The Season with Peter Schrager: NFL Honors EP Dave Chamberlin

I am en route to Arizona, where I'll be doing Good Morning Football from the lovely state of Arizona Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday morning, and then I'm going to be on the Fox pregame for the Super Bowl all day Sunday and what sounds like a pretty significant role. I was a little surprised, but my bosses have enough faith in me to say, hey, you're gonna be a big

part of the pregame. I'm like, awesome. So I will be trying to gather as much information as possible and also trying to bring as much insight that maybe no one else has leading up to the game all day Sunday. You know, my initial look at this game is that we have the two number one seeds. We have two teams that have been just locomotives over the past few weeks, and we have two really young, promising and I would say,

like awesome ambassadors of the sport at quarterback. Yet, as I always do, I want to look at the business of how these two teams operate and how they got here. And I look at what the Eagles and Chiefs have done in the past twelve months to go from teams that didn't make the Super Bowl to teams that did. Let's start with Philly embarrassing loss in the wild card round to Tampa Bay. I still hear Merril Reese, the

radio announcer, being like this Gammer's finally over. That's what he said to end the radio call, which was a blowout to the Buccaneers. And you know, they could have sit on their hands and been like, all right, let's see what we do in the tray aft and let's see if we can get a couple free agents. They could have aggressively pursued DeShawn Watson. A lot of people thought last year that the Eagles were a real team because of Howie Roseman's aggressive nature and you know Deshaun

watson skills as the player. They could have gone after him and said, let's make a big splash. Instead, they doubled down on building around Jalen Hurts, and I thought that was cool. Let's look at what they've done free agency. Hassan Reddick is on the block, guy who's a South Jersey native who went to Temple nearby and who had just an outstanding season last year for the Carolina Panthers on a one year deal and before that had an

outstanding season for the Arizona Cardinals. They give him a pretty economically sound offer and they add Hassan Reddick in free agencies. So you add that piece. Then what do they do in the draft? Well, they draft Jordan Davis, which I think is a big piece of the future at defensive line. But they have a second first round pick, and we knew that wide receiver was an area of emphasis, and yet five wide receivers had already been taken in

the first round. And they're at the eighteenth pick and trailing Burks is on the board, and you could probably grab one of these other guys. A Christian Watson was still available, Sky Moore was still available. No, they trade a the eighteenth overall pick and a third rounder and they get a j Brown. I mean that is aggressive. So so far, you add Hassan Reddick and aj Brown. As the offseason continues, they add guys like James Bradberry,

They add guys like Chauncey Gardner Johnson. They add guys that they think and play immediate roles and help this team in big spots. I thought when Jordan Davis, the rookie, went down, they didn't just sit on their hands. They went out there and they went and acquired Robert Quinn, who hasn't played a role. But the fact they went out and got them from the Bears. I love. They went and they lured you know, Lynn Vaal Joseph out of his semi retirement to come join the team. They

did the same with Damien Sue. They add, they add, they add their relentless and for that I give them credit. A lot of teams don't have that approach. A lot of teams would say, hey, look, we draft really well, we're sound, We've got this great offensive and defensive line. Let's just go to war with what we got. No, Howie Roseman and that front office would not sleep until they felt like they had a Super Bowl ready roster. And guess what twelve months after losing to the Buccaneers

and embarrassing fashion. The Eagles not only are in the Super Bowl, they're the number one team. They've got what appears to be the number one offensive and defensive line in the sport. And Jalen Hurtz is on the cusp of superstardom. And that's because of not only his hard work and all things that he's put into this thing, but because of what they've done to surround him with the right pieces. That's the Eagles. The Chiefs. Chiefs had

a whole different philosophy. Chiefs, how about this stat Chiefs went to the AFC Championship Game last year, twenty one of the fifty three players on the roster are different this year. That's forty percent of their roster is different than what they've trotted out for the AFC Championship Game last year. The biggest move, of course, was trading tie Rekill. And let me tell you something knowing that organization and I reported it when it happened. This was not a

unilateral decision by Brett Veach. This was a conversation that involved Patrick Mahomes, It involved Andy Reid, involved Clark Hunt. Do we pay Tyreek Hill thirty million dollars and deal with what we have to deal with on the roster, or do we trade Tyreek Hill, get picks and then have some free space to maybe pick up some other players that can help us do the job. Well, Tyreek Hill's probably the greatest Chiefs wide receiver to ever live. They trade him and he made thirty million dollars this

year for the Miami Dolphins, and he was outstanding. He's in finalist for Offensive Player of the Year. Tyreek Hill is amazing. I think Tyree Hills a Hall of Famer. That's a whole of the argument. But I think he's a Hall of Famer already. But they paid thirty million dollars to Dolphins for Tyree Hill this season, The entire Chiefs wide receivers room, all those guys, twelve guys combined, make fifteen million dollars total. So what did they do well?

They signed Juju to a short term deal. They signed Marquez veld a scant link to a short time deal. They went out and they got Justin Watson, who was an outstanding practice player for the Tambay Buccaneers and who came in training camp and blew everybody away for the Chiefs. This year, they drafted sky Moore. They found resources with the Tyreek deal, and they spent them where they thought was important. Tyrn Matthew was a captain on this team.

Maybe his best days were done. They were able to say, hey, rip the band aid off, say farewell, and they bring in Justin Reid who appears to be playing some of the best football of his career at the safety spot. They draft well, they make key plays, and they also made key free agent acquisitions. I thought bringing in a guy like Carlos Dunlap, a veteran guy to add to

the defensive line. Smart sound. This offensive line that they'll be trotting out, it's completely different than the one that you lost saw in a Super Bowl when they played the Buccaneers. Completely different, top to bottom, all new guys. That is what Brett Beach does. He has not had to endure the rebuild. He has not had to endure the pain that the other teams have. When you pay the quarterback that huge salary, it's because they draft well, it's because they unload salaries and try to bring on

others that might make more sense. And it's because they do the same thing that the Eagles have done for jam and Hurts. They've surrounded Patrick Mahomes. I am a geek for this stuff. I love roster building. I think what the Chiefs and the Eagles have done are two very separate paths to being in the Super Bowl. But both of these rosters are among the best in the league, and they've rebuilt teams on the fly. Chiefs lost the

Super Bowl two years ago. Their team right now, aside from a few players, looks completely different than the one that played in that Super Bowl. The Eagles won a Super Bowl a few years ago. They've only got seven guys from that team on this team, and of course four of them are key contributors. Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham on defense, and then Jason Kelsey and of course Lane Johnson on offense. You've got that core four. They

were the lead dogs in that Super Bowl run. They're still all coming back, and of course you've got all these new players, and then you've got a couple of the other holdovers that were there on that team. I love both of these rosters. I think these gms are fearless, smart and decisive, and it's a testament to be aggressive. But also think about things a year down the line,

two years down the line. You don't bring back Tyreek Hill unless you feel like there's a future plan and a greater future and a greater runway if you can trade them and get all the picks and all the money that they got in exchange for that Tyreek deal. Eagles versus Chiefs, I'm here for it. I love both teams. I am flying out as you're listening to this. I will be on the ground soon and let me give you a quick rundown of what I've got planned, because I think this is kind of the other part of

the Super Bowl. You've got obviously the game and then the work. But here are some of the things that I'm excited for. Wednesday night, Fox is having a big pre super Bowl dinner and at all the other ones I've been too for Fox. I've been with Fox twenty years and fifteen years, and you know, every three years there's a Super Bowl. Jimmy Johnson gives like this riveting speech. I cannot wait for it. I like, I'm giddy for it.

Jimmy gives a speech to the entire production crew, like camera guy up on the top, you know, left of the stadium, bring your a game, and you know this game right now? You know what's it gonna mean to you? Greg Olsen, like you know, it's a fired up speech, So Jimmy, you'll bring that other part of it. As of right now, I don't know if I'm breaking news. I don't want to steal any shine from the sports media reporters out there, But sounds like Sean Payton's with

us all week. So Sean's the new coach of the Broncos. We've had a great year with him. I'll have plenty of stories from being alongside him riding shotgun on the pregame show, which I love. That'll be Wednesday night. Colin Coward invited me to a party. I don't know what that consists of, but Coward is one of my favorite guys in sports media, and I will be there. Colin Coward's having a party, I will be there. I want to see what Collins party's like and who he's hanging with.

That's Wednesday, Thursday night NFL Honors. Also, I'm gonna try to double dip on this one. Howie Long is winning a very coveted award and he's been really good to me. Over the course of my career. The Pats I'm a Roll Foundation is awarding Howe Long this year. I'm gonna try to make it to that. That's going to be special, So that'll also be Thursday night. I'm gonna try to double dip on that, hopefully have some stories from that event.

Friday's an interesting one. So Friday is like your big party night and everyone's going out and who's party going to? Who's party going what are you gonna do that? I don't know yet. I haven't been invited to any. We'll see, um, hopefully I get invited to one, or to be honest, probably sounds like a night where hey, do you want to get dinner and then see where it goes? Um? But yeah, I will not be necessarily on TMZ Friday night.

Not really my scene as far as that goes. But if you do see a photo of me with Drake Um on a DJ booth and on a DJ booth, is that what they call it? Aaron on a DJ booth? I don't know. In a DJ booth what do we even call it? I'm more of a in It depends how crazy you're getting. You could be on top having a really big night. You could be on the djoth, but generally I think you're at the booth. I could

be at the booth. Okay, last year, no joke. My wife came with me and we went to the Justin Bieber concert and we went to Biber and it was awesome and I hung with George Kittle and Josh Allen and uh luminout, Tony Gonzalez. Jeff Bezos was there. Is it Bezos or Bezos? What do you call him? It's Bezos, isn't it? I think I think I think it's I think I go with Bezos. Let's go with bezas Jeff Bezos. It does. But nothing sinister about him popping his head

the Biber, I'll tell you. Um. So we're there, and then the party like is winding down a little bit, and someone's like, oh, Marshmallow's going on next, and I'm like, party's winding down. We're staying Marshmallow on the one. Two's I love Marshmallow. All In was out late that night, and then Saturday was recovering. But this year's Saturday, we have a full rehearsal for Fox, and then Sunday is a super Bowl. Um, it's busy, it's action packed. I'm

very fortunate to go to another super Bowl. I know, Aaron you will be out there. Jason English, who's in the house, is gonna be there. I hope to link up with you guys. But let me tell you, by the time that that that super Bowl actually arrives, it's almost like an afterthought for everybody else because there's so many other events going on. And one of the events is going to be Thursday night, the NFL Honors. I'll tell you what, I love this event. I think it's cool.

You get all the players and the coaches and the owners, and they all get dolled up, and there's a red carpet and they're being interviewed by Kevin Frasier, like it's entertainment tonight, and you've got Papa Razzi, you know, Alvin Camaro, what are you wearing tonight? Then the show starts and it's a really fun show. I love it so much that I said for our guests this week, like to start this thing off, let's go behind the scenes, Like what does it take to put together the NFL Owners?

What does it take to put together the big show of the week. I feel like outside of the Super Bowl. This is the biggest event for everyone at home, and it's where you find out who wins the MVP, the Walter Payton Man of the Year, the Rookie of the Year's award, the Coach of the Year, and like, it's a celebration of football. It's Thursday night, it's on NBC and the executive producer it's a gentleman named Dave Amberlain. I thought it would be fun. Let's go a little

behind the scenes. What's Dave Chamberlain's week, Like, let's get him on the podcast, Dave Chamberlain after this. One of my favorite nights of the year is the NFL Honors event. I've been lucky enough to go probably the last ten of them. It's it's cool. It's the Academy Awards for football. It's the only place you can see your favorite players, coaches and media personalities mixing with celebrities, and there's an award show, and there's also comedy and there's it's just tremendous.

And now that we've got this podcast up and running, I was listening to a different podcast. It's called The Town and it's with a gentleman named Matthew Bellni for a company called Puck and on his podcast, he had the executive producer who was putting on the Grammys a couple of days ahead of the Grammys and was going going into what to take put them the show on?

Is this show going to be a hit? And it was kind of got me excited for the event as a hole, And I said, I'm going to steal that exact idea, and I'm going to get one of the men who puts on the NFL Honors event, and we're gonna go deep dive into what it takes putting on an award show and colliding all these wonderful worlds. And with that, I bring on one of the men who's gonna be putting on the NFL Honors Dave Chamberlain. Dave, Welcome to the season with Peter Schreker. Thanks so much,

Really appreciate you having me on Psyche for NFL Honors. Dave. You lead, Yeah, you lead a team that does not just NFL Honors. You guys have done things like the SPS, You've done the Oscars Red Carpet Show, You've done thirty for thirty. When you got the call for NFL Honors, what year was it and what kind of opportunity did you see that being in the car? Sure, So I

got involved with NFL Honors from the beginning. I worked with a woman named Moriamt for many years, who goes way back with you know a lot of the folks that were at the NFL that had been at the ESPN around when the SPS, you know, we're coming up. So they called up Moura to produce that show back in I think it was twenty eleven, twenty twelve, and I was working closely with her. So I've been involved from the beginning, and you know, it was such a when we got that call. It's such a great idea,

you know, and such an interesting fun thing to jump into. Um, you know, that first year, I think the show was in February. We got to call in October, so we didn't have a lot of time to put it together. But it's it's really been fun to see what it's grown into over the years. You know. I went back and I watched, you know, Alec Baldwin was the host, and I'm watching and like I was curious, I'm like,

what was the vibe? As I'm doing research on this thing and there's this really cool moment where like Jim Harball wins Coach of the Year and Alex Smith goes up and accepts it and he's taken it from Chris Evans, and I'm like, this is almost like a time to it. You could see like what was going on in the

world when this happened. And I feel like, now that we're eleven years to this, you could probably have a separate story for each one of these award shows in the making of it, and of course where you were in that moment in time. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I think we have one of the kids from Twilight present on that show, and it does like Tim Tebow was a big story in the NFL at the time. Yeah, it totally takes you back to that moment. How do you pick the host because that was Baldwin We've had

of course, Steve Harvey has done multiple years. Last year, Keegan Michael Key. I want to say Rob Riggles done it in the past, cone in one year this year, Kelly Clarkson. What goes into the selection of the NFL owners. Sure, So, look, we always want somebody that's going to be entertaining, right and that the people in the room, you know, the players, owners, the NFL family, it's in the room, is going to

respond to and be excited for. But and you know, I think what goes into that is somebody that's a genuine fan, you know, somebody that really loves the game and has a lot of respect for it and can talk about things and kind of rid people and make fun of things from that fan perspective. So, you know, we don't want to just go out and get anybody somebody that's like a real football fan that's also an incredible entertainer. Yeah, so Clarkson gets the call win, how

does that all go down? And when do you guys start putting those cards on the sure? So, yeah, we went to Kelly late last year, you know, I probably around November something like that. And because she's been a presenter in years, I know that. Yeah, she's she's done the show a couple of times, which is part of what you know, identified her as somebody in our mind that would be great. She's obviously hosts a talk show

every day. She's I think one of the most personable and charming talents out there, and she can do so many things. Well, so, yeah, we had her on the show last year. I got to talk to her a little bit and we thought she you know, we thought she'd be a lot of fun. She's also one of the busiest people in show business, so when we first started talking to her, you know, it's uh navigating her being able to do this around her schedule was a

little tricky. But you know, luckily, after going through a few different things and trying to make it as as simple for her as we could, you know, she agreed to do it, which we were thrilled about. You know, it's funny because this super Bowl site kind of dictates where this thing is going to be, So I would imagine a super Bowl in Minnesota in the freezing cold.

Is harder to get commitments from certain celebrities, and maybe one that might be in Vegas next year, or one that was in Los Angeles last year, Arizona, it's gonna start a little earlier than it does when it's in Atlanta or some other places. How hard was it to get the celebrity presenters on board or is this something

that they line up to do. You know, it's a great question, and to be honest with you, when you know the show was on Saturday for many years, and last year we shifted to Thursday, you know, which I think is great. It gives us a little bit of a separation from the super Bowl, so you know, hopefully a little more chatter around around our show. But I was I was a little concerned about getting celebrities to Arizona on a Thursday night. But it's worked out great.

We've got an incredible list of celebs that are coming, you know, coming in early and enjoying all the super Bowl festivities in Arizona. And you know, all the players seem to be coming out early. So it's it was proved to be less of a challenge than I expected it to be. No, it's good. And you know, you talk to some of these agents and some of these sales and marketing guys, Hey get us there on Thursday.

We'll make up Friday and Saturday. We'll make sure we make the most of our money, and we'll make sure both of your time like while you're there. And that's what it's good. They've got, they've got an ad of incentive to come. I can only imagine last year when you get the call or you get the results that Andrew Whitworth is Walter Payton Man of the Year and it's in Los Angeles and his team is in the Super Bowl. That was the biggest shock to me that

you actually got him and Cooper Cup in person. How did that go down? And what kind of stuff do you have with like the history of just like close calls and like the amazing way that this thing could come together. Yeah, you know, um, that was really interesting. Um, you know, when we found out that Andrew was winning in and then you know found out obviously the Rams were gonna be in the game. We'd never had in the history of the show anybody from either of the

Super Bowl teams come to the show. Obviously when it was on Saturday, that's a lot trickier, you know. Um, the one big benefit of the show moving to Thursday was, you know, depending on the team, you know, different teams, different coaches look at this in different ways, but you know, there's a little bit more of an opportunity to try to get those players to come to the show. The Rams, you know, I think, really bought in and were excited.

And look, we also didn't want to We didn't want either Cooper or Andrew to know that they were winning, right that's um, yeah, you got to keep that close to the vest. Yeah for sure, and not only for them, but for everybody else that's nominated. But the Rams were really incredibly to work with on that front. And you know, I think Man of the Years obviously probably the you know, most important award in the NFL. So knowing that was on the table there, I think really meant a lot

to the Rams, um. And they were an incredible partner in getting those guys. You know, we tried to make it as easy and seamless as we could getting them in and out. Um. And you know, uh, Andrew kind of popped in backstage and walked out on stage, made an incredible speech. Um, and then you know headed out back to back to Yeah. But a lot of things converging there right Like, um, it was their home stadium, so you know that makes things all a little bit easier. Um.

Uh in LA you know so Um. But yeah, we've you know, look, we've had obviously players winning that we're in the Super Bowl in the past and have tried to do different things. Um. But it's tricky, you know, it's tricky the coach. This is not the coach's priority, you know, No absolutely. Um, sports and comedy is really hard.

We've seen attempts fail. You know, whether it be a TV show that this is gonna this is gonna be the daily show for for sports and it never works, or this is good, this funny gimmick on a pregame show you're gonna love it rarely works. Yeah, you guys have nailed it though these monologues over the years, whether it be as Seth Myers, or whether it be a cone in or whether it be Steve Harvey just roasting the shit out of the NFL the past few years.

Last year I thought Gig and Michael Key was incredible. It's really hard threading that needle. Um, and yet you guys have been able to succeed with that. I feel like there's one hundred percent universal approval rating from the NFL Honors monologues. How have you guys been able to nail that? And when does it get to the NFL with what is going to be in the content of those scripts because some of them are pretty close to the edge. Those are those are my favorite meetings every year.

So you know, look, it starts with the host, right, Like I said, having a host that's a genuine fan that you know it can really speak to these things from a level of from a place of passion, I think really helps. We have an amazing writing staff led by Bennett Webber. He's a huge football fan, as are all of our writers. Um. And you know, look it helps only having to do it once a year, right. I don't envy people that have to come up with ways to make sports funny on a daily show or

on a weekly show. Um. So we've got a lot of material to work with, um and some incredibly talented people to pull those jokes off. Um. But uh, yeah, we we generally get a script to the league a couple of days ahead of time and everything. Or is it like you leave a little bit of room here, Well, no, we we usually we get them everything. We don't want to We don't want anybody to have surprises, right because we want to come back every year and do the show.

Um uh. And you you know how it goes. There will generally be a few things in there that we know they're gonna cut, so that maybe they don't cut the things that are actually our favorites. Um uh. And yeah, frankly, I've been surprised some years at what we've been able to, uh to get through UM. And you know, it helps that we've been doing it year after year with some

of the same people. And I think, you know, when things come from a place of love and passion and not of like sort of picking and attacking, UM, that that helps helps us get those things approved. There's so many sentimental moments. And we talked about to Walter Payton, Man of the Year, and I always end up at Bolleteers and I'm like, I didn't plan on crying tonight

at the NFL Howners, but I do. Uh, your favorite funny moment in the eleven years of this show has been a success, Like, what's the one moment where you're like, oh shit, that that one sticks out? Oh boy, that's um, that's great. We uh early on Alec Baldwin's favorite player of all times, Joe NAMATHUM and I can't remember the first show or the second show. We Alec did a great bit in the audience, UM with Joe Namath Phil Simms next to exactly that's exactly right. It's yeah, yeah,

I love this. I remember it telling where you know it was about playing in New York and and and playing in the spotlight and how you navigate that and he was, you know, sitting next to Phil Simms, um, who's very stayed U and uh, you know Phil's Phil was kind of like, oh, you know, it's you go home early and uh and do your job. And then Nameth just kind of popped out. Uh. Um. And you know he obviously navigated New York a little bit differently. Um.

That Uh, that was one of my favorites. Alec Baldwin, if I recall Alec Baldwin asked them the question how about you, Joe, and he goes, well, I don't remember it, yeah, which is an amazing line. Yeah, that's that's It's great. Um. I thought Steve Harvey was hilarious both years he did it, And I felt like if there ever was a script that went to the NFL that I don't know whatever I heard on TV. That's a great point. That's a

great point. Look Steve, Um. You know, Steve hadn't done stand up for a long time before he hosted that show. He hadn't told jokes in front of in front of an audience like that, and he was so excited to do it. Um. We also had the benefit those years the show wasn't live live, right, so we had maybe an hour or two hours to trim things and edit things. So you know, Steve just kind of went out and let it rip, and we we knew there were things that we were going to have to edit and cut

out ed. Uh, you know that worked. That worked pretty well. And you know Steve also wasn't always going off teleproper. Steve just you know, he had things he wanted to do and say, and then he'd just go the great The great thing about him too is you may remember he you know, usually during a show, the host goes out does their bits, and then in between they're you know, prepping for the next thing, working with the writers on a script, or you know, just taking a break, taking

a breather. You know, it's more exhausting to do this than he might think. Steve, though, in commercial breaks would go out and entertain the audience just because he had fun doing it. Um. So he'd go out there and chat with everybody during commercial breaks, um, just to have some more fun. So good. And there's this whole backstage scene that I was able to frequent once and it was like if you could pick the most random celebrities and most random football players, but it was like at all,

just just hanging out backstage. I'll never forget. I went back stage and Paul Rud's back there and he calls me over and he's like, Peter, do you know Klais Campbell? And I'm like, yeah, I guess. And we were like this like intense conversation, like Paul read Klais Campbell and me, and I'm like, this is the show. Now, are you in the truck or do you get a chance to

frequent that backstage? I'm backstage on backstage, so yeah. Usually there's a lot of things happening around me and behind sort of a setup with monitors, and I get headphones on, but there's a lot happening around everyone, so I look around, like, oh, there's Mark Wahlberg and Andrew Whitworth. I mean a conversation about God knows what you know? Um, yeah, it's a

it's a fun it's a fun scene back there. You mentioned the name Moura matt And for the listeners, she's one of the all time legends in television sports TV and she passed right before the pandemic. I wanted to say in like February of twenty twenty. But she's the touch point for any favor that Moura man ever needed from Aaron Rodgers. He'd run to do it. Peyton Manning, run to do it, Paul Rudd, run to do it, you name it. Her legacy is all over the NFL honors.

Her footprint is there. Can you tell us a little bit about who Maura was and really what this show means to her legacy and how you guys are going to keep it going. Absolutely? Yeah, she was incredible. Um, you know, as you said, so many people. She could get people to do things that nobody else could get to do owners because people loved her so much and loved her passion so much. Um, she was a force of nature. When she wanted something to happen, she would

just go, go, go, go go. She'd get know so many times and you know, just try to push through it and flip a note to it. Yes, And she always approached you know, uh these shows from a place of telling stories and moving people and you know, trying to make the world a better place through some of the you know, silly shows that we make. And I think she was largely successful in doing those things. And um,

you know, It's funny. I was just talking to somebody this morning, like, I can't tell you how many times a day doing this show, it goes through a mind, well, what would More do? How would More handle this situation? And you know, I can never I could never do a lot of the things she was capable of doing.

But you know we, I think all of us have that in our heads as we go through, you know, the creative of the show and trying to decide what we're going to do and how we're going to handle things, and how we're going to navigate talent and just try to do her justice. You know, she was such a huge part of making this show to what it is. Yeah, and it's the same she was. And obviously, you guys

work on the SP's for years. There's like this high quality of not only the show itself, but the guests that attend and are willing to participate and have fun and laugh about themselves, which we don't see on a day to day basis for a lot of these athletes and performers. Yeah, absolutely, she was. She was so great at getting people comfortable with doing things that you know, they had no business doing. You know, we we think of an idea and like, oh, that person's never going

to do that. She's like, give me, give me, give me trying give me shot. And you know she was almost always successful, really good, really good at doing Yeah, I've had I had a chance to get to know her briefly. I mean, just an incredible toward a force. And you guys are carrying on the torch and you're doing a fine job. What's the measure of success for this year's NFL Honors? I know it's gonna be great

and everyone's gonna have a blast. But the next morning you wake up Friday and you're like, what are we looking at? Is it ratings? Is it the Twitter reaction or is it just an overall high quality night where everyone feels good about the NFL. You know, obviously pay attention to the ratings, and I hope as many people watch the show as we can, and you know, hopefully if if the ratings are good, you know that that's

good for us. But you know, I think the way I think about during success on the show is the people are partners in this show, right and the stakeholders

in this show. Do they walk away happy? You know, do they feel good about the show we made, whether that's our host, you know, certainly the those in the league and the commissioner and you know, the owners and the people that you know have a say in, and if this show continues to get made year after year, you know, were those people did they come in feeling like this was a great event and something the league

should be proud of. And then obviously the players, you know, the players and legends that are there that we're celebrating. We want them to walk away feeling like, man, that was that was cooler than I thought it would be, or that was more fun than I thought it would be, or you know, that meant more to me than I thought it might. So having those those people walk away feeling great about their experience and great about the show and the event we made, I think is our biggest

marker of success on this show. You know, last year, I remember being there and Aaron Rodgers is sitting in the front row and Josh Allen was nearby, and during a commercial break, the two of them were chopping it up like it's pretty cool. Now they've got to know each other. They golf, they do all this stuff, and but that's cool, like to see like you know, thirty eight year old Aaron Rodgers with twenty four year old Josh Allen and they're cleared up, and I'm like, who

makes the seating chart? That's you know. I've got a meeting a little bit later today to go through the first draft of that. It's fun. We have an incredible seating team that are just freshly here from the Grammys. I saw him as they got in here this morning. They do you know, I sat with Harry Styles was yeah, yeah, yeah. Dana Kennerson and his team are so good at this. So they'll they'll put together an initial draft, which is

what we're going to go through this afternoon. We look at it on a big monitor and it's got everybody's names on it, and they do it based on their experience on this show and the run of show and how we're doing things. And then you know, the director and myself and a couple other producers will kind of go through and say, wow, maybe we'll move this here for that reason, or move this around here. It'd be great when we do this comedy bid if we have this person here and then can go to that person.

So it's team effort. But like I said, Dana and his team are are really good at this. I gotta cut more for you because I love this the Awards show. You know, behind the scenes of the in the machinations. Um, have you ever had to put the music on and cut somebody off during a speech? Not in this show. We've you know, a couple of things right, like one, I think generally the athletes that were honoring don't tend to want to go on and on and on. Not as for boats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that helps us.

And then you know, like I said, excuse me. For for many years we were on a bit of a tape delay, so we had like an hour to trim things if we needed to to get our show to times we're off the air on time, and so we had the luxury of being able to do that and not having to cut people off. Last year we were live for the first time. ABC was kind enough to let us go. I think we went four or five minutes long. Andrew's speech at the end of the night, I was significantly longer than we expected it to be.

But it's incredible, and like you know, it's the last thing in the night. The last thing we want to do is like you know, play someone off like that. Well, there are times when will you know, flashing the telepropter, please wrap it up? And you know, if they don't do it, we'll just start flashing it a little more often, and they generally, you know, will take those cues from us.

All Right, you personally, Dave Chamberlain, you don't, you know, get into sports and do all this stuff if you're not a fan at heart, who was the one athlete that you've met doing the NFL Honors that you're like, all right, that's pretty cool. Uh, you know, I probably I'm a giant Indianapolis Colts fan. I grew up in Indianapolis and love that, you know. I Mora was close with Peyton, as you said, So I think I'd met Peyton before NFL Honors, but spending time around him and

with him through this was incredible. There was one year he always you know, generally he'll come present one of the bigger awards. Yeah, there was one year. I think it was in Houston. He was getting ready to present an award and he's just standing next to me backstage and he's starting to point out things that I'm not even noticing, And I was like, dude, you're better at

this than I am. How how does this work? Um? Yeah, so you know, being able to sit there producing a show with Peyton Manning giving me notes that are really good notes, smart notes, that's pretty cool. I was thinking you'd be like, you know, there's this guy Ted Marcha Brota or Joseph die was in there. Dominic Rhodes walked right in and I couldn't talk. Peyton Manning's pretty good.

And then my last one is this, like when you're at the Switch and you're at the Levers and you're doing all this stuff and it's going on, do you have a chance to appreciate and enjoy the night or is it just a pressure cooker? This is work, all of the above, all of the above. Last year, you know, like I said, we were live for the first time. As you might remember, getting into the event was a little bit of a challenge, like the traffic and the

secure walk. Yeah, we're right right next to the stadium, so there were a lot of challenges that came with that. And at the top of the show, a lot of people that were supposed to be there, we're not there. Um, So we on the fly, while we're on the air, making decisions and and and talking to writers and stage managers and talent people like, Okay, we're gonna move that. We're gonna get rid of this person. He's going to

do that by himself. We got to change the script, write that script so we can move him in there. That's the fun stuff, right, Like doing doing those things on the fly is the fun stuff. And you know, while it's like there's you know, you're you're trying to get everything done at the same time, I do feel like I have some appreciation for like, man, this is fun as hell. Um. You know, it's uh, there's nothing like live TV, um, and I really really enjoy that

aspect of it. I can't wait. I'll be there. I'll I'll be hovering around. I'll probably try to yeah, I'll be denied, and then I'll have to be like, no, I know, Dave Chamber on my podcast, You're the man, give us real quick the rundown. When does red carpet start? Where can we find this? And just you know, let's get excited for this. This is one of the rare nights we can all just appreciate and celebrate football and what it's meant for us this year. Absolutely we are

super excited. So there's a rid carpet show on NFL Network from eight pm to nine pm, and then we are on live on NBC from nine to eleven hopefully eleven pm sharp, and we don't go any longer. But yeah, it's it'll be a lot of fun. We've got, you know, obviously a lot of great awards. Man of the Year,

we're gonna be. You know, we couldn't do a show like this about the NFL season without, you know, having a big tribute to the first responders and medical personnel that you know work with the mare Hamlin So yeah, and we've got some great celebs, Tracy Morgan, Tiffany Hattis, Joel McHale, you know, Cheryl Lee, Ralph her and some amazing players were get you know, We've done our best to talk some players into having some fun with us and doing some fun things with Kelly. So hopefully you'd

be a great show of everybody really enjoys. Now, I don't know if Mahomes is going to win the MVP yet. I don't know if he's going to be in the building, but if he is not in the building, feel free to call me up to accept the Award on his behalf just so I can get my face on TV. I mean it's cool. I'm down with that. Absolutely, Yeah, it's good. That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense, dude, Thank you, thank you for joining everybody. The NFL Honors, presented by a Visilon is going to be on NBC

this week on Thursday. Of course, the Red Carpet Nate Burlison will be running the show. Kevin Frasier will be there as well on NFL Network on Thursday beforehand. Dave, I know you're a busy man. Thank you so much for joining and giving us the lowdown on what it takes to put on an event like the NFL Honors. Absolutely,

thank you for having me. Dave Chamberlain awesome insight on what it takes to put on a live events, what it means to do the NFL Honors gig, and then really like all the bells and whistles that goes into it that maybe you don't realize when you're watching it on TV. Aron, did I come across as thirsty in a way trying to like beg for camera time multiple times? No? No, I thought that was an appropriate amount. Like if I'm going I think it's like three o'clock, like it was

like a local. Like if I'm going at three o'clock, like I thought, if you don't ask to be called up to accept Mahome's award, if he wins, they're never gonna offer it. Who else are they gonna who else? Like? Who's going up there? Like Kingsbury is still in Thailand? I know that. So he's the college coach. He's not going up there his agent. I don't want to see any agent accepting or other does Brittany and Jackson. Jackson

might come up. That would be a you know what, That might be the move and that might go viral. Jackson might have a dance or whatever like to go with it. That could be a whole thing. Um, I don't know. I thought that I was. Now that I've recorded it with him already, I feel a little bit gross that I was selling myself so hard, But you understand, people in my business are so much worse than that. I'm serious. I don't think. I mean, I think you

were fine. Like he understands you know that you've been backstage already. If if he sees you back there one time, yeah, you've been there before. It was cool. It was cool. Um Dave is cool and his company puts on the SPS, it puts on NFL honors. My big prediction, I don't know anything, and I want you to predict too, So like that Walter paid Man of the Year is the most important award. It's what everyone does, and it's like unsavory to predict. I gotta be honest, A good Morning Football.

When we got the thirty two nominees, I put together like a little pool and I'm like, everyone, pick who you think? Who do you think the NFL is gonna pick form Walter paid Man? There, Everyone went with DAK because he was like the biggest name. But the NFL loves their Cameron Hayward of the Steelers and they love de Mario Davis of the Saints. Those are my two wild cards. I think Cam Hayward might win it from

the Steelers. I think Demaro Davis might win it. But there are so many good nominees and they're so many beloved guys, But DAK is the biggest name. What do you think they just give to the biggest name or do you think that maybe you get one of my guys?

De Mario or Kid was kind of wondering if they would give it to Jared Goff, because Jared Goff, he had the scenes in Hard Knocks this year in the preseason with him doing m I forget the name of his foundation, but he was working with kids on the show, and so there's been he's a nominee. I wonder if he would get it. I like it. Your your bet is Jared Goff. I'm gonna go with de Mario. Davis is my bet tomorrow, Davis, New Orleans Saints UM. And

if Dak wins it, Dak deserved it. It's something about that, just yeah, that Dak is a very famous player and he's nominated for it, UM very unsavored. A debate, who's gonna win Walter Payton Man of the Year. When all these guys give their time and their money to these causes, and yet here we are Super Bowl week. Aaron, We've got plenty more common. We've got multiple episodes this week that are in works right now, big names, influential names.

Not to tease too much, but something different that only our podcast can bring. I'm getting excited for the Super Bowl, but I am also aware that it's it's just getting started. Aaron Kaufman, Jason English, Matt Schneider, of course, Jason Kleinman who churns out these social clips that help meg It go viral. Meredith Batton at the NFL, who has been so good to work with on this podcast all season. And then our maestro on the one twos is a gentleman named Jack Rudd. I love the theme music to

this podcast. Guys, plenty more to come. This is just the first one. We'll see you later this week. The season Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.