Left to right: Hines Ward, Chris Collingsworth, John Krasnan, Marc Goldberg and Bob Costas
Marc Goldberg
I had a really cool experience at the Cardinals Sunday Night Football game held on December 21. John Krasnan and I were treated like VIPs courtesy of NBC Sports. We received pre-game field passes, were provided a personal escort and went behind the scenes to view the production control trailer. The highlight was meeting the NBC broadcasters Bob Costas, Chris Collingsworth and Hines Ward.
Fred Gaudelli, a friend of mine from Connecticut, arranged all this for us. Fred is the NBC Sports producer responsible for putting on Sunday Night Football (SNF), currently the number one show on network television.
Diana, a production coordinator, escorted us onto the field for pre-game warm ups. She told us where we could stand, but more importantly, where we could not. She took us into the production control trailer where Fred introduced us to Drew Esocoff, the director of SNF. He’s been the director for the last nine seasons.
Definitely the best part came when we were introduced to the SNF broadcasters. We posed for pictures with them and chatted briefly. Knowing that Bob Costas was a big Mickey Mantle fan, I mentioned to him that I thought I was a bigger fan. Bob said, “Marc, I strongly disagree.” I guess Bob was right after all. Giving the eulogy at Mantle’s funeral probably makes him the bigger fan.
A cool experience for sure!