So I've been getting opportunities to do some pretty cool things lately. The SpineCare commercial running here in Huntsville has not been my only acting experience. I also did a tv commercial in Nashville a couple months ago that's become pretty popular. A couple of the players got their hands on a copy of it and have been giving me a hard time ever since. In addition to that I've already told you about Kelly and I getting to do the CMT Awards opening skit.
The most recent project I've been a part of might be the most exciting one yet. I was cast to play a part in the new Monday Night Football intro that will play throughout the entire NFL season this fall.
Many of you already know that when I'm not straddling the boards signaling defenses for the Vipers I'm a college football commentator in the fall. This lends itself to the obvious goal of being a part of a MNF broadcast some day. My most recent adventure put me on a path to do that sooner than I expected. This will be the 40th year of Monday Night Football so they're emphasizing this fact during the Hank Williams Jr opening number.
The set was the Parthenon in Nashville which ESPN will digitally transform into a giant MNF Hall of Fame. Part of the hook is that they cast several guys as football player statues that will come to life at some point during the song.
There were 6 of us total. 3 were full body statues including helmet while the other 3 of us were busts. As busts we didn't have as much physical activity as the other guys but we didn't have helmets on so you will at least be able to see our faces although they're covered in bronze makeup (picture the "Blue Man Group" but just a completely different color). It was an extremely fun and interesting experience that would take me far too long to detail in this blog.
A few quick highlights: 1) Meeting Gloria Estefan (she shot a Spanish version for ESPN Deportes) and Hank Williams Jr 2) An endless supply of snacks and food during the long shoot days.
A couple lowlights: 1) 45 minutes to put all the makeup on 2) An hour and a half to get the makeup off 3) Hanging around outside most of the day in 95 degree heat.
Look for me throughout the Monday Night Football season. I'll be one of the bald headed bronze busts yelling "READY!"
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
CMT Awards Followup
A lot of you have mentioned to me throughout the week that you didn't get to catch the awards show in time to see my wife Kelly and I in the open. I actually didn't watch it live either because we're always working pretty late with the guys and then in the office afterwards.
If you want to check it out they have it available on YouTube. A link is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwIb6691et4
Not sure how long this link will stay active because they tend to remove clips like this sometimes if the broadcast company wants control over it. This is the one I've used that has the entire clip.
Hope you enjoy!
If you want to check it out they have it available on YouTube. A link is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwIb6691et4
Not sure how long this link will stay active because they tend to remove clips like this sometimes if the broadcast company wants control over it. This is the one I've used that has the entire clip.
Hope you enjoy!
Tread lightly...
For those of you that know who my wife Kelly is you can feel free to approach her at the game this weekend. Don't be alarmed if it takes you a moment to get her attention because she tends to watch the action on the field pretty closely. My understanding is that she's not in quite the zone these days now that I'm coaching as she was back when I played but it does still take a little effort for her to stop following the game and start chatting people up.
DON'T GET ME WRONG! This isn't at all because she's antisocial! Those of you who've met her know that she's an exceedingly pleasant person (and quite attractive I might add). The thing about the football games is that she actually wants to pay attention to what's going on. It's not just about watching the big guys run into each other. She has a genuine interest in dissecting what's taking place on the field.
Many of you already know this but I'll go ahead and say it for those who don't....Kelly is one of, if not THE, biggest sports fans (male or female) that you'll ever meet. She's always been like that since even before I met her when she was an All American athlete back at the University of Iowa. This fact is a large part of what led to us starting a friendship way back when and has since led her into the pursuit of a career in sports broadcasting.
In most cases I would warn you about breaking her focus on game day but I'll make an exception this time for a good reason. This Saturday, June 20th 2009 will be the 6 year mark since we got married back in her hometown of Falmouth, MA. So with game night being both military night and our anniversary night I think you'll be safe enough to call out to her and wish her a Happy Anniversary. I believe the last 6 years have put her in a good enough mood to accept the well wishes even at a key moment in the action, but at least if she grabs the nearest blunt object and starts beating you over the head with it there will be some military personnel nearby to get her to stand down.
I won't be able to help you out. I'll be kinda busy.
DON'T GET ME WRONG! This isn't at all because she's antisocial! Those of you who've met her know that she's an exceedingly pleasant person (and quite attractive I might add). The thing about the football games is that she actually wants to pay attention to what's going on. It's not just about watching the big guys run into each other. She has a genuine interest in dissecting what's taking place on the field.
Many of you already know this but I'll go ahead and say it for those who don't....Kelly is one of, if not THE, biggest sports fans (male or female) that you'll ever meet. She's always been like that since even before I met her when she was an All American athlete back at the University of Iowa. This fact is a large part of what led to us starting a friendship way back when and has since led her into the pursuit of a career in sports broadcasting.
In most cases I would warn you about breaking her focus on game day but I'll make an exception this time for a good reason. This Saturday, June 20th 2009 will be the 6 year mark since we got married back in her hometown of Falmouth, MA. So with game night being both military night and our anniversary night I think you'll be safe enough to call out to her and wish her a Happy Anniversary. I believe the last 6 years have put her in a good enough mood to accept the well wishes even at a key moment in the action, but at least if she grabs the nearest blunt object and starts beating you over the head with it there will be some military personnel nearby to get her to stand down.
I won't be able to help you out. I'll be kinda busy.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Our Country Debut...Don't Blink....
Many of you know that when I’m not losing my voice yelling at Vipers players and game referees I spend the rest of my time in the world of sports and entertainment broadcasting. Some new opportunities to do additional things have been coming up lately and one of them will air tonight. I’d normally try to give more notice for you to watch but this came up very last minute for me also and Kelly and I just shot it yesterday in Nashville.
For the first time in my life I plan to watch, and encourage others to watch, a program on CMT. This is not because I’m curious what colors Brookes and Dunn have dyed their hair or who shows up with the most gallons in their cowboy hat. No…I’ll be tuning in because my wife Kelly and I will be a part of the CMT Awards show airing tonight (Tuesday June 16th at 7pm central).
We were booked to do a scene for the opening skit of the show with the host Bill Engvall and singer Taylor Swift. A phone call came in Sunday night and we were at the Sommet Center in Nashville on Monday morning. It was pretty fun and very interesting to see things behind the curtain at a big awards show. I don’t keep up with these things as well as I should so you guys probably know better than me that Bill Engvall is a part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy and now has his own show on TBS. Taylor Swift has apparently turned into a very big deal in country music.
Oh and I forgot to mention that Kelly Pickler is in the skit also. We weren’t on camera with her because they film these things out of sequence but we did get to meet her and some other names and faces that we would know and appreciate if we were up on our country music knowledge a little better. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to tell Swift and Pickler apart when they got there but I was told to look for a significant difference in height and that was apparent when they arrived. Taylor is a giant next to Pickler! The good part is that they were all very nice and we got a photo signed for Kelly’s sister who is a huge country fan.
Look for us standing next to Taylor in the very opening skit of the show before they go live for Bill’s opening monologue. I play her bodyguard and Kelly plays one of her personal assistants. We don’t know exactly how they framed shots up and edited them later but we should be easy to find. We weren’t quite able to steal the scene but it was a lot of fun just to be involved.
I look forward to seeing everybody this Saturday for Military Night!!!
For the first time in my life I plan to watch, and encourage others to watch, a program on CMT. This is not because I’m curious what colors Brookes and Dunn have dyed their hair or who shows up with the most gallons in their cowboy hat. No…I’ll be tuning in because my wife Kelly and I will be a part of the CMT Awards show airing tonight (Tuesday June 16th at 7pm central).
We were booked to do a scene for the opening skit of the show with the host Bill Engvall and singer Taylor Swift. A phone call came in Sunday night and we were at the Sommet Center in Nashville on Monday morning. It was pretty fun and very interesting to see things behind the curtain at a big awards show. I don’t keep up with these things as well as I should so you guys probably know better than me that Bill Engvall is a part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy and now has his own show on TBS. Taylor Swift has apparently turned into a very big deal in country music.
Oh and I forgot to mention that Kelly Pickler is in the skit also. We weren’t on camera with her because they film these things out of sequence but we did get to meet her and some other names and faces that we would know and appreciate if we were up on our country music knowledge a little better. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to tell Swift and Pickler apart when they got there but I was told to look for a significant difference in height and that was apparent when they arrived. Taylor is a giant next to Pickler! The good part is that they were all very nice and we got a photo signed for Kelly’s sister who is a huge country fan.
Look for us standing next to Taylor in the very opening skit of the show before they go live for Bill’s opening monologue. I play her bodyguard and Kelly plays one of her personal assistants. We don’t know exactly how they framed shots up and edited them later but we should be easy to find. We weren’t quite able to steal the scene but it was a lot of fun just to be involved.
I look forward to seeing everybody this Saturday for Military Night!!!
Monday, June 1, 2009
TREND SETTER???
I’m sure that most of you are familiar with a particular celebration that’s become very popular amongst athletes in recent years. It starts with two very excited guys running at each other and jumping into the air. Then while in the air they spin around so that their backs collide before coming back down to Earth. Some people know this as the back clap while others call it the jump and bump. It’s a play off of the soaring chest bumps that became prevalent in the 90’s….with a slightly higher degree of difficulty.
Now that we’re on the same page I’d like to tell you the story behind the creation of this particular maneuver. It began back in 1999 on the heavenly campus of the University of Iowa. A junior defensive end named Anthony Herron was trying to keep things spirited at practice during the doldrums of what ended up being a 1-10 season in Kirk Ferentz’s first year as the program’s head coach. After a very thickly built defensive lineman made a nice play in practice I ran at him and jumped up to give him a big chest bump. He returned the favor but outweighed me by about 30 pounds so the end result was me on my backside.
The next day in a similar situation I decided that I could absorb the impact better if I turned my back to the big fella after jumping. This required more energy on my part (which is at a premium during a Kirk Ferentz practice) but it would set me up for a better landing off the collision. I only did this sparingly during the rest of my time at Iowa because with the amount of reps I played in most games didn’t leave me wanting to do a bunch of extra hopping around.
Let’s fast forward to 2004 during my first season playing AFL football. After being released by the Lions in ‘03 I gave Arena football a try and spent the majority of the ’04 season with the Indiana Firebirds. For the first time in years football had become fun for me again without the injuries and pressure that enveloped the first few years of my NFL career. With my newfound zest for the game I started doing the jump and bump with my teammates after touchdowns.
Some close friends of mine would make their way out to the Firebird games. One of them was Dallas Clark who was early in his career with the Colts at the time. He knew that I wasn’t much for celebrating in the past and was pleasantly surprised at my creativity. This turned into him taking it to practice with the Colts and then into games. Before long it spread around the NFL like wildfire and penalty flags were being thrown all over the place.
It’s invaded the entire sports landscape since then and now you’ll see guys bumping hips, thighs, and all kinds of other body parts if they’re too tired to spin all the way around. Those who have been with me in years past will shoot me the occasional message if they see McNabb or Lebron doing a back bump with their teammates. If it was possible to copyright a celebration I could’ve went the Pat Riley route and made a bunch of money. Instead, I suppose I’ll just enjoy my obscure role as a guy with a flash of genius that changed sports as we know it….or something like that.
I’m sure that most of you are familiar with a particular celebration that’s become very popular amongst athletes in recent years. It starts with two very excited guys running at each other and jumping into the air. Then while in the air they spin around so that their backs collide before coming back down to Earth. Some people know this as the back clap while others call it the jump and bump. It’s a play off of the soaring chest bumps that became prevalent in the 90’s….with a slightly higher degree of difficulty.
Now that we’re on the same page I’d like to tell you the story behind the creation of this particular maneuver. It began back in 1999 on the heavenly campus of the University of Iowa. A junior defensive end named Anthony Herron was trying to keep things spirited at practice during the doldrums of what ended up being a 1-10 season in Kirk Ferentz’s first year as the program’s head coach. After a very thickly built defensive lineman made a nice play in practice I ran at him and jumped up to give him a big chest bump. He returned the favor but outweighed me by about 30 pounds so the end result was me on my backside.
The next day in a similar situation I decided that I could absorb the impact better if I turned my back to the big fella after jumping. This required more energy on my part (which is at a premium during a Kirk Ferentz practice) but it would set me up for a better landing off the collision. I only did this sparingly during the rest of my time at Iowa because with the amount of reps I played in most games didn’t leave me wanting to do a bunch of extra hopping around.
Let’s fast forward to 2004 during my first season playing AFL football. After being released by the Lions in ‘03 I gave Arena football a try and spent the majority of the ’04 season with the Indiana Firebirds. For the first time in years football had become fun for me again without the injuries and pressure that enveloped the first few years of my NFL career. With my newfound zest for the game I started doing the jump and bump with my teammates after touchdowns.
Some close friends of mine would make their way out to the Firebird games. One of them was Dallas Clark who was early in his career with the Colts at the time. He knew that I wasn’t much for celebrating in the past and was pleasantly surprised at my creativity. This turned into him taking it to practice with the Colts and then into games. Before long it spread around the NFL like wildfire and penalty flags were being thrown all over the place.
It’s invaded the entire sports landscape since then and now you’ll see guys bumping hips, thighs, and all kinds of other body parts if they’re too tired to spin all the way around. Those who have been with me in years past will shoot me the occasional message if they see McNabb or Lebron doing a back bump with their teammates. If it was possible to copyright a celebration I could’ve went the Pat Riley route and made a bunch of money. Instead, I suppose I’ll just enjoy my obscure role as a guy with a flash of genius that changed sports as we know it….or something like that.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Inside a Coach's Head
The mind of a coach is a funny and possibly even scary thing. I assumed as much when I was still playing but now in my second season on the other side of the whistle I can personally attest to the tricks that a coaches’ mind will play on itself. Our first home game against Quad Cities was a prime example.
In our home opener we were dropping the championship banner to celebrate the success we enjoyed last year. By all accounts it was a great evening at the VBC due in large part to the following facts: Our owner gave a great speech before the game, the players received the type of ovation they deserved from a raucous crowd, and the unveiling of the giant banner went off without a hitch (they dropped it right on cue). This was polished off by an excellent performance from our players in all fazes of the game that led to a big victory for the Vipers.
While I enjoyed all the positive moments some cryptic flashes kept popping into my mind. “I hope the crowd realizes how sincere Doug is with this speech.” “This ceremony is amazing but I need to make sure the players warm back up when it’s finished so their muscles don’t get too tight.” Once we had a sizeable lead it was “We need to be sure the guys don’t relax out there and develop bad playing habits” which turned into “They’d better not get overconfident based off this one game!”
It was a heck of a night and in a time when I was still the one bleeding and sweating it would’ve been an endless array of high fives and chest bumps with my teammates. Now that I’m coaching my perspective has changed and I didn’t even see it coming. All the sudden, as opposed to reacting, I’m the one that has to see a problem before it happens and be ready to solve it instantly. This makes me wonder if I always had some worry wart in me or if the coaching bug infected me with it.
In our home opener we were dropping the championship banner to celebrate the success we enjoyed last year. By all accounts it was a great evening at the VBC due in large part to the following facts: Our owner gave a great speech before the game, the players received the type of ovation they deserved from a raucous crowd, and the unveiling of the giant banner went off without a hitch (they dropped it right on cue). This was polished off by an excellent performance from our players in all fazes of the game that led to a big victory for the Vipers.
While I enjoyed all the positive moments some cryptic flashes kept popping into my mind. “I hope the crowd realizes how sincere Doug is with this speech.” “This ceremony is amazing but I need to make sure the players warm back up when it’s finished so their muscles don’t get too tight.” Once we had a sizeable lead it was “We need to be sure the guys don’t relax out there and develop bad playing habits” which turned into “They’d better not get overconfident based off this one game!”
It was a heck of a night and in a time when I was still the one bleeding and sweating it would’ve been an endless array of high fives and chest bumps with my teammates. Now that I’m coaching my perspective has changed and I didn’t even see it coming. All the sudden, as opposed to reacting, I’m the one that has to see a problem before it happens and be ready to solve it instantly. This makes me wonder if I always had some worry wart in me or if the coaching bug infected me with it.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Last season was my first venture into the world of the AF2 road trip. Playing football at a major university and in the NFL you tend to assume that all football teams travel by charter plane and stay at luxury hotels. After doing that for years I was caught off guard when I first entered the AFL and realized that, gasp, we flew commercial! There are some funny things that are taken for granted as an athlete.
While the AF2 travel experience isn’t quite as high dollar as the higher levels I can honestly say that it’s got plenty of perks. Most of these can be summed up in a simple phrase, “You may never truly know a man until you’ve spent 15 hours on a bus with him.” Believe me, it sounds much worse than it actually is. These are large sleeper buses with bunk beds, lounge areas, and yes even a bathroom. The various arrays of drivers usually have a colorful personality and a seemingly infinite number of stories about the rock bands they drive around the country. They’re usually pretty good about finding places to stop so we can grab a late night snack too.
If you suffer from extreme claustrophobia there might be an issue with the lack of available space, but if you’re a people person you’d probably dig it. There’s a lot of time for both interacting and people watching. Dean and I don’t tend to sleep much so we catch up on some of the latest movie rentals. I’ve usually seen most of them by the time they make it to dvd, but I don’t mind watching them again.
Compared to the regiment of day to day preparation for the game our road trips tend to be a kind of escape. The upcoming opponent is never far from our minds but we can take that time on the highways to hang out together and just be human.
-Anthony Herron
While the AF2 travel experience isn’t quite as high dollar as the higher levels I can honestly say that it’s got plenty of perks. Most of these can be summed up in a simple phrase, “You may never truly know a man until you’ve spent 15 hours on a bus with him.” Believe me, it sounds much worse than it actually is. These are large sleeper buses with bunk beds, lounge areas, and yes even a bathroom. The various arrays of drivers usually have a colorful personality and a seemingly infinite number of stories about the rock bands they drive around the country. They’re usually pretty good about finding places to stop so we can grab a late night snack too.
If you suffer from extreme claustrophobia there might be an issue with the lack of available space, but if you’re a people person you’d probably dig it. There’s a lot of time for both interacting and people watching. Dean and I don’t tend to sleep much so we catch up on some of the latest movie rentals. I’ve usually seen most of them by the time they make it to dvd, but I don’t mind watching them again.
Compared to the regiment of day to day preparation for the game our road trips tend to be a kind of escape. The upcoming opponent is never far from our minds but we can take that time on the highways to hang out together and just be human.
-Anthony Herron
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