By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer
Editor’s Be aware: Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his twenty third season because the lead producer. He has greater than 40 years of expertise overlaying the league and has produced seven Tremendous Bowls. All through the 2024 NFL season, he’s offering an inside look as FOX’s new No. 1 NFL staff, together with NFL legend Tom Brady, makes its journey towards Tremendous Bowl LIX. Learn extra behind-the-scenes tales from Richie Zyontz right here.
Upon getting into our tv truck, one’s eyes can go off in lots of instructions.
Screens blanket the entrance wall. Work stations are set all through in a trend logical solely to those that man them. And there are such a lot of dials and switches that it reminds one in all what the within of a spaceship would possibly appear like.
Effectively, the Captain Kirk of our operation is technical director Colby Bourgeois and our “Starship Enterprise” can’t flourish with out his deft thoughts and nimble arms. Controlling a board with 1,100 button choices, this job isn’t for the faint of coronary heart or for the fats of finger. It additionally requires a particular temperament. Any producer or director will cite the TD because the true brains of the outfit. With Colby, that goes double.
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The entrance row in a manufacturing truck consists of producer, director and technical director. The TD listens to the cues from the director and hits the suitable key in response to each command. Nothing seems in your display screen with out the TD punching the suitable button. Amid the occasional organized chaos of stay tv, the TD should float above the fray and methodically hold the present afloat.
We’ve all taken completely different paths to occupy our present seats. Colby was a tinkerer as a child, and used that curiosity to review math and electrical engineering at Arizona State. That led to work at a neighborhood station in Phoenix, and in the end a soar into community sports activities in 1998. For the final 18 seasons, Colby has sat on the elbow of director Wealthy Russo, having switched six Tremendous Bowls.
Using youthful piano expertise, he lords over his huge management board whereas retaining his eyes on dozens of screens.
Now issues can go awry on this age of computerization. At Tremendous Bowl 48 in New Jersey between the Seahawks and Broncos, Colby’s station suffered a glitch and quickly failed. With out lacking a beat, he calmly went to the emergency plan, which required him switching the present whereas standing up at a distinct panel. The 110 million viewers had been by no means the wiser. And now I do know if I see Colby standing up throughout the recreation it’s not an excellent factor.
Technical director Colby Bourgeois is the Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise that’s our weekly FOX NFL manufacturing. (Picture courtesy of Richie Zyontz)
What additionally hasn’t been an excellent factor is the non-competitive nature of just about all of the video games our crew has witnessed to this point this season.
Week 7 was certain to be completely different, although, with two legendary franchises assembly up for the primary time since their Tremendous Bowl showdown in February, and the league’s finest quarterback taking heart stage.
Brady and Mahomes cross paths … once more
When the NFL schedule was launched in Could, the title-game rematch between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers grew to become FOX’s most anticipated recreation of the season. Patrick Mahomes can be on the sector, and Tom Brady can be within the sales space. It certain appeared like a dream Sunday.
The enjoyable began on Saturday, when Brady was tasked with interviewing Mahomes for the FOX pregame present. The picture of the all-time biggest quarterback sitting side-by-side with the NFL’s present biggest quarterback was merely iconic.
The mutual respect between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes was clear throughout their interview forward of Sunday’s Chiefs-49ers recreation. (Picture courtesy of Richie Zyontz)
The mutual respect was evident within the interview. As a participant, Brady’s aggressive hearth prevented him from changing into friends along with his fellow QBs. Now in retirement, he sees a kindred spirit in Mahomes, devoted to profitable in any method potential.
This was not the primary face-to-face interplay between Brady and Mahomes, as they crossed paths after the 2019 AFC Championship Sport when Tom’s New England Patriots beat Patrick’s Chiefs 37-31. For the one time in his profession, Brady made it a degree of stopping by the opposing locker room after the sport to console and provides props to the rising younger star.
Throughout this weekend’s interview, Mahomes seemed again on that second and what it meant to him.
“For me, the largest factor was clearly you are Tom. You’ve got achieved this for a very long time, and also you had that thought-process in that second to come back into the locker room, and also you checked out me, and also you mentioned ‘you’re doing it the suitable method. Hold doing it like that, and you will have success,'” Mahomes mentioned.
Tom Brady on assembly Patrick Mahomes for the primary time
Brady knew what sort of recreation Chiefs-49ers would develop into
Our Saturday conferences have been fascinating. The crew of about 14 will hear raptly as Brady shares the outcomes of his analysis and his tackle the upcoming recreation.
This week, he predicted a recreation that might be determined by the defenses. Not what you’d count on in a recreation matching offensive gurus Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan. But it was the blitzing and tight man protection by Kansas Metropolis that performed a big think about its 28-18 victory.
Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes talk about Tremendous Bowls, household & extra
With accidents depleting the offense, Mahomes had been pressured to play with many backups. He wanted to regulate his recreation to swimsuit the depleted expertise round him. Gone was the thrilling downfield passing, changed by a troublesome working recreation that punished San Francisco.
In fact, Mahomes did handle one eye-popping second on a profession lengthy 33-yard run, juking and jiving his well beyond defenders and reminding everybody of his huge expertise.
Tom Brady on Mahomes’ BIG run: ‘Performs to win’
Subsequent week we have now an attention-grabbing matchup between the Buffalo Payments and Seattle Seahawks. This will probably be an opportunity for Brady to look at quarterback Josh Allen sling it round within the NFL’s loudest out of doors venue.
Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his twenty third season as lead producer. He boasts greater than 40 years of expertise overlaying the NFL.
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