As many of you know, I was selected to be on the alternate Yahoo broadcast of the first-ever worldwide stream of an NFL game as the Buffalo Bills are taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars from Wembley Stadium in London.

To watch the game, simply click here. 

As I am humbled by this tremendous honor and excited to work with Larry Beil, Kirk Morrison, Shaun King and Chris Trapasso, I figured I would document this historic experience through a blog.

ICYMI, here was the Day 1 Blog.

False start

4:47 a.m. PST- I wake up to an icy cold hotel room.  After going to the bathroom, I quickly return to safe confines of the bed.

Motivation?

6:30 a.m.- I leave the bed, turn up the climate a few degrees and ponder whether I want to go to the gym.

6:47 a.m.- I head to the gym and there was one other guy in there.  As I climbed onto the elliptical, he got off his machine.  He would alternate between the treadmill, one of the elliptical machines and a bike approximately every 10 minutes.  I’ve never heard of such a workout, but this dude is thinner than me so perhaps he’s onto something?

8:00 a.m.- Return to the hotel room, shave, shower and get ready for a day of rehearsal over at Yahoo.

The Yahoo compound

8:50 a.m.- I arrive at Yahoo, this place is enormous.  There were people outside playing volleyball and basketball, and I assume people inside working.

Meeting the cast

9:00 a.m.- I meet former Buccaneers quarterback Shaun King in the green room.  King has put on a couple pounds since his playing days, but his personality is even larger than his waistline.  We start talking football immediately and it’s evident that he watches a lot of film and knows his stuff.  He’s going to be a lot of fun to work with.

9:20 a.m.- Chris Trapasso from NFL.com enters the room and he joins our discussion.  Really nice, knowledgeable guy too.

9:30 a.m.- Kirk Morrison shows up.  He’s still in playing shape and a super nice, smart guy.  We all sit down and are watching some college games and there’s immediate chemistry, not the romantic kind, but as if we could all hang out and watch games together on a random weekend.

9:35 a.m.- The good folks at Yahoo bring bagels and fresh fruit.  This is a particularly good thing because I’m starving.

Oops!

10:45 a.m.- We move to the studio for rehearsal.  We go to our assigned spots and within five minutes I lift the wire for my headphones and knock over Trapasso’s soda.  He’s cool with it and such a nice guy that he even cleaned it up and took blame.  It was clearly my fault.

Time to work

10:55 a.m.- Rehearsal begins.  We are watching the first quarter of the Bengals vs. Bills game and we’re working on some talking points and basically trying to garner more on-air chemistry.  Larry Beil is hosting, acting as the pseudo play-by-play announcer.  He has a classic PBP voice and is very good.  It’s like watching a game with Jim Nantz, only not having to put up with Phil Simms.  Win-win (this pretty much ensures that I’ll never work at CBS).

11:30 a.m.- We take a break and I only spoke out of turn once (when the referees were announcing a penalty).  I feel pretty good about my role.

11:35 a.m.- Back to work.  This time we’re doing the third quarter of last week’s Texans vs. Jaguars game.  I have a little advantage in this one being that I was at the actual game.  The more time we spend doing it, the more we’re all feeling comfortable.

Wasn’t asked to leave

12:10 p.m.- Producers come in the studio and give us some critiques, mostly positive.  They said that they don’t have to see any more.  I didn’t get fired right then and there so that’s a win.  We congregate in the hallway outside the green room and start discussing more talking points.

Only in California

12:15 p.m.- Yahoo brought us some Mexican food for lunch.  I grab two tacos and an enchilada.  I cut into the enchilada and it has spinach and peppers.  I’m a little disappointed as I was looking for more protein.  At least the tacos were filled with chicken.  Overall, lunch was good.

Bonding time

12:40 p.m.- Instead of bolting because we were done with work, everyone just hung around to get to know each other better and watch the college games together.  We start telling stories about football, and Kirk Morrison recounts how stupid Derrick Harvey was when they played in Jacksonville together.  I asked if he was there when Harv drove through the gate and he started laughing.  He then told a story about a film meeting where Harvey was clueless and Jack Del Rio asked him what he was doing.  Harv said, “I don’t know coach, that’s why you need to coach me up.”

Everyone laughed and then we shared a few Del Rio stories that can not be repeated.

Back to the hotel

2:30 p.m.- We decide to leave and we all share an Uber because we’re all staying at the same hotel.  Morrison takes the front seat of the sedan and King and I enter the back seat from opposite doors, forcing Trapasso to sit in the middle.

2:45 p.m.- Back to the hotel and we get in the elevator.  I win the elevator contest as I have the highest floor.  The ex-athletes complain but I explain to them that I’m the “Managing Editor of Football Insiders” and that affords me certain perks around the world.  I’m pretty sure they recognized that and it likely will take them days to get over the ego slight, or perhaps they’ll go to their grave thinking about it?  Who knows?

I’m back in the room watching college games.  I watched Tennessee lose another heartbreaker to Alabama and the beginning of FSU-Georgia Tech.

Dinner with the crew

5:30 p.m.- We all meet in the lobby to go to a place called Firehouse (not subs) for dinner with the rest of the Yahoo staff.  Once we figure out where to sit, we begin making demands on what games we want to watch and I even tilt one of their TV’s a certain way.  We’ve taken ownership of the establishment.

We’re all sitting down and telling stories and talking about sports.  It’s a lot of fun.  We decide to order a bunch of appetizers, one of which were habanero wings.  Shaun King takes one and is complaining about the heat.  Since I’m a tough guy, I tell him to give me one and then I take a bite.  Heat immediately started pouring off my head and my lips were tingling.  These wings were nuclear.

7:15 p.m.- Time for “the talent” to leave and we share an Uber back to the hotel.  We leave with about 20 seconds left in the FSU game.  I get a text from a good friend (who went to FSU) telling me that he won’t be watching the broadcast as he’ll likely be committing suicide.  Then all of us feverishly get on our phones to try and find the final play of the game.  First Michigan State-Michigan, then FSU- Georgia Tech a week later.  Absolutely nuts!

Good night

It’s a 5 a.m. call time so we all need our beauty rest.  I head up to my room, lay out tomorrow’s clothes and get to bed.