radio
internship when I was in high school, which in hindsight
is a strange thing to do. Like as a junior
in high school. But I really really loved it. I
love talking about sports, and so I didn't know what

(01:14):
I wanted to do academically. Go to the small school
my first two years, and then realized what this was
as a path and an opportunity, and it just wasn't
gonna happen where I was. So I transferred, applied a
bunch of places. My sister was living in Baltimore at
the time. She was a nurse at Johns Hopkins and
her now husband was a med student at Hopkins, and
so I applied to American University and um went there

(01:37):
so awesome. So I finished school there, my degree from
American University in d C. And it just kind of
all came together. I gave up playing like sports competitively,
but I just never have left sport. I love it.
I love talking about it. It's my whole being. So
when you're at American, kind of what was your path?
They're kind of going from college into the industry. I
just arrived on campus. I went. You know, it was

(01:59):
a great journalism program, but a lot of students that
American and they want to do political journalism rightfully. So
you're in and I did not. I wanted to do sports.
So I walked into the athletic department at the time
and I just said, I want to do this, and
they were great, like they didn't really have a ton
of students willing to help, and so I did everything.
I ran stats at men's basketball games. I called volleyball

(02:22):
games on the radio. Haven't played a I don't even
know what the possession is called snap possent ball. I
don't I'm never played volleyball my life. Did it on
the radio. UM, and they just let me do a ton.
I ended up working a little bit with Comcast Sports
Net Washington at the time. I don't know what it's
called now. UM. And I just kept doing and trying
and doing all the different jobs. UM. And but my,

(02:45):
because I'm from Minnesota, We're gonna raise like my inherent
kind of connections with people I knew in television, especially
I was back in Minnesota. So I had summer internships
when I was off school in Minnesota twice. And then
my big one came when I did a summer in
and ship between my junior and senior year at American
UM and I went up to ESPN and I had
a summer in Bristol, Connecticut, and I really learned the

(03:07):
backbones of television production. I really love just live television.
I think it's so invigorating and addictive and UM, I
just really was like, whatever it is in front of
the camera, behind the camera, anything, I want to do this,
I want to be in this. And So I graduated
from college in December of eleven, and I gave myself
a year to get a good on on air job

(03:29):
that I really really loved. Otherwise I was going to
go be a producer or do something else and but
but still in sports. And um, in November of that year,
twelve and twelve, I got my job at Nesson and
I moved to Boston. And so it was like eleven
months later and here we are in two and eleven
years later. Yeah, here I am. That's so funny. I
can relate to the being a d C thing. When
I was in college, I interned with Monty Mental, so

(03:51):
like the Wizards and the Mystics and on. I would
go out and meet people and they'd be like, oh,
where are you interning? And they met like for who,
like on the Hill, and I was like, oh, the
Wizard it's and they're like, huh, it's just like a
totally different landscape there, Like that's the one place in
the world that's like more key to into like political
everything than sports. Yeah, I think Monumental was very ahead

(04:12):
of its game. Actually, I remember in interviewing for something
like that when I was in school. Didn't get it,
but I remember they had like a great like media
set up, like in the facility already, And I actually
think they were very ahead of their time in terms
of what they were trying to accomplish. Totally totally, and
they're still crushing it so fast forward. You know, you
do get the position at nesson and then like you

(04:33):
end up at CBS, you're covering the SEC there for
quite a bit of time. When you're covering a whole
division like that, how do you build relationships at each
program when you're kind of tasked with knowing everything about everyone.
That's a good question because when I was on the NFL,
it was very much just like helicopter in. You know,
I oftentimes spoke guilty kind of being amongst like the

(04:54):
beat writers with radio guys, because I'm like, I get it,
you're here every day and now like we just get
to come in and have these like secret production meetings
on Fridays and you're not allowed and we get all
the stuff. It's a weird dynamic. So appreciated about the
SEC was indeed what you just said, which is, you know,
truth be told, CBS gets the best game of the week.
That's why it's It's why it's marketed that way. It

(05:14):
is like the SEC. I'm married to a man that's
from the Big Tent, so it's hard to say that's
the best conference in college football, So you know, to
have the best game of the week, you're you're really
What I found going from the NFL to the SEC
is that the players were so happy to be on
that afternoon slot in CBS, and so I really tried
to lean into that that like, wow, this is really

(05:35):
an opportunity for sure the star guys, but also those
players that like, you know, this might be their one opportunity.
And if this like softcore FRA that was under recruited,
or he's a walk on, he gets a pick and
then we get to tell his story because I talked
to him on the phone, That to me was such
a motivator to like make sure I had compiled all
that information. Furthermore, because we were the best game of

(05:58):
the week, you're getting a lot of Georges and now
Obama's back to back, you know, like their agreement that
we that CBS could only have show a team five
times in a year, plus the SEC Championships. So I
think three of my four years there, I had six
Alabama games, and you can only talk to to a
tongue of Violoa or Jalen Hurns or Bryce Young so

(06:18):
many times, like you can't ask for them week in
and week out, so or Joe Burrow, Like you have
to change it up, so you get kind of these
lesser known guys. I'm not saying their lower quality a thing,
lesser known guys, and so you have to kind of
snowball all that information. So then, honestly, when you're on
the sideline or still in the post game, you can't
just ask from the same guys every week, so you
really try to. I tried to have variety because I

(06:41):
think that's what shows that you're not just there to
helicopter in and be like we only care about the stars,
you know, because that's not what college football is about, right,
And when you do have the same team over and
over again, kind of being able to bring new perspective
to the broadcast like every week as well. You don't
be like, yeah, you said that last week. That's like
you know, you want to pry, you want to do
something new. One of the things that I think is
so cool as you talked publicly about how you were

(07:02):
carrying each of your daughters and SEC championship trophy presentations,
and I mean, to me, that's such a flex for
them in like ten years when they need like to
truths and a lie at school or something like. That's
such a great fun fact for them to have. Thank you.
I that I didn't really think about it that way
until you know, we were talking about something on the
show in August on Good Morning Football, and it was

(07:24):
how your kids are involved in the game, and my
nurse to my girls are still so young, three and one.
So I'm looking at pictures because one my older one,
did come to one SEC game and it was the
worst experience. I will never do that again. And I
realized and my my pregnancies were really hard. I get
very sick, and so for me the photos are of
like wow, I can't believe I found a four hour

(07:45):
window where I wasn't puking, um, And there I am
like standing next to Nick Saban and at O'seron and
Joe Burrow. Um. But but in the photo it's like, oh,
that's been in years, You're right. Years later, I'll remember
more so that like I was carrying them, I was
pregnant with them my second and I didn't really tell anybody.
So it was like, how can I stand to make
sure people don't know I was pregnant? So, um, yeah,

(08:06):
I really really have come to appreciate that. While I'll
be it very challenging when I was in the middle
of it. Sure. So speaking of those challenges, I actually
had a d. D. Kin Kabala on last season, who
I know you probably know from CBS, and she kind
of talked to me about the logistics of when you are,
you know, breastfeeding, when you're going to all these games,
you're on the road every week trying she would try

(08:26):
to like you know, coordinate her flights homes when she
would get her milk frozen and send it back and
all those things. So how do you kind of like
juggle all of that. I hate the word juggle, but
like you know what I mean, like handle all of
that when you are going through a season where you're
on the road so much, Yeah, navigate it, manage it.
So we're really lucky. We had a bus the SEC
brad Nesler would call the Eye Cruiser, and it would

(08:49):
follow us around every game. And this bus was like
tricked out. It was fantastic and I particularly loved it
because I would fly from Minnesota to Atlanta. I would
drive from Atlanta to Tuscaloosa, so I would essentially like
pump two or three times in transit. By the time
I got there, I was like walking into practice at Alabama.
Where is my fresh milk gonna go? Well, the bus

(09:09):
is saying there, So a fridge on the bus and
throw it in there. And then essentially for me, it
was like a race against time because these are a
lot of xs and os go behind this, but essentially,
like you can only have fresh milk be fresh for
three days, we could freeze it. So I would try
to be like, I need to get home by certain
times so I can freeze these suckers. And then my
my favorite, another favorite flex of mine, and I remember
sending this picture to Richard Ditch when he wrote this article,

(09:32):
which was I used to label the bags and my
freezer as according to which game the milk came from,
So it would be like Georgia at l s U.
In my mind, I'd be like, oh yeah, I had
memories from that. It was just like a nice way
to keep it fun and but also like very motivating,
like look at what I'm doing. I'm staying connected to
my girls. Um and frankly, now that I look back

(09:53):
on doing it, everything seems harder now. But I had
like the incredible support of Gary Danielson and Brad Nessler.
I just really like all of the men that I
worked with, just they never got freaked out. They it
was very much just like I if I can do it,
and if I see them okay with it, they just
like whatever you need. It was always kind of the mindset,
and I really appreciated that, Yeah that's really neat. But
you're at TBS. You also covered the basketball, and so

(10:16):
I also when I came out of college, I did
NBA and NFL at the same time, and it's a
lot to keep up with two sports. So how did
you kind of stay up to date with both sports
kind of happened at some point simultaneously. Yeah, So January.
To me, it was like a big flip over in
my head. I feel like, you know, I I naturally
you know, Twitter helps, but like I, because I played basketball,

(10:37):
it's a lot easier for me to hear basketball in
my like aura essentially, and it just kind of hangs
so like in November, I would hear about upsets and
it would just in college basketball, and it would just
stay with me. It was just kind of always a
part of me. So by the time January rolled around,
when I was at CBS, it was very much like
a natural page term because um, I wasn't doing any

(10:58):
playoff games. I would help with some postseason coverage, but
it was for them like there had to be like
a transition team and I was a part of that.
So I would jump right into doing a studio coverage,
um like during the week and those were a lot
of like mid major games. And as we all know,
and what we love about the n C Double A
Tournament is that the makeup of the tournament nowadays is

(11:18):
so much more than just like the cream of the crowd.
So like for me to have done Mountain West and
Mac January Wednesday night basketball games and studio helped me
when I would get assignment arch for those teams that
people are oftentimes like what, who where is the school from?
So again, in hindsight, it just felt like, this is
the schedule, and it was just it was kind of

(11:40):
a refreshing way because you know, you can get burned
out on football, um, and you can get burned out
on anything that you're doing continuously for so many months.
So it was kind of a way to put the
pep back in my step, if you will, and just
kind of focus on college basketball. But really, you know
the eight crew at CBS, you know, the Nance and
Tracy and whatever, like, they just had such a grind,
especially in a Super Bowl year that you had to

(12:02):
really pick up the slack or you know and just
be like we got you guys until you were able
to come in for the Big Ten tournament. Right, yeah,
that is like quite a new challenge. And then like
kind of take up on do you have a favorite
memory from your basketball coverage. I know you were part
of the St. Peter's broadcast and they had that like
really cool run. That was an amazing run. Um my
first gosh, no was it my first. It's all gonna

(12:23):
blend together now, but one year I had Georgia Southern
and it was it was the coach and his son,
and the sun got drafted by the Celtics. Now and
I'm totally gonna blank on their names, but the father
in the Sun Belt Championship, the dad was a head
coach and he tours Achilles celebrating, and so he had
he coached on a school in the first game, and

(12:45):
I think they'd beat Bailor at a last second shot
which his son hit from the top of the key,
like five ft off the top of the key, last
second shot, and the dad, I know we're not on video,
but I could fall off my he like celebrated again
and he fell office chair and he cracked his cast
from his like torn Achilles. And then so then we

(13:05):
had him again. Oh r J something I cannot believe
I'm blanking on it. But anyways, Yeah, the Georgia Southern
father's son combination torn Achilles practice cast. We had him again.
I don't I think they lost in North Carolina in
the second round, but yeah, that was like my beginning
of just like wow, and you get so you get
so like addicted to your to your region and like
your team, and then you want for them so badly
to continue on, which for us was really cool that

(13:27):
we got to go with St. Peter's. Then we followed
them from sixty four thirty to sixteen and eight, and
the fact that they lost in North Carolina was cool
in general because then Carolina went on to play duke.
But that was really cool to bet with to be
with the Peacocks for four games too. Yeah, that's really neat.
I went to duke, so that Carolina duke game was
not super cool for me. But we don't have to

(13:47):
talk about that. Great for television, did? It was great tv?
We talked to a lot of the highlights. So do
you have any trip that you're not excited to have
to make anymore? Not that you're not on the road, sure, Yeah,
TuS close was hard to get it to. Yeah, Teschlos
is really hard to get to, I think, no matter
how you cut it, because you gotta fly to Atlanta
and then you're either flying to Birmingham and then doing

(14:08):
like a forty five minute drive or you fly to
Atlanta and drive three hours. That's just a lot. It
wasn't like getting to a lot of these places. It
was after the games on Saturdays, we would no matter
where we were. I would say like ten out of
the twelve schools, we would get back on the bus
together as a production crew and bus to the Atlanta airport,
stay the night, and then get up you know, six

(14:28):
sam flights because like it's great to get back to Atlanta,
but like that's really hard to do a four hour
broadcast and you're trying to come down on the bus ride.
And then sometimes the bus rides are so long, like
five hours from Knoxville to Atlanta, hour three or four.
You're like, I love you guys, but you've been in
my ears all day, Like I don't want to I
don't want to hear this anymore. So, um, yeah, it
was getting home and then you're just pride when you

(14:50):
get home. And Brad and Gary they would be like, anyways,
we were lounging around on Sunday. I'm walking in the
door and it's just like mom diapers. But like it
just so I would say, just not traveling period. Uh
really lovely, that's fair for such a major program. They
should really just build a major airport. And it's close.
I mean everyone's coming there every weekend, like you know that.

(15:12):
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code is Holiday fifteen. You alluded to this a little
bit before, but before you were on SEC for CBS,

(15:57):
you obviously covered the NFL for the network. Like what
from that time kind of helped you prepare for this
new role with Good Morning Football? Uh? Kind of circling
back to what you asked me, I think, um the
second question about the SEC, but the relationships, you know,
the PR people bounce around, some are mainstays, you know,
coaches hold them over and whatnot, which I think is amazing.
But I sold. I sold text like a good amount

(16:19):
of PR people from the various teams. I would see
them at Super Bowls. Like even after when I was
on the SEC and I would go to Super Bowls,
I would see all those PR people would like flock
to the Super Bowl. So I think that's really cool.
But then also some of the players that have stayed
from my time at the NFL I think are like
incredible figures. But the players that I had in the
SEC are now in there now in the NFL that

(16:40):
I'm like talking about a football I think are fantastic.
It's the relationships though, and and for the SEC players
in particular, in my mind, I'm like, they don't remember me,
but I really enjoy like following them now, like in
a not creepy way. But like Damian Pierce for example,
like the Texas running back, like that's so awesome, and
his like angry run tape that he had for WARDA

(17:00):
when he like knocked a guy's helmet off, Like the
fact that we keep playing that and it was like
one of our games, Like it was just it's really
cool to kind of hang with those guys. Yeah, I mean,
you probably know the back stories of a lot of
these like SEC guys better than a lot of people
that are just covering them from like an NFL perspective too,
which is neat. So we are talking about good more
in football obviously. So what was kind of the interview process,
you know, what went into your decision to kind of

(17:21):
change gears to this new role. I really like studio.
I you know, sideline reporting is a gift, um, but
it's also a challenging gift because I think like the
more you know, the more you want to share. And
so reporting in a nutshell is you know your best
fifteen to thirty seconds, your most important twenty seconds, and
that is vital. But that's also um, like I mentioned

(17:43):
the challenge, So I I had been doing studio stuff
for basketball and then this couple that interest coupled with
the travel was just getting really challenging with young kids,
and um kay, Adams and I have the same agent,
and so he you know, knew that she was going
to make a change, and so I kind started this
like grander conversation you know, between the two networks and

(18:04):
just CBS knowing that that was something that allowing me
to do was just really important to me. I think
is fantastic, and I I just very much felt like
I was perfectly qualified for the job. We all we
all think we are, you know, but I was just
I really leaned into the fact that, like, gosh, I
can really blend these three things that are so much
a part of me, which is like hosting football both

(18:25):
NFL and SEC. But then also, um, well, I guess
those are my three things. Yeah, the hosting and then
those two factions. So it was a lot of meetings,
was a lot of conversations. It was just you know,
a lot of life stuff too, like what that looks like.
I had to move my family from Minnesota to New Jersey,
and you know that's a sacrifice. But then to come
off the road, I think this is the most important part.

(18:45):
Be able to pick my kids up every day from
their little school is awesome. That's really cool. So I
guess I kind of when you are deciding to make
this change, do you do like screen tests with current hosts,
Like how does that kind of logistically work? At least
for the way that this decision making process went, there
was it was just a lot more meetings and conversations.
I think they knew what I could do righting the

(19:06):
you know, decision makers at hand, Michael Davies, Mark Quinzel.
They knew what I could do. I had known Mark Quinzel,
especially at the NFL Network for a long time. I
had done some games for them in London in particular
years back. UM and CBS and NFL Network have a
pretty good partnership I think over the years because of
Thursday Night Football. So you know, there was a lot
of just like twirling conversations between a lot of people.

(19:28):
And then I didn't eat the guys until they had
informed me that I got the job, and Um, Jason
mccordy was like guest hosting, and so I think they
brought us. They brought me in like under the cover
of darkness, and we did like a pretend hour together
I think more so to test out mccority than anything.
And it was just easy. Like Kyle always jokes like,
we're always going to remember that as like this really

(19:48):
strange time in our lives. But it worked and it
was and like now ever since then, we've all kind
of always just stamped our group like we're just easy.
We hang out, we chat, it's not a big it's
like not a big to do. We get the job done,
we go home, and we're back the next day. Yeah,
Like you mentioned like that chemistry like was kind of
easy and like automatic almost for you. So what is
that kind of like as you are? I mean, obviously

(20:09):
you know the show has changed since its initial onset,
So with you and Jason coming in, how do you
guys kind of as a foursome now kind of build
that chemistry. I'm so grateful that I got to start
with Jason mccordy. He is just um. I've really enjoyed
learning from him, and then in like such a cool
way when we were in London and Munich together as
a group, he and I have really been able to

(20:29):
talk about how much he's been able to learn from
me because he's brand new to television, like television's rookie
of the year in my opinion, And so I I
feel so flattered that he, you know, feels that way
about like how we operate as like four different TV professionals,
like from four different walks of life, Like it sounds
like a sitcom, but like that's I think that's how

(20:50):
we look at each other, Like we're all really good.
We all really pride ourselves and what we do but
we're all different and that's okay, and that actually is
what makes the show good. And you know, some days
it's a heavier lift for others than but there's no
you know, it's and I've always operated this way and
Jason and I totally agree with him, coming from like
the team atmosphere as well. It's just like we before me.

(21:12):
Every day it has to be like that, I think.
I think that's always what works. And and for me
at CBS, when you're doing a broadcast for a game,
the broadcast is never about you. It's about the game,
it's about the coaches, it's about the players. So I
don't really know it any other way. I've actually had
to do like a little bit more work like inserting
my like what I believe and and and so that's

(21:33):
been a challenge for me. You know, around mid November,
I got kind of burned out honestly on hearing my
own voice. I had a really just like challenging week
on the show because I just was like, oh, over this,
like I can't imagine um, just feeling like I'm so
important that people like think that they have to hear this.
But I had to have a bit of a reset
and be like, Okay, it's more than that, you know,

(21:53):
just I just on the other guys that week and
we got through it. So it's hard to learn. It's
a new skill um from that respect, But I just
appreciate that, like Jason and I came in together. I
couldn't even if we were a week apart, I would
not have imagined like starting on anything but the same
exact day together. Yeah, that's really cool. It is interesting
because like like kind of like you said, you know,

(22:14):
when someone's turning on TV to watch the SEC Championship,
they're not turning it on to hear people talk, you know,
But like this show is so successful because people do
want to hear from the four, which is really cool.
You mentioned that you guys went to Germany and England
for a good monning football So what were those trips like?
And logistically I'm just kind of curious, like how do
you take a show from a studio in New York

(22:36):
and just transplant it all the way across the world.
Oh man, Well, luckily with London, they had been there before,
so they had a couple different spots that we actually
had a split show that we were two days in
the studio three days outside, so they knew the spots
and they had a whole team. Here's the crazy thing
about London was that I'm going to generalize the timing,
but essentially Queen Elizabeth passed away like ten days before

(22:58):
we were supposed to arrive. And I found this so
fascinating and I hope I'm not like sharing trade secrets
like from Great Britain television production, but there were like
lifelong contracts made between like the Royals and television people
in the UK like when this when the Queen passes,
you will be a part of the funeral, the procession

(23:19):
and broad wow, whatever. So I guess it was a
huge challenge. She passed and then everything was happening, and
then we arrived like three days later. The point is
there was like a day or two there were like
no one over there was responding to emails, and NFL
Network was like, are we gonna be able to pull
this off? Like we need to confirm, like do we
have our set, do we have our technicians, do we

(23:39):
have this? And everyone was busy with the queen's funeral.
Of course that's understandable, and so it was just this,
why we we weren't really privy to this until we arrived,
and it was like everyone we worked with they were like, oh,
it's so nice to see you. You know, we have
just been coming off such a hard time here and
we were just like what what do you mean? And
it was just like, oh my god, so mind blowing

(23:59):
to be like, wow, what a wild time to be alive.
We're like, God forbid, this would have been like delayed,
like into the I mean, who knows what would have happened,
but it was just things they don't think about essentially
over here. Absolutely, Yeah, that's crazy, I know. So so
we were outside for a couple of days um on
the background on the River Thames, which was amazing. We
had people come to see us are set and like

(24:21):
they traveled, they took days off work. It was so amazing.
That was again the first time I've ever experienced like wow,
people watch us for us and I really that was
a cool moment. And then Munich was amazing for everybody
because it was just brand spanking new. We were in
this old building, an old bank, and again, like the
operations people in NFL network flew over there a bunch

(24:42):
of times for site surveys, they had to take out
a wall inside this bank. It was crazy. Um. And
then we were able to be outside a little bit
in the square and it was funny. For like a Monday,
it was like you can't leave this five foot radius
in the square. And by Friday, Kyle was like running
like booking it, like through around the fountain, like pass
the you know, old town Square church and you're like, Kyle,

(25:03):
like right it back in. So we took our liberties there,
but it was it takes an incredible amount of people
and coordination and and a lot of trips before us
to set the scene essentially, but man, when we get there,
it's like this amazing well oiled machine that we were
like so grateful for. But again the same thing. So
many people just like descended upon Munich to see how

(25:25):
football in the NFL was engaging with the town, but
also like to stop by our set, which we thought
was so fantastic. Yeah, that's really neat. What's like an
average day in the life on Good Morning Football for you?
Like when do you have to get up when you
have to the studios? Obviously it's on TV quite early,
so I know that your day start pretty early. So um, yes,
but they do an amazing job. I think, you know,
the thing that was preached to me upon my interview

(25:46):
process and getting the job was just like taking them
six years or over the last six years, they really
did their damnedest to make the show as sustainable as
possible for the for everybody that works on it, not
just the four of us. So I get up with
or forty five. It's actually not that bad. Like people,
people are really kind of surprised by how late that
is quote unquote, all that being said, in like a

(26:07):
matter of nine minutes, I left my dog out of
the house, brush my teeth, and pull on some sweatpants
because everything is here, which is amazing. Hair, make up,
my clothes are here. So the person that arrives in
the building looks very different than the person that gets
miked up at six seven. But I walked in the
door at about by forty, I'm in makeup, hair and
makeup for an hour. I'm in hair and makeup for
an hour. Jason mccordy arrives in hair and makeup at

(26:29):
six forty, and he is out the door by six
point two, and then Peter and Kyle are down to
a fine art of like sixty seven and six two,
like they just are like in out hair spray powder
or whatever. Which sometimes that infuriates me to know when
because I'm in my dressing room getting dressed and I
hear Jason leaves you guys later, and I'm like seriously,
like through the door, like you're just out of here,

(26:50):
and so yeah, we're It's just it's very smooth. I
sit in there and make up. I go over the
show with one of our producers that's with us on
site here, and then we're often running, we kind of
greet each other, like at fifty eight when we all
I don't really see the guys except for Jason. We're
all on set and get miked up and we're off
and running and it's just go, go, go. And then
at it's kind of like we like race to our
cars downstairs, like here we go, like who's in the

(27:11):
car first at ten o two and walking the door
at eleven. It's awesome. There's there's work to do at night,
you know our show, like the way it's set up,
the questions and whatnot. They email, they send us those
at night, so I put about I put like an
hour or two in at night answering some stuff and
there's a whole great production crew at night, and then
we start the wheel over the next day. So we're
taping this like on a Tuesday morning. So like last

(27:33):
night with their being a prime time game, like, how
do you do you take that in like in real time?
Are you kind of like catching up this morning like
as you're getting right for the show and all honesty,
It depends on the game. I kind of read the room.
For example, Sunday Night Colds Cowboys. Now that one, you know,
that was kind of a dog fight because that was
into the third quarter and so I'm like into the

(27:54):
fourth quarter. I was like seriously, like we're gonna do
this and then lo and behold, you know, the fourth
quarter happened to the Cowboys. So I probably pull sleep
after it was like so that, you know, it just
depends on the night. But like that one, you kind
of are enraptured last night with like Brady and just
like really like three points man. So I like to say,

(28:14):
I like, oh, I don't care about this one, or
I can catch up on it, but like it's hard
not to watch, you know, and so I keep it on,
you know, But then the rest of the nights, I
do my best, like go to bed early, because I
know those Monday nights, Sunday night, Thursday nights, like they
keep me up. Yeah, and they stack up. There's so
many primetime games, so many days of the week you
wouldn't be getting needs sleep. And they're good and they're meaningful,

(28:34):
especially this time of year, they're going to become a lot.
I guess kind of with that, what's like a weekend?
Like for you, now, are you watching Red Zone on Sunday?
Like how do you take in all the games over
the weekend? So um, I, like I said, I have
a three year old, three and a half year old
and one and a half year old. And took me
a couple of weeks to realize, like, wow, I cannot

(28:54):
do both. On Sundays. I have to really like sit
and focus the one o'clock games. There's so many of them.
And I had that to me. The one to four
o'clock window on Sunday for me is I have to
sit and and watch read Zone and then I have
two games up like on a surface and my phone
actually like on a NFL Plus and I just take
notes on like a Google doc with another producer that's

(29:16):
on the show, and it's just like we kind of
fill in the blanks and like things we miss because
if I get behind on the one o'clocks, like those
are a lot harder to catch up on than the
fours or the or the Sunday night game. So yeah,
I really if I have to like kind of clear
out any time it's that one to four window. But again, inherently,
like we're a football house. My husband loves to watch
he was he loves the White games, and so it's
on all day um, but my like sit my ass

(29:37):
in a chair is one to buck um and luckily
that coincides with naptime and whatever. So like I'm pretty
lucky in that respect. But yeah, I've done it a
lot of you know, it's my first season doing this
this way, so it's a lot of different I'm still
kind of trying different things on for size. I really
like the holiday weeks to be honest, because like Thursday
knocked out three games that like, oh great, yeah, thing,

(29:58):
like I'm really looking forward to next week. We've got
a triple head around NFL Network. It's like the Ravens
is one of them. On a Saturday afternoon, Like, oh great,
it spreads it out more. You can like why you
can really focus on the games, which I really like. Yeah,
that is helpful. I totally get that. So we talked
a lot about Good Morning Football, So I guess kind
of from here, you know, it's really been like for

(30:20):
Nate Burlson especially, it was a kind of a jumping
off point for him, and he's kind of made that
transition to just kind of going beyond sports all of
the Michael Street hands, the Robin Roberts. Is that something
that's like interested to you, like long term or is
it you really want to stay like football specific you know,
it very much used to not be something that I
was interested in. Um, I'm still not sure, but however

(30:40):
it does feel more attainable just from like a skill
set standpoint right now, you know. I what I really
kind of hung my hat on in making this decision
to pivot to this was doing three hours of live
television no matter the topic, is a skill that once
you have it, no one can take it from you.
And it's challenging. Like you could have a three hour

(31:01):
show on the elections, which is kind of or the
weather or like anything, but like I think once you
can do it regardless of you know, Lauren Shohati is
a friend of mine. She's on MLB network, like she
could do for hours right now and like the trade
whatever is happening, free agency in baseball and she just
will no problems. So that to me, just having that
skill is just kind of what I'm focused on right

(31:22):
now and just like honestly learning, Like Kyle Brandton me
is one of the most like creative and energetic like
television professionals I've ever been around. And that's not just
like because of angry runs, like watching him operate and
come up with his like takes, how he delivers them,
the way he has literal presence um, whether it be
he is talking about his interview features that he has

(31:43):
been doing with like the war on Ukraine, or talking
about what was he on today the next Door app
and how he was like relating it to the NFC
souths like what and so, and then Peter, like Peter Schrager,
is just historical like touchstone and context. How he can
apply that to like anything literally at any time. So

(32:03):
I think right now, like wild jobs like that that
me bro Listen made such an incredible jump I think,
you know, that would be amazing, you know, but most importantly,
I need to just improve this skill set, I think
first and foremost. And you can't just be a one
trick pony on three hours of television. And so I
think that's what I'm finding kind of most important, is
like learning just being a sponge, right, Was that daunting

(32:26):
to you to kind of prepare for when you were
kind of first stepping into this role. No, that part never,
That part never really got to me. I think to me,
that meant it was time, like to just expand a
little bit. In the last year before I got this opportunity,
I was really starting to think long and hard about
like maybe I should do radio too, Maybe I should

(32:47):
you know, I was trying. My brain was kind of
floating into like these long form thoughts. Anyways. So that's
why this really just felt like the right thing to
do right now. I've never been at a loss for words,
let's just say, and the genie is out of the
bottle now. And so like if they asked me to
do the two sideline games internationally, and I was like,
oh man, I gotta wrap this up again, like you

(33:09):
got a real the fish back in because it can
no longer be just like you know, like if you
can stretch this to two minutes, which is like a
question that you are never asked to do as a
sideline reporter. You're like, here's twenty five seconds, but if
you can do it in in eighteen, that'd be better. It's like, well,
why don't you just tell me a teen like that?
Do you have any advice for like young fans that
will listen to this to get into the industry? Kind

(33:30):
of like when I speak to my time in college,
like I did some random stuff, Like I had a
professor once in a class of broadcasting class. Her name
is Meredith Geisler. She's a pr professional and like I
literally just spoke to her on the phone. She still
works with Grant Hill to this day. Grand Hill calls
me the other day by the other day, I mean
like September and he's like face time's me. First of all,

(33:50):
that's cool, Grand Hill, FaceTime. That's and I'm like, Grant,
how you doing? And he's like I'm and he turns
and there's my college professor, Like this is amazing. Anyways,
she asked me in a class, she hasked the class, um,
I have an opportunity this weekend. It could any students volunteer. Yeah,
it's whatever. So I just like was very much in
the like I don't really know anybody at the school,

(34:12):
yet I'll do it. So uh. It was at the
DC Marathon, the Washington d C Marathon, and I went
and I read promos every like eight minutes for like
six hours. And these promo in the in the armor
in the armory, like in the you know ever all
the rate all the runners are walking through, they're getting
their bibs and they're like, if you'd like fifteen percent

(34:35):
off cold glove old running gloves, go to the booth
in the southwest corner of the armory and like it
was like the script that or this like stack of
pages that was this big, and I just was like
what am I doing with my life? But like Meredith
really appreciated that. I went to a marathon site and
I sat there and I did it and I spoke

(34:56):
and I don't care what the skill is, but like
do it. Just do all the things. You know, ham
stats out run stats help with the audio guys, like
just do everything. Don't say no, like you're not better
than than somebody else, Like You're only as good as
the person that's going to get you on television. You're
only as good as the person who's gonna turn your
mic on and get your frequency right. You might think
that you are the thing that's putting the words out,

(35:17):
but like so many more people are involved in that.
So just like do everything because no one can take
it away from you once you've done to skill. I
love that this is also a very small world because
I went to college with her daughter, Meredith Gus Natalie Geisler. Yes, Duke. Yes,
she was in my sorority at Duke. Yeah, that's really crazy.
I was like when he said I was a Meridethcusler,
I know that, yes, And I was kind of the

(35:39):
same way too, Like I raised my hand to go
my my one of my college professors was doing an
interview with coach k and he's like, does anyone want
to come? And I was like, uh, yeah, I'm at
this college because of this man, Like yes, I want
to be in the same room as him. And like
that turned into me getting a position with our like
football Teams TV show just because I like started talking
to the guy that I was walking in with. You know,
so you just really never know. It's like, I love

(35:59):
that jump at every opportunity. But that is a crazy,
crazy small world. And the fact that like what a
badass woman like she's teaching this class eleven years ago
at the time she was also working with Ray Allen.
But the fact that she's like still working with Grant
and they like she was at his book promo tour
and it was just like, now I'm working with Grant.
It was just like, oh my god, this life is
just so great. That's awesome. I love grand Hill. You

(36:22):
know the duke. My duke guy right there, doesn't like
I have a problem with anybody who doesn't like at health.
That's awesome. Um, I have one last thing for you here.
We have a little rapid fire to finish. So your
favorite game you've covered live, any sport? Yes, okay, this
is when I was in Boston. I did one year
of hockey and uh, I'm happy to have learned. I'm

(36:43):
happy that I'm not doing it anymore. However, playoff hockey
in Canada is incredible. Uh. It was Game five of
the second round and Stanley Cup Finals, and it was
Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadians, and like the French national
anthem at playoff hockey in Canada is like life changing.
That's awesome, that's really cool. Your worst travel assignment ever,

(37:07):
just Tuscaloosa. Still. I covered a I covered a surfing event,
a world surfing event in I will not remember the
town in California, but I will tell you it was
very hard to get to. It was somewhere like three hours,
three or four hours north of Los Angeles, an hour
south of Baker's Field. It was in the desert, desert,

(37:28):
desert land. And I don't know his name. Everybody would.
It's like the really famous balds Kelly Slayer has a
surfing emporium in this random place. I don't love California.
It's a man made wave. CBS broadcast this like World
Surfing Championship, and this was the worst part of it.
So I go there. It's like a four hour event,

(37:49):
three hours on Facebook live with like a play by
place surfing guy in ants. And then this girl, her
name was Rosie the reporter, and she was like Australian
or she had some readible accident and she knew the
sport like the back of her hands. She's like, I'm Rosie,
I'm doing the Facebook Lab part. Then You're taking over
for CBS in the final hour, and I was just like, seriously,

(38:09):
Rosie me, like, I don't know what is what, I
don't know where I am, I don't know what I'm
talking about, and I'm just gonna take over for you.
I felt so terribly, but I just wanted to be like,
can you just dub over me? As I talked about this,
I was doing these interviews and I was like standing
in water and I just was like, what what is
happening right now? It was so hard to get to
I was in the middle. It was like farms, farms, farms,

(38:32):
some more farms, a pool. It was like, you say, surfing,
I'm thinking like Hawaii, Like that sounds pretty cool, but
that's a little birn Maide thing in the middle of
I'm thinking, this was six hours inland of any of
the ocean, like so bizarre, and everything sounds better when
you're Australian too, so like I wouldn't want to compete
with This also reminds me of one time I was

(38:54):
for the first time ever. I was like being an
analyst on a women's college basketball game and CBS and
I'm doing like the Conference USA semifinals and so the quarterfinals.
I'm watching house and the game was on Facebook Live
the day before and I'm watching that. The broadcasters are
in front of me, turns around the analyst Ryl Swoops,
and I was like, really, CBS couldn't get Caryl Swoops
to stay becau, somebody you're gonna asked me to do this.

(39:15):
It's gotta be kidding. That's a tough active, very intimidating,
very intimating. We got there though. Okay, I have a
few Good Morning Football ones for you too. So your
favorite Good Morning Football guests so far? And there's always
someone cool on there. I feel like, oh my gosh,
oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Um. Well, we had
Blake Shelton on last week. Did see that. That's hard
to top. And he watches like every morning with intensity.

(39:38):
He got on me on my case about something from
September place Cardinals, Right Cardinals? Okay, yeah, so he's locked in. Yeah,
I will see him like tweet at the show and
stuff like he has tuned in notes. Yeah, that's great.
Your favorite Good Morning Football segment? Oh, you know Jason's UI.
I really like uie he does. He highly the defensive

(40:00):
place of the week. But just the fact that he
has committed uh to the wait and we all like
do the shimmy. And then in London he was blindy
and it was yeah, I'll go with you. I love that.
That's great and your favorite day of the week on
Good Morning Football. Mm hmm. Fridays are pretty Friday's Friday's
move you know like that. I think that it's you're

(40:22):
coming off of hopefully a good game the night before
and you're just real fired up, like about because at
this point you've talked a lot about the various games
and you've kind of attached. Everyone gets this one game
that they get real fired up about that weekend, and
so you're really like leaning into it. You're trying to
convince the other ones why your game is better than
their game, and and then you're like released to the wilderness,
so like on Friday, and it just and it feels

(40:44):
like you kind of put all of your guts and
glory into the week and now you're like, well, now
the football gods have in the next time we talk
about it, like next time we talk about Dolphins forty niners,
like we don't know what it's gonna be So I
really like Fridays your dream Ravens guest, Oh my dream
race Even's guest. M mmmmmmmmmmm. Well, for a lot of reasons,

(41:08):
I would love to have Lamar on, but Patrick Queen
was really fun to have on when I covered him
in the SEC. So plus that he and like j
Mack could do like some secondary chats. So like, I'll
go Patrick Queen. He's a he's a fan favorite here
for sure. We love him internally, He's like one of
the best to work with, so I think he would
be a great guest. I'm sure he would honestly probably

(41:28):
love to come in studio offseason, so I'll get that
little plug in for him. Yeah. Perfect, we can make
that happen for sure. And then you're just in general.
Bucket list event or person to cover doesn't have to
be sports, but it can be Wow, bucket list event
or person to cover. I mean, I always would have
loved to see like I mean, I'm gonna go backwards first.

(41:50):
I always would have loved to see like Michael Jordan
play in person, especially like a high profile moment. Yeah,
I've god, I've been so blessed, Like Super Bowls Final Fourssh,
I just I'm drawn a blank. I've been. I haven't been.
You know. My mom is trying to get to all
the baseball stadium she's like over halfway done, and I
have taken her to an All Star game, and I

(42:12):
would love to save her to a world series like
a late like a late game world series. I think
that'd be amazing and like a like an old an
old time like a Camden you know, like just yeah, yeah,
that's cool. I feel like some of the players that
you've gotten to cover too, or like one day we'll
look back on on some of like that, like the
Lamar Jackson's of the world, like they're becoming kind of
the next generation of Michael Jordan. But I'm with you,
that be would be so cool if you could go

(42:34):
back and do that. Yeah, I do think about that
a lot, like who are the guys that we are
watching play right now that like future televisions Peter Schraeger
is going to be like, you know, it reminds me
of And then it's just like it's not even like
a deep cut like who's the next transformational like Justin Tucker,
Like who is that guy? Is he born? Right? Like
it's playing soccer right now, we don't know him. Yeah,

(42:56):
that's awesome, right, yeah, and it's exciting, especially like when
you do have the kind of sec background, like a
lot of them are coming from there, you know. So
it's cool that you have that perspective. All right, Well,
thank you so much for the time, Jamie. This is great.
Oh good. I'm so glad. Good Morning Football continues to
be such a fun watch and Jamie is such a
big piece of that now. I'm always impressed by how

(43:18):
fresh they keep it, especially during the quiet times in
the off season. And this is our final episode of
season two. I hope you've enjoyed it. We've taken you
inside the castle quite literally with an in person taping
and share the inner workings of the franchise, from the
team's nutrition to meeting the legendary Miss Val and learning

(43:40):
more about Kyle, Nick and Mike from the ones that
know them best. I hope this season has taught you
more about the Ravens than you can get anywhere else.
I appreciate each of you who have listened, tweeted, and
subscribed all season long, and don't forget to leave us
a review, rate and subscribe if you're enjoying the podcast.
Thanks for a great season two. I'll talk to you soon.

(44:07):
M