# 275: Scott Hanson (Part A)

An episode of [The Howie Games](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1146329262), 4 Aug 2026, 31 min.

Audio: https://enrichment.soundstack.com/4vjqq8/episode.flightcast.com/vmoq1uxhr2l00fbygr24b2ub.mp3

International broadcasting royalty joins The Howie Games. Scott Hanson is the face and voice of NFL RedZone, anchoring an astonishing seven hours of live American football every Sunday. But behind the energy is a broadcaster whose preparation, precision and professionalism are second to none. Fresh from touring the MCG with Eddie McGuire ahead of the NFL's return to Melbourne, Scott shares his first impressions of Australian sport, what makes the MCG so special, and why he believes the atmosphere will rival some of the biggest events in America. Along the way, Howie introduces Scott to a couple of classic Aussie terms, uncovers the mindset that's kept him at the top of sports broadcasting, and discovers the remarkable pre-game routine that allows him to get through seven straight hours on air without a single toilet break. Whether you're an NFL fan, a sports lover or fascinated by elite broadcasting, this is a conversation packed with stories, laughs and behind-the-scenes insights. A huge thanks to Visit Victoria for helping make this conversation possible. *** Follow the Howie Games on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehowiegamespod/ Follow the Howie Games on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thehowiegames See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] A listener production.
[0:04] Okay, are you recording?
[0:10] Welcome one and all to episode 275 of the Howie Games Part A featuring American broadcast star Scott Hanson.
[0:18] Oh, there's nothing like a football Sunday after a long off season.
[0:23] Hi, everyone, and welcome to NFL Red Zone.
[0:25] I'm Scott Hanson, so ready to go for season 17 of...
[0:30] Now, if you watch NFL, you know Scott from his extraordinary show, NFL Red Zone.
[0:36] It is iconic, and I mean iconic.
[0:38] NFL Red Zone, every Sunday during the season, seven straight hours of footy, if you don't mind, sometimes eight games at any one time, and Scott, he does not miss a beat.
[0:50] If you're not an NFL fan but you love sports television, well, Scott is going to blow your mind as he lifts the lid on not only his journey but how modern sports TV is made today.
[1:00] at the very, and I mean very, top level.
[1:04] So you search and try to find But you don't know where to go So many thoughts flood through your mind You're confused and want to know Mystery, what is to be So much more than meets the eye Listen to me, time is your key You will find out by and by
[1:26] Thanks to Nathan Curry from Visit Victoria who brought Scott to Melbourne and to the star that is Jamie Godfrey from NFL Australia and New Zealand for making this episode happen.
[1:35] Now, as you're about to hear, I was pretty excited to dive into Scotty's world.
[1:39] I hope you are as well.
[1:41] Enjoy the story of Scott Richard Hanson.
[1:44] Best in show.
[1:45] For us, it's all about the football.
[1:48] So seven hours of red zone football starts now.
[1:53] So when you search and then you find And know just where to go And thoughts that once used to cloud your mind You see clearly and now you know Mystery, what is to be revealed In King Selassie, I Come on children, trod with me We want to reach Mount Zionist
[2:17] We're just going to hit record and we're going to get to know each other as we go.
[2:19] I am great with it if you're great with it.
[2:21] I'm ready to go.
[2:22] They tell me you're quite the character.
[2:24] No, you're quite the character.
[2:26] Welcome to the Howie Games.
[2:27] Let's just get straight to this.
[2:29] A gentleman by the name of Scott Hanson who, well, the Americans from mine do sports broadcasting better than anyone, and this man is with his show Red Zone at the cutting edge of the cutting edge.
[2:39] So we've got a lot to learn.
[2:40] If you like sports TV, if you like football, if you like showbiz, you're going to enjoy this episode.
[2:45] Scott, welcome to the Howie Games.
[2:46] How are you?
[2:46] Great to be with you, Al.
[2:47] Thank you for having me.
[2:48] Well, right off the top, so you've spent a bit of time here in Australia.
[2:52] How long have you been here in Melbourne?
[2:53] Almost a week, yeah.
[2:54] This is about the end of the week that I committed to come out here in advance of the Melbourne game.
[2:59] So you'll find, I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but in Australia, everything gets a Y or an O on the end.
[3:06] So when I see Scott Hanson, I think, right, am I calling him Scotty or am I calling him Pansot?
[3:11] Oh, that's the way we sort of go.
[3:14] So do you roll a Scotty or not?
[3:15] Because if you're an Australian- I get Scotty in the United States.
[3:18] Okay.
[3:18] And then do you remember the American TV show Lost?
[3:22] I do.
[3:23] Wasn't there a Hanso Corporation or something like that in that show?
[3:27] I think there was.
[3:28] Which was very mysterious, I think, and even diabolical.
[3:31] So let's go Scotty then.
[3:32] I'm going to go Scotty.
[3:33] To me, Scott Scheffler doesn't sound right.
[3:35] Scotty Scheffler to me sounds right.
[3:36] Scotty Scheffler, for sure, for sure.
[3:37] How's Melbourne?
[3:38] How's it been treated?
[3:39] Because I wasn't going to call you how.
[3:40] the entire time.
[3:41] No, no, no.
[3:42] So Howie and Scotty it is.
[3:44] I'm Mark Howard, so it's... Oh, there you go.
[3:47] That's why it's Howie.
[3:48] Do you get Marky ever?
[3:49] Well, only from a mom and my sister, and we don't roll with that one publicly, Scotty, to be fair.
[3:54] How's Melbourne been?
[3:55] How's your week been?
[3:56] Oh, man, I'll tell you what.
[3:57] So I'm here in conjunction with Visit Victoria.
[4:00] the tourism board and NFL Australia, New Zealand and bringing it together just to, you know, promote the game coming here in September.
[4:09] I had been to Australia before.
[4:11] I had never been to Melbourne and it's everything that people told me it was going to be.
[4:15] And more.
[4:16] Hey everybody, Scott Hanson in Melbourne, Australia, one of the greatest cities in the world.
[4:20] The NFL is coming here.
[4:22] Let me show you my Melbourne highlights.
[4:24] Yeah.
[4:26] From the MCG to the downtown, the vibrancy and the awesome, you know, all the laneways and everything like that.
[4:35] The coffee culture that's here to the natural beauty outside the city, the 12 Apostles.
[4:40] I went and did that.
[4:41] But what really topped it all is the people, the sports fans that I have met.
[4:47] If you watch my show in Australia...
[4:50] At 3 a.m.?
[4:51] You have to get up at 3 a.m. You do.
[4:52] On Monday morning.
[4:54] But we get you, Scotty, so it's all okay.
[4:55] That's true, and I'm going to give you everything I've got, so I'm going to try and make it as worth it as possible.
[5:00] And it has been so warm and welcoming.
[5:03] If all the other Americans who are coming over in September for the football game experience what I've experienced here, it's going to be one of the great...
[5:11] events of the entire year.
[5:13] It'll be a breakfast blockbuster here at the MCG with the date and time now officially locked in for the first ever regular season NFL match here in Australia.
[5:23] The highly anticipated game will kick off at 1035 a.m. this September 11 between the San Francisco 49ers and the L.A. Rams.
[5:32] So the football game, as you call it, the Rams versus the 49ers, we know how it's been perceived here in Australia.
[5:39] You couldn't get tickets.
[5:40] It's sold out in the blink of an eye, 100,000.
[5:42] The city is so excited.
[5:44] How's this being viewed in America?
[5:46] Because it's a long way to come for a game of footy, mate.
[5:49] For sure, for sure.
[5:50] In fact, I'm sure you guys talked about it.
[5:53] I heard you, man, the coach of San Fran.
[5:54] One of the two head coaches, yes, the coach of San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan.
[5:57] How are you going to take your Friday nap in Melbourne?
[6:00] How's that work into the schedule?
[6:01] You don't get me started.
[6:04] I'm so glad it's them.
[6:05] I'm so glad it's them.
[6:07] I'm going to take a 19-hour nap on the plane right out there.
[6:10] And I think when we get there, I'm like two days older.
[6:12] When we come back, I think it's like going in a time machine.
[6:14] Yeah.
[6:14] You're going to land at the same time.
[6:16] Look, the great thing about it is, yeah, it's a ways to travel, but it's the first game of the year for both teams.
[6:23] So they can engineer their practice schedule, their body clocks, their training to peak during the game, regardless of what time it is in the United States, what time it is in Melbourne or what day even that it is.
[6:37] And for me coming here, it's not like any Americans that are listening to this right now.
[6:42] You might think like it's a long ways away.
[6:45] It's a long ways away enough to be like transported to another world, like where you want to feel when you're doing international traveling.
[6:53] But it's not like you're going to the moon.
[6:54] It's not like you're going to be a different person.
[6:56] You're going to – And this is the world we live in as Australians.
[6:59] To go to North America, South America, Europe, you've got to get on a plane for 20 hours.
[7:03] That's just part of the drill.
[7:04] Yeah.
[7:04] Yeah.
[7:06] So how is it being perceived in terms of the NFL fans?
[7:11] It's the latest in the international series.
[7:14] So we've already played, I say we, the NFL, already played games in the UK for years.
[7:20] And we've gone to Germany, Mexico, Brazil in recent years.
[7:25] This first ever regular season game in the city of Berlin.
[7:28] Welcome to London.
[7:29] In the booth here in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
[7:32] We're in Mexico City at the Estadio Azteca with 105,000 fans.
[7:40] I'm actually surprised it took this long for Australia to get into the mix because of the people and the sports fans and the passion that's here.
[7:50] But because that stadium that I just went to, I just actually came from the G. I believe you got a tour with the King of Melbourne, Eddie Maguire.
[7:58] I did.
[7:59] Right.
[7:59] That guy is one of one.
[8:01] He is the king, the mayor, the ambassador extraordinaire.
[8:05] That was the tour of the gym.
[8:07] It was spectacular.
[8:08] I mean, I didn't know if I wanted to look around at the building or just listen to Eddie the entire time.
[8:12] So I tried to do a good mix of both.
[8:15] But the stadium...
[8:16] You got to understand for those who, well, for those who don't know, there is no stadium in the NFL that's as big as MCG.
[8:24] Only college footy is, isn't it?
[8:26] College football, there are stadiums that could rival it in terms of number of seats and whatnot.
[8:30] But the biggest stadium that we have in the NFL, a regular stadium, is the Dallas Cowboys stadium, AT&T Stadium, which is capacity right around like 88 or even maybe 90,000.
[8:42] So 100,000 people, this has the makings of a mini Super Bowl atmosphere.
[8:48] When you consider that thousands of Americans will probably come over from the States to experience Australia and to see, you know, their game played in a different part of the world.
[8:57] You've got expats here who probably love the NFL, but the Australian fans meeting, mingling and mixing in.
[9:05] with those other two groups and 100,000 total, it's going to look and sound on television like an absolute spectacle.
[9:14] It should be a thrill.
[9:15] I hope that the game, the quality of the game that the Rams and the Niners play rises to the level of the environment we know is going to be in the stadium.
[9:22] Melbourne and the G will be the center of the sports universe.
[9:27] Basically that whole week.
[9:29] because the NFL is putting two of their finest teams with 100,000 people in the biggest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere.
[9:36] It will be an atmosphere that will be one of the best atmospheres of the entire NFL season in the first week of the season.
[9:43] I got so many questions for you.
[9:44] I work in sports television and I love production.
[9:48] So I want to investigate what the nuts and bolts of your show is.
[9:52] But before we get to that, sports television in Australia, like anywhere, is a competitive environment to get into.
[9:58] I would imagine America, it is tenfold, a hundredfold.
[10:02] What was the first thing, Scotty, you did on TV and when was it?
[10:06] Well, so I knew that I wanted to try to become a sports broadcaster from the time that I knew I couldn't play NFL football for a living.
[10:18] You played college football, yeah?
[10:19] I played college, and I played big-time college football, but I was nowhere near Syracuse University in central New York.
[10:31] So fans of this podcast, we did a series last year with Eddie's son, Joe.
[10:36] Yes.
[10:36] Who is a punter at Ohio State.
[10:38] Correct.
[10:39] And it opened my eyes, Tommy here, our producers, and probably the Australian audience to the size of what college football is.
[10:46] So I must say I know more about college footy than I do NFL.
[10:49] So when you play, you say you play college footy.
[10:52] I'm like, wow, that's big time.
[10:54] It's the real start.
[10:55] I was a good player in high school.
[10:58] I, the smaller colleges were recruiting me, but Syracuse was big time.
[11:03] We would call the division one back then, like the highest form, the best football in the United States.
[11:08] That's not NFL football is big time division one college football.
[11:12] And, but I was a walk on.
[11:14] Non-scholarship player.
[11:16] I don't know what equivalent terms you use over here for that.
[11:18] Joe explained it to us.
[11:19] There's all the scholarship guys, and then there's a guy just turns up.
[11:21] He's going to college there.
[11:22] We'll give him a shot.
[11:24] My parents and I, we paid money to go to school like a regular student.
[11:27] Heavens above.
[11:28] Yeah, exactly.
[11:29] And then-
[11:30] I said, I still have the love of football in me.
[11:33] I want to try and walk on, get a spot on the team.
[11:35] What position?
[11:36] And just contribute.
[11:37] So I played on the scout team, which is the practice squad that gets the first string, the starters ready for the game.
[11:46] So I played everything they needed me to, but primarily like wide receiver and defensive back.
[11:51] But also, do you know long snapper?
[11:53] So Joe talks constantly in the podcast to his long snapper.
[11:56] Yes, of course.
[11:58] I'm walking to one of the college bars called The Ugly Tuna with my mate Colin, who's a long snapper.
[12:03] So basically, once I snap the ball to Joe, I just basically have to set up and get my body in front of one of the rushers that's trying to block Joe.
[12:12] So I'm just protecting Joe the entire play.
[12:15] Thanks, Colin.
[12:16] I appreciate the protection because otherwise I'd be dead.
[12:18] Yep.
[12:18] And my leg might be in half.
[12:20] It's a specialist position, hiking the ball for a distance between your legs, accurate and fast and being able to block as well.
[12:26] I had that specialty in my briefcase, if you will, and so I did that as well.
[12:32] And it got me on the team at Syracuse, and I played for four years.
[12:35] But I had no illusions of going to the NFL.
[12:38] I knew I wasn't that good of a player.
[12:40] So I said, maybe someone will pay me someday to talk about this sport that I love.
[12:46] Yeah, which is why I went to Syracuse.
[12:48] So Syracuse in the United States has the reputation of being it has the premier sports broadcasting program.
[12:56] It's like Harvard Law School.
[12:58] for prospective sportscasters, broadcasters in general, but certainly sportscasters.
[13:04] So I said, okay, that's where the best go.
[13:06] I want to try and get an education there.
[13:08] And did it, walked on the football team, graduated with honors.
[13:12] I did well.
[13:12] I really applied myself.
[13:14] And then small TV jobs and just worked my way up.
[13:17] So what was your first one?
[13:17] Because to get where you are at the pinnacle of American TV, I want to know where you started.
[13:22] Well, I would also say this.
[13:24] My mom...
[13:25] My mom, there's some old pictures in our house.
[13:30] My mom would say I would pick up any object like on a table that was straight and I would, as a toddler, would hold it up like a microphone.
[13:40] Right.
[13:40] I was talking to someone on the other end.
[13:42] Anytime I was around a camera, I would be like, you know, oh, let me do something and whatnot.
[13:47] So that was you?
[13:48] I would, yeah, I would play sports in the backyard with my buddies.
[13:51] I'd broadcast it while we were doing it.
[13:53] I would make up little stories about it.
[13:55] a snapshot you're in the backyard with your mates basketball i we had a basketball hoop on our garage so i'd go out there and shoot hoops by myself even and i would say hansen comes back from a broken leg just two weeks ago and now he's in the championship game down by two five four three two shoots from three for the win
[14:16] So, you know, I would broadcast.
[14:17] You had 20 years of practice under your belt.
[14:20] So where's the first job?
[14:21] The first job was, okay, it was a local TV station.
[14:25] Yeah.
[14:26] I'm sure it's similar here, or at least it was.
[14:28] So local where?
[14:28] Broadcasting changes.
[14:29] Local in northern Michigan, Traverse City, Michigan.
[14:33] Okay.
[14:34] At an NBC, one of our big networks, NBC TV station doing the weekend sports report.
[14:41] So we have the 11 o'clock news and they would give it's a half hour long and they would give news, you know, 18 minutes and weather five minutes and sports like three minutes and then commercials is the rest of it.
[14:54] I was the sport guy.
[14:54] They would turn to me and whatever local was going on.
[14:57] Well, to tell you how small the job was, because you start small and work your way up.
[15:02] They rank the television markets in the United States from the biggest to the smallest.
[15:09] And there are roughly 210 in the country.
[15:13] Number one is New York City, right?
[15:15] The biggest city that we have.
[15:17] 210 is wherever, somewhere in the middle of Kentucky, somewhere where nobody lives, you know, something like that.
[15:23] Anything more than 100 is considered tiny.
[15:26] You're down the grid.
[15:26] So you can see where this is going.
[15:28] I was marked at 121.
[15:30] Okay.
[15:30] This was 1993.
[15:32] Right.
[15:34] And we can do the conversion, but take a guess what my annual salary was.
[15:39] 1993.
[15:40] I'm a hot shot young kid out of college.
[15:43] U.S. dollars.
[15:43] You're on TV.
[15:44] Oh, you're famous.
[15:45] You must be rich.
[15:46] Oh, yes.
[15:47] 40,000 U.S.
[15:50] $15,000 was my annual salary.
[15:54] I remember reading in the newspaper one time, if I would have made $14,000, I would have qualified for certain forms of government assistance.
[16:03] But you're on the TV.
[16:04] But I'm on TV, so it's, you know, hey.
[16:06] It's quite the link, Scotty, because my first job was in Formula One motor racing, which is now big in America.
[16:10] I was living in England.
[16:12] My first wage, 15,000 pounds.
[16:15] Okay.
[16:16] Which is worth 30 Australian, which is probably 22 American.
[16:20] Yeah.
[16:21] And back then, who knows what it was, but yeah.
[16:23] Okay.
[16:23] So we're on the breadline style.
[16:26] Yeah, exactly.
[16:26] I didn't even have my own washer dryer in the house.
[16:28] I used to go to the coin operated laundromat down the street to go do my wash.
[16:32] I used to put three pounds of petrol in my car, which is like $4.50 at the end of the month because that's all I had.
[16:39] So we're talking similar stories.
[16:41] We've paid our dues.
[16:41] We have.
[16:42] We have paid our dues, Howie.
[16:43] But I reckon now my salary compared to yours, I think you might have strained me.
[16:46] I think you might be out in front.
[16:47] Well, let's not put that on the table right now.
[16:51] Back to Scott shortly.
[16:52] Now, next up on the show, a former AFL star and coach who, for various reasons, I cannot name at this very moment.
[16:59] But stick with me.
[17:01] It's a great episode.
[17:02] Tune in next week.
[17:08] Alrighty, let's get back to Scott.
[17:11] So what was your big break?
[17:13] Because as I say, we're getting to the fact that you've been part of a revolutionary sports television show, which I'm fascinated by, but what was your big break?
[17:21] So, uh, I worked my way up from market one 21 to market 76, got up to market 13.
[17:27] Then I went to regional television in, in, you know, part of the United States and,
[17:31] And why do you reckon, just for, like, we have a lot of kids listening to this.
[17:35] What enabled, what, if you had to say it was one thing that lets you go from 121 to 100 to 73 to 13, what were those above you looking at saying, Scott, he's our guy?
[17:45] That's a good question.
[17:47] Of course, you'd have to ask them, but I would say determination was probably my number one thing.
[17:52] Nice.
[17:54] I was so focused.
[17:55] Nothing was going to stop me from being what I thought I wanted, which was to be a great sportscaster that people would recognize when you walk into a steakhouse and whatever else like that.
[18:07] Well, you've nailed that.
[18:08] Well, yeah, I have.
[18:09] And you know, the funny thing is I had to go through a quite a maturity process to get that out of my system.
[18:15] It's not about being famous.
[18:16] In fact, it's not even about me.
[18:17] To me, being a great broadcaster is being about your audience, listening and thinking of and presenting to those people so that they are informed, so they are entertained, not so they look at you and say, wow, Scott Hanson's a great broadcaster.
[18:33] I had to get that out of my head and I get asked to speak to college classes nowadays and things like that.
[18:39] Young people who want to be in the business.
[18:40] And that's the number one thing I tell them.
[18:42] Get out of your own head.
[18:43] It's not about you.
[18:44] You want to work and make all the knives in the drawer sharp.
[18:49] but not so people look at you and say, man, that guy's great.
[18:52] They want to say, wow, that show was great.
[18:54] Or wow, that game was great.
[18:56] Or that experience that I had was great.
[18:59] For the audience, not about yourself.
[19:01] And that was a big change.
[19:04] But I'll say determination is...
[19:06] I was a bulldog, man.
[19:07] I would, you know, never.
[19:09] What would you do?
[19:10] Okay, I'll tell you a story.
[19:11] Please do.
[19:12] Trying to get my first job before I got Traverse City, Michigan, that market 121.
[19:16] I would have done anything.
[19:17] I wanted to go into radio even.
[19:19] If they wouldn't put me on TV, let me get radio broadcast.
[19:21] I wanted to talk.
[19:23] So we used to take, do you remember old audio cassettes?
[19:26] I do.
[19:26] You're old enough to go back there?
[19:28] I am, unfortunately.
[19:28] I'm sure there are some people watching and listening to this.
[19:31] They're going, what the heck is an audio cassette?
[19:33] Okay, do you remember the little plastic case that they came in?
[19:36] And you could take the tape and it would go rattle, rattle, rattle kind of in there a little bit.
[19:39] So I made a broadcast or I took my highlights of broadcasts that I had done in college and with my friends and stuff like that and put together a highlight reel to...
[19:48] Sent it off to this sports radio station to say, hey, I will work whatever hours, nights, weekends, holidays, whatever.
[19:56] I will do whatever.
[19:57] Here's my highlight reel.
[19:58] Sent it in.
[19:59] Didn't get a call.
[20:00] Didn't get any response.
[20:01] Nothing.
[20:02] So a couple weeks went by and I called up the station manager.
[20:05] He didn't return my call.
[20:07] Called up again.
[20:08] And finally got him on the phone like three or four phone calls.
[20:11] Station man, I said, you know, sir, you know, did you did you listen to my tape?
[20:15] And he's like and you could tell he was kind of irritated on the phone.
[20:18] He's a snot nose kid, like calling him up.
[20:20] So he takes the audio cassette and he goes, yeah, I got your tape right here.
[20:26] Rattle, rattle, rattle.
[20:27] And he rattled it.
[20:27] I guess I'll listen to it at some point.
[20:29] And I was deflated.
[20:31] And he hangs up the phone.
[20:32] And do you know who that guy ended up being?
[20:34] Who did that guy end up being?
[20:35] Do you know?
[20:36] No.
[20:37] Neither do I.
[20:38] Right.
[20:38] I don't remember who he was.
[20:39] Okay.
[20:40] But I went on to the next and I'm like, he was the guy that had a chance to hire Scott Hanson when I would have done anything for him in his station.
[20:46] So he's in the rearview mirror.
[20:47] So, yeah.
[20:48] So.
[20:48] Yeah.
[20:49] I love the determination piece.
[20:51] And for anyone that's young listening to this, like Scott's advice about making it about the broadcast, not yourself.
[20:56] It's just so spot on, but what is the break?
[20:59] What is the big break?
[21:00] So I think, I guess I would say for the NFL side of things, um, along my career, you know, the other thing is always build bridges.
[21:07] Don't, don't, don't burn any bridge that you got.
[21:10] Even if I told you that story about that station manager, who, whose name I still don't know, but, um,
[21:15] I've always tried to be great with my colleagues.
[21:18] Not that it might pay me back at some point.
[21:19] I like to treat people the way I want to be treated.
[21:22] And I had a buddy, Ferdinand Dellestrinos, very unique name.
[21:26] Good guy.
[21:26] Ferdinand.
[21:27] Good.
[21:27] Oh, Ferdy's a great guy.
[21:29] And he went from a station that I was working at and took a job.
[21:33] He wanted to move to the West Coast where NFL Network happens to be located.
[21:38] Yeah.
[21:38] I worked with him in Washington, D.C. at a regional sports network.
[21:42] And he left, and he's behind the scenes.
[21:44] He's like an assignment desk guy.
[21:47] I don't know if you – you know, the people that help determine what stories we're covering, when, and whatnot.
[21:51] So he went for the NFL, and I was like, oh, man, that's great for you.
[21:55] Kind of lost track with him.
[21:56] Well, he hit me up out of the blue and said, hey, Scott, we're looking for a reporter to do something, a one-day job, just to go to one NFL game.
[22:06] One-off.
[22:06] One-off.
[22:06] One-off.
[22:07] And we'll pay you 500 bucks or whatever it was.
[22:11] And, uh, we need you to cover a game.
[22:13] And I was like, I was kind of getting burned out in the business.
[22:15] I felt like I was kind of hitting, hitting a wall and this stuff in my personal life.
[22:19] So I was like, ah, Ferdy, I don't know.
[22:21] I go, but you know what?
[22:21] For you, I'll do it.
[22:22] And I love the NFL.
[22:24] So let me, let me go and do this one game.
[22:26] Well, I went and did this one game and I did it, did it well enough.
[22:29] Would you have to follow the story on it?
[22:31] Yeah, so I did pregame reports.
[22:33] Like I would go on the, we'd do a pregame show.
[22:36] So I'd be the guy in the sidelines when they would preview eight different games that were coming up that day.
[22:41] And Scott Hanson is in Washington where the then Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys are about ready to play.
[22:46] Scott, what do you got?
[22:47] Well, yeah, the big story here is da-da-da-da-da-da.
[22:49] And then I would go up to the press box, just watch the game.
[22:52] And then after the game, go into the locker room and interview the players and put together a, this was the story of the game.
[22:58] And so I did it well enough that Ferdy told me the corner offices were very interested in your report.
[23:05] Always good.
[23:06] The executives, right?
[23:06] Always good, the corner office.
[23:08] And so the corner office said, you know what?
[23:09] Hire that guy again.
[23:10] Let's use him once more.
[23:12] And once more came into three times more.
[23:15] And then it...
[23:15] became a full-time gig where I was a roaming reporter.
[23:20] They would call me up and fly me to whatever game or practice or news conference.
[23:26] But I was working for NFL Network, NFL Media.
[23:29] Okay.
[23:30] I did that for two seasons.
[23:32] Then in the summer of 2009, I...
[23:36] I had heard through the grapevine in the company that we were starting this channel called Red Zone.
[23:42] And I heard kind of what it was going to be about and everything.
[23:44] And I said, are you kidding me?
[23:46] I mean, I loved going to games and being the sideline, you know, reporter and stuff.
[23:50] But I love being on the anchor desk.
[23:51] I love giving you the 10,000-foot view of everything.
[23:56] So I said, I want to crack at that.
[23:59] So I called up the talent coordinator at the network, a guy named Jamie Heeman, called him up and I said, Jamie, I said, is it true we're starting Red Zone?
[24:08] Yep.
[24:09] Who do you got to host it?
[24:10] Well, we're looking at some guys.
[24:11] I said, is my name on the list?
[24:13] He said, yeah, yeah, your name's on the list.
[24:16] Well, they decided to do auditions for the role.
[24:20] Now, an audition in TV, I'm sure you know this, but for the listeners who might not know, an audition in TV in the United States is 10 minutes long, 10, 15 minutes.
[24:30] They put you up on the desk, put a microphone on you, turn the lights on, see if you can read teleprompter, see how you look, how you sound, all of that.
[24:39] Well, Red Zone is a seven-hour nonstop football show.
[24:44] So stamina is a big part of the game.
[24:48] So for this audition, it wasn't 10 minutes long.
[24:51] It was five hours long.
[24:54] It's just like a boot camp.
[24:55] It was like boot camp.
[24:57] In fact, I'm sure some boot camps would probably be easier than what this was because here's what they did, Howie.
[25:02] Yes, please tell.
[25:03] They put me in a studio and they put eight television screens in front of me.
[25:07] This was in the middle of June.
[25:09] There was no NFL games.
[25:11] There were no NFL games being played right then.
[25:13] So they took eight random games from the season before.
[25:17] Yeah.
[25:17] took the videotape, queued all of them up to the kickoff, hit play simultaneously on all eight games, and said, talk.
[25:28] Wow.
[25:29] Yeah.
[25:29] For five hours.
[25:30] Five hours.
[25:31] And did you think you did a good job?
[25:33] Oh, I was flop sweating through the suit that I was wearing in the studio.
[25:38] And I'm not much of a sweater.
[25:39] Like, the makeup artists at the network are like, you don't even sweat and whatnot.
[25:43] I sweated that day.
[25:44] Because I'm like, I didn't have any live stats.
[25:46] I didn't have the rosters in front of me.
[25:48] I'm doing the best that I can going through it.
[25:50] But I'm like, and I wanted it so bad.
[25:52] So there was a little bit of that anxiety for it as well.
[25:55] So I roll through it five hours.
[25:57] You know, they shook my hand afterwards, but they poker face.
[26:00] They didn't do anything.
[26:01] So I go about my business.
[26:02] They auditioned some other guys.
[26:05] And about two, three weeks later, I get a phone call, and it's the executive producer of NFL Network.
[26:11] So his number comes up on your phone?
[26:13] Yeah.
[26:13] And so I answer, and I'm like thinking, okay, I'm either in trouble for something or this could be the call I've been waiting for.
[26:19] His name's Eric, and he went by EW, his initials.
[26:23] So I said, hey, EW.
[26:24] And he's like, hey, Scott, how you doing?
[26:26] And I'm like, I'm doing okay.
[26:27] I'm heading to training camp here or whatever I was doing.
[26:29] He says, well, I just want to let you know we want to name you the host of NFL Red Zone.
[26:33] And how you feeling?
[26:36] I'm like, oh, Eric, that's great.
[26:37] I said, so you'll watch the five hour audition.
[26:41] He goes, Scott, I watched the first 10 minutes of it and I knew you were my guy.
[26:47] And so I said, I said, oh, Eric, that is awesome, man.
[26:50] Thank you.
[26:51] I'm going to prove you're right and stuff.
[26:52] But I said that out of my mouth, but in my head, I'm thinking, then why in the, did you have me do
[26:59] Five hours, ruin a perfectly good suit and all of that.
[27:03] And I kind of laugh about that to this day, but all's well that ends well.
[27:06] And that was the summer of 2009.
[27:09] September of 2009, the show goes on the air.
[27:12] Hold that thought for a moment.
[27:14] I want to get to September 2009, but something really interests me, what you said.
[27:18] So you spent a couple of years flying city to city.
[27:21] You're in locker rooms.
[27:22] You're having to interview players, coaches.
[27:25] Okay.
[27:26] So this is the crux of the job that the business we're in, I reckon.
[27:30] What's your tip for establishing a rapport with the wide receiver from the 49ers who you've met 30 seconds before and you want to hear something different from him that he said 15 times in every other interview he's done and you're walking in, what's Scotty doing to make that interview with him more interesting than the other 14 dudes?
[27:52] Okay.
[27:53] That's a great question.
[27:56] I would say this, hopefully, especially because I was working for NFL Network, I was very visible as a roaming reporter.
[28:03] Yep.
[28:03] Yeah.
[28:04] my approach is respect the athletes.
[28:07] First of all, even if this guy had a drop pass that cost his team the game and I have to interview him or he scored the game winning touchdown or anything in between have respect for him as a human and as a professional.
[28:19] And if I have done that with everyone that I interview, he may have seen some of my interviews before and he's like, okay, you know what?
[28:27] Even if it's a hard question that Scott's going to ask me, I know he's fair and he's respectful.
[28:31] So like, I'm,
[28:33] genuinely have that respect for your interview subjects, even as you're trying to get something provocative or interesting for your audience.
[28:41] And then when, when you do it, I, I, I try and be, I try and think like a fan, quite frankly, if a fan came in here and not someone who's just going to be like, Hey, I want an autograph, but a fan who's like a thoughtful fan of that team or that player, what would they want to know from that guy right in that moment?
[29:00] Right.
[29:01] You just watch the game that he had or you're interviewing him after practice leading into a big game or whatever.
[29:06] What would the fans want to know?
[29:08] Why do I ask that?
[29:09] Well, because the fans, those words coming out of his mouth are going to the fans.
[29:12] It's not about me, again, sounding like, whoa, that was such a well-crafted question, Scott.
[29:18] Oh, wow.
[29:19] He's so articulate or he knew some little arcane fact about this guy.
[29:24] Like I'm trying to pump myself up.
[29:25] No, until and unless it edifies the audience, it's not something that I'm trying to be a part of.
[29:32] I'm trying to be a conduit and a good one, a journalistic one, but an informative, entertaining one as well between the player and the fans who are there to consume it.
[29:42] Uh, so that, that would be my approach.
[29:44] Um, I, I, I, you know, don't try and come up with something that's like so crazy off the wall.
[29:49] You have to read the room every given time.
[29:51] What is, what is the circumstance that you're interviewing a guy in?
[29:54] Cause you might, the PR guy might come over and say, you get two questions with him.
[29:58] That's all you got.
[29:59] And you better, you know, cover the ground that you need to cover as much as possible.
[30:03] But it starts with respect.
[30:05] Respect for the player, respect for the process, the team that he's a part of, and respect for the audience that you're trying to serve.
[30:12] So that, ladies and gentlemen, is why this man is a star at what he does, because he understands it.
[30:17] And this is sports broadcasting at the elite level.
[30:22] That is the end of Scott Hanson, part A.
[30:23] In part B, Scott talks about how he deals with criticism and seven hours on the telly without going to the loo.
[30:31] Stick around.

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