# 275: Scott Hanson (Part B)

An episode of [The Howie Games](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1146329262), 5 Aug 2026, 36 min.

Audio: https://enrichment.soundstack.com/4vjqq8/episode.flightcast.com/rn3huuagv7owb1txblzku9va.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.
[0:07] You are listening to episode 275 of the Howie Games Part B featuring broadcaster extraordinaire Scott Hanson.
[0:14] Roll it, Tommy.
[0:16] Scotty, I want to break Red Zone into a couple of components.
[0:21] The pre-work that you do during the week and then the work that is going on and the interaction you're having with your producers, your researchers, et cetera.
[0:29] But to do that, we need to explain in 30 seconds for those that haven't seen Red Zone, that haven't been up at three in the morning to see what is a –
[0:38] It's a cultural phenomenon, the show you're involved in, mate, and you and your team are to be enormously congratulated.
[0:43] 30 seconds, what if it's NFL Red Zone?
[0:46] And here we go.
[0:47] Hi, everyone.
[0:48] Welcome to week one of the 2009 NFL season, and welcome to NFL Red Zone.
[0:53] I'm your host, Scott Hanson.
[0:55] You're watching the first moments of the channel that we hope will change the way you watch football forever.
[1:00] Yeah.
[1:00] Okay, speaking to an Australian audience, I would say this.
[1:04] You need to understand that in the NFL, we don't have one game kicking off at one time.
[1:10] Sundays at 1 o'clock Eastern time, New York City time, let's say, there are seven, eight, nine games kicking off at the same exact moment, within seconds of each other, meaning those games are being played at the same time and the finishes happen right around the same time.
[1:27] Over the next six and a half hours, we're going to take you to every single game being played across the country live and in high definition.
[1:32] We will show you every big play as it happens, every touchdown from every game.
[1:38] So Red Zone is I'm in a studio in Los Angeles watching all seven, eight, nine games concurrently and taking my audience to Dallas, to New York, to Los Angeles, to Chicago, to Miami, wherever the action is hottest at that moment.
[1:56] I can take you there and watch what's happening the best part of the game.
[2:02] It's as if you handed the remote control over to someone who was omniscient and could say, hey, we need to watch Miami right now.
[2:11] We need to go to Atlanta.
[2:12] We need to watch this.
[2:15] And we do that for seven straight hours with no breaks and just roll on through.
[2:19] You don't watch one game.
[2:20] You watch every game on Red Zone.
[2:22] 16-17.
[2:23] You got the first place Lions, the first place Eagles, the first place Rams all in action.
[2:28] And you know what?
[2:29] You love red zone football.
[2:31] We love red zone football.
[2:32] So from this point forward, it's seven hours of red zone football starts now.
[2:38] So get your head around that.
[2:39] Scotty's knocking out a seven hour live television production of at any time, eight games running at the same time.
[2:46] So...
[2:47] You're cutting from game to game, but there's only one Scotty.
[2:50] So you need to be across every single game.
[2:53] So let's go the week of.
[2:55] So I'm fascinated how you do this, Scotty, because I learned early in my career what works for me from a broadcasting perspective, how much information I need to make me feel confident and happy.
[3:06] But then I see others do a lot more than me, but that fills my head out.
[3:11] and I don't come across as me.
[3:12] I'm too bogged down in stats.
[3:14] So where do you sit on the amount of information?
[3:18] So on a day of Reds, how many games are you covering in total?
[3:21] 12, 13.
[3:22] Yeah, yeah.
[3:23] So 13 games of footy.
[3:25] Yeah.
[3:25] It's an extraordinary amount of information you could take on.
[3:28] Yeah.
[3:28] What's your process?
[3:29] How much do you take on?
[3:30] Yeah.
[3:31] Yeah.
[3:32] What's your process to be ready when you walk in?
[3:33] That's a great question.
[3:34] And I can see that you, not only from a broadcaster's perspective, but from like a viewer's perspective, you understand it can be prohibitive to try and get all of that in.
[3:44] How many is on a roster?
[3:45] There's like 60, 70 blokes on a roster, isn't there?
[3:47] Yeah.
[3:48] A little over 50.
[3:49] Okay, so 50, that's 13 games, 26 teams.
[3:51] Exactly.
[3:52] Yeah.
[3:52] Now, I'm not a robot.
[3:53] I don't have everything memorized, but I do, for the six days leading into Sunday, I saturate my mind with everything.
[4:02] What does that involve?
[4:02] Everything.
[4:03] How many hours are we talking?
[4:03] What are we doing?
[4:04] Like, websites.
[4:06] Websites, I'm grinding through either local reports from whatever, Cleveland, Detroit, whatever teams I'm covering, the national, I mean, NFL is good.
[4:15] king in the United States.
[4:17] So there is no shortage of information that's out there.
[4:20] I get access to special stats that are available through NFL and whatnot, but fans can look at these stats too.
[4:27] It's a little bit like you might be the master chef in the kitchen.
[4:30] Yep.
[4:31] And you could tell people we have research teams of researchers.
[4:36] How many researchers work on Red Zone?
[4:38] Well, on Red Zone, I've got two dedicated to me during the show.
[4:42] OK.
[4:43] But there's a team behind the scenes at NFL Media that can be during the season.
[4:47] It could be, I think, probably up to 10 or 12.
[4:49] something like that and i could ask them for name me uh send me a spreadsheet of every player whose initials are a r who weigh 230 pounds to 235 pounds and they'd have a spreadsheet to me okay but that's like being the master chef in the kitchen and telling them you're sous chef you're you're this you're prep chef i want to have my fingers in the dough yeah myself
[5:13] Because I think I know what that meal needs to come out like.
[5:16] Got it.
[5:17] And I want to be able to do it.
[5:18] So I make a lot of my own spreadsheets.
[5:20] I'll take what they send me.
[5:21] But every day, hours a day, every day on multiple websites, and I'll keep refreshing.
[5:26] Social media can be, if you know how to wade through the nonsense in social media, social media can be an avenue for instant updates and information.
[5:37] And the way I describe it is this, Howie.
[5:39] When I go into an NFL Sunday, I want to be like, we call it like a handyman or a contractor.
[5:46] Like if you have a problem in your house, you call up the guy and he comes over and he can fix your, you know, whatever.
[5:51] So in Australia, you're a tradie.
[5:53] A tradie.
[5:54] A tradie.
[5:54] Okay.
[5:54] I want to be like a tradie who shows up to your house.
[5:58] Yeah.
[5:58] And I haven't even, I just been told there's a problem in the house.
[6:01] Yeah.
[6:02] I don't know if it's electrical, plumbing, drywall, you know, whatever.
[6:08] But if I've mastered my tool belt, I'm not worried when I walk into the house and they say, oh, it's this light that's on fire or it's this – the toilet won't stop leaking or the floor is – I've mastered my tool belt.
[6:24] I'm ready for the job.
[6:25] Now, project that to red zone.
[6:28] When I have, let's say, 12 games on an NFL red zone Sunday, I can't tell you which three, four, six of them are going to be the jaw-dropping, unbelievable, fantastic finish, wild drama.
[6:42] But if I've prepared for all 12, if my tool belt is mastered, I'm ready for it when it happens.
[6:48] scrimmage.
[6:49] Henry could house it.
[6:50] Henry does house it.
[6:51] Touchdown Titans and the Ravens pop through with a touchdown.
[6:55] J.K. Dobbins, his second of the first quarter and Baltimore is going to go up 14 to 3 pending the extra point.
[7:03] So Titans touchdown, Ravens touchdown, double box action here in the first quarter.
[7:09] I love this.
[7:11] So I try to be an expert of, you know, as much as I can be, of anything from the Seattle Seahawks to the Miami Dolphins to the New England Patriots to the Los Angeles Chargers.
[7:23] I just try to do it geographically.
[7:29] 40 to zero shutout and we hardly see him on the coverage.
[7:32] Exactly.
[7:33] And you know what?
[7:34] That ends up on the cutting room floor then, as we say.
[7:36] But you just got to roll with that.
[7:37] But you got to roll with it.
[7:38] Because again, why?
[7:39] Because it's not about me saying, I memorized a stat about this guy and darn it, I'm going to get this out here.
[7:46] No, if it's not pertinent to what the live football presents to us, I'm not going to put it out there so people think I'm smart or that I look good.
[7:56] It's about the audience.
[7:57] So...
[7:57] Production meeting.
[7:58] Yeah.
[7:59] You roll in there on a Sunday.
[8:01] Yep.
[8:03] Are there themes in the production meeting?
[8:05] You're saying, okay, you know, Seattle's, I don't know the game well enough.
[8:09] They've got three wide receivers out injured, so they're going to have to bring this.
[8:12] So are you developing themes for each game that could or couldn't happen?
[8:16] We have a production meeting two hours before the show goes live.
[8:20] So we do the show from Los Angeles.
[8:22] In L.A. time, the games kick off at 10 a.m., okay?
[8:27] We're in the production meeting and all the, all the pertinent people on the, on the red zone broadcast that you don't see, you know, behind the scenes and everybody, how many people total it's about 30 people in the production meeting.
[8:41] It's a little less than 20 because some of the people don't need to know the, the, the nooks and crannies of the football as much.
[8:48] They're, they're just doing more mechanical jobs, but, but about 30 people make the show what it is about 20,
[8:53] 20 people or fewer are the brain center of the football side of things.
[8:59] And we go game by game.
[9:00] We go alphabetical order, chronological and alphabetical order.
[9:04] All right, here we go.
[9:05] Raven Steelers, like you said, they've got two wide receivers out with injury, whatever.
[9:10] Oh, hey, this guy's making his season debut.
[9:12] Oh, this guy used to play for this team three years ago.
[9:15] Oh, this guy just said something in the locker room this week.
[9:19] in the pregame leading up to it that look out they could they could end up in a fight at this game anything that we think could come into play we we all want our minds trained to keep an eye out for this but ultimately it's what the football presents us those two guys might not get into a fight they might not even see each other on the field so we're not going to bring that up in the broadcast but we're ready for it if they do that's what we're going to do
[9:44] Not like, oh, these two guys fought out of nowhere.
[9:47] Wow, he just took a swing at him.
[9:48] No, oh, this guy said this earlier this week, and I'm prepared to do that, but the whole team needs to be prepared.
[9:55] If you don't mind another analogy.
[9:58] Our staff, and it's the best staff in sports television, because there's no show like it in sports television.
[10:05] Seven hours rolling straight through.
[10:08] It's an incredible thing.
[10:10] We are a little bit like...
[10:12] An orchestra playing jazz music.
[10:17] Okay.
[10:17] Orchestra.
[10:18] Everyone needs to be sweet and sharp with their own instrument.
[10:22] The violinist needs to have the violin tuned incredibly.
[10:25] They don't need to know anything about how the tuba player plays the tuba, but they just need to trust that the tuba player is sharp and ready to go on this.
[10:33] And all the instruments need to be finely tuned, and you need to be an expert at your own instrument, right?
[10:38] Mm-hmm.
[10:39] but an orchestra playing jazz music, no sheet music.
[10:43] We don't have Beethoven sitting in front of us going, dun, dun, dun, dun.
[10:47] We're not, we are playing based on whatever just evolves.
[10:51] In this case, what happens in those games?
[10:54] So we need to listen to each other, play off of each other, watch the football, and then interject your notes to hopefully make beautiful music for the audience who's listening for it.
[11:07] Okay.
[11:08] So it's a great analogy.
[11:10] So the light goes on, you're in front of a big green screen.
[11:13] You set up, I can't get my head around the number of games and the amount of content that you're working your way through.
[11:19] So you've got your Octo screen, yeah?
[11:21] Octobox.
[11:22] Octobox, right, where you can have like eight different games going.
[11:25] Coming into this NFL season, as we go to the Octobox, new quarterbacks, new...
[11:31] Who in the decision-making process, is it a producer?
[11:35] Is it a director?
[11:35] Do you play a quasi-producer role as to when it starts, right?
[11:39] And we're 10 minutes in and there's eight games going on.
[11:42] Who's deciding where the coverage is going?
[11:44] That is a great – it's as if you've been in our production.
[11:48] I mean, I'm not joking.
[11:50] But I've done a lot of sports.
[11:51] But this is why it's blown my freaking mind because we might do one or two games.
[11:56] You're doing so many.
[11:58] And this won't be a surprise to you.
[11:59] It's collaborative.
[12:01] Now, again, about 30 people work on the show.
[12:05] Only a few are allowed to have the main microphone, like, on our team.
[12:12] You know, you won't ever hear it, of course, on TV.
[12:15] My microphone is the only microphone that goes to that.
[12:17] But I've got my earpiece in, and only a couple, two, three people are...
[12:22] are allowed to chime in in my ear.
[12:25] So everything's funneled into those three voices to you.
[12:28] And they're sitting in what we call the front row.
[12:30] You picture like a television control room, right?
[12:33] The front row is the producer, the director, the technical director.
[12:38] Those are the three key people that are sitting there.
[12:41] The producer is mostly making the calls as to, okay, we're on the Dallas game right now.
[12:47] If they don't get a first down here, they're going to punt.
[12:49] So we're going to get away from that game.
[12:51] We'll go up to Seattle.
[12:52] They're just outside the red zone, but keep in mind, green Bay's in a commercial break right now.
[12:57] They're first and goal from the five.
[12:58] If they come out of commercial break, we got to go to green Bay.
[13:00] Okay.
[13:01] So that's like, that's like in the NFL, you know, the coach calls plays into the quarterback's ear and he might call three plays into the quarterback's ear.
[13:10] Then the quarterback goes up to the line of scrimmage and looks over the defense.
[13:14] And based on what the defense is, he knows, okay, we got to run play number two out of that.
[13:19] So in that scenario that I just gave you, my producer just got in my ear.
[13:22] I'll be like, okay, Dallas Cowboys third and 10 from the 50-yard line.
[13:25] Oh, incomplete pass.
[13:26] They're going to punt.
[13:27] Let's go up to Seattle right now.
[13:28] They're just outside the red zone.
[13:29] Oh, oh, oh.
[13:30] Green Bay just came out of commercial break.
[13:31] They're first and goal from the five.
[13:33] They need a touchdown to take the lead.
[13:34] Let's see if Jordan Love and company can punch it in.
[13:37] And we roll like that.
[13:39] But Tommy's looking at me like, so I work on Thursday night footy that you were at the other day as a draw.
[13:44] Yeah, yeah.
[13:44] And Tommy produces that.
[13:45] So Tommy, easy my ear.
[13:47] Respect Tommy.
[13:48] We thought we were going, okay, until we heard this, Tommy, and we're in the minor of minor leagues compared to what our man Scotty and his team were doing.
[13:54] Yeah.
[13:55] But again, it's muscles.
[13:56] And once you exercise those muscles a lot, you get into a rhythm.
[13:59] I can already tell based upon the line of questioning, and I'm not trying to blow smoke at you or you, Tommy.
[14:04] If you guys came and shadowed us for a month and then got on our team, you could be a part of the Red Zone team.
[14:11] If you have the ability...
[14:13] To focus, though, for seven straight hours.
[14:15] Yeah, it's a long time.
[14:16] That is the thing.
[14:17] Because a lot of people can do stuff in short bursts.
[14:21] To be able to do it over that long course is like you've got a headache at the end of the day, let me tell you.
[14:27] So of the seven hours, and you described it perfectly.
[14:29] We're starting in Seattle.
[14:30] They're going for a touchdown here.
[14:31] They've had an injury here.
[14:32] Yeah.
[14:33] Of the seven hours of these games going, and especially the last two minutes, because they start at the same time, so they generally finish at the same time.
[14:40] Yeah.
[14:40] I think you call it the witching hour.
[14:42] We do.
[14:42] Yeah.
[14:42] where there's results going off left, right, and center, of the seven hours before I really burrow down into what you're doing, how much of that time are you talking over pictures about football that we're actually seeing?
[14:52] Do you take some commentary or no?
[14:55] It's all you.
[14:56] Oh, that's a great question.
[14:57] No, I do.
[14:58] We say lay out.
[14:59] I don't know what term you guys use in Australian broadcasting.
[15:01] Like I lay out, meaning I shut up and let the broadcasters who were literally at the game in Dallas or whatever call the game.
[15:09] Yeah, where mine is more most of the time mine is transitioning between the games.
[15:14] Like I said, OK, Dallas didn't get a first down.
[15:18] The punt team's coming on the field.
[15:19] We're not going to show that.
[15:21] Let's go to Seattle and then I can shut up.
[15:24] And then the announcers in Seattle, our audio guy brings their their sound up and we can listen to them sitting in the stadium calling the game.
[15:32] But in the witching hour, you're calling.
[15:35] It gets overlap, and so we might put two games on the screen or three games on the screen in a double box or a triple box.
[15:42] Well, you can't just pick which random audio you're going to play because what if you pick the wrong one?
[15:48] So that's when you're commentating three or four games at the same time.
[15:51] Correct.
[15:52] And that's the skill of this man beside me here.
[15:54] Well, some people say so.
[15:55] I hope it sounds as good as I want it to sound on TV.
[15:58] But, yeah.
[15:59] Winning field goal for Chicago.
[16:03] Santos for the win, and it is good!
[16:09] Bears win it.
[16:10] And Matt Ryan to the end zone.
[16:13] The Colts score the go-ahead touchdown with 24 seconds remaining.
[16:20] Unbelievable drama.
[16:21] The Bears win on a walk-off field goal.
[16:24] The Colts take a last-second touchdown lead against the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
[16:30] This is what the witching hour is all about.
[16:33] You're phenomenal at what you do.
[16:35] But say there's three games on and it's the witching hour.
[16:38] You've got two minutes to go.
[16:40] Yeah.
[16:40] And...
[16:42] You get something in your mind that's not quite right.
[16:45] So you call a wrong player or a wrong player or something.
[16:48] It happens.
[16:48] Of course it happens.
[16:49] You're doing seven hours of live TV.
[16:51] How do you reset your mind to not be thinking about the problem you just made to stop the next problem coming on the next game?
[16:57] That's a great question.
[16:58] And what I think of is I go back to my football training because when we'd have a practice, we would run thousands of plays through the practice week.
[17:08] And if you screwed up, even with everyone watching,
[17:11] You got another play coming up, right?
[17:12] And they ain't waiting.
[17:13] They ain't stopping the game.
[17:14] They ain't stopping the practice.
[17:15] They're not stopping for you.
[17:16] No.
[17:17] Like, you got to put it out of your mind.
[17:19] And they say the memory of a goldfish.
[17:23] Like, gone.
[17:24] And can you do that?
[17:26] I've gotten better at it through the years.
[17:28] It's hard not to beat myself up, especially if I make what I look like.
[17:32] I'm like, oh, that's such a stupid mistake.
[17:34] Especially in the world of social media.
[17:35] Because if you jump on that, you get that immediate feedback.
[17:38] You 100%.
[17:41] quote-unquote experts from every team of the 32 teams in the NFL watching Red Zone.
[17:47] So if I make one mistake that, oh, Aaron Rodgers in 2018 threw 32 touchdowns and he actually threw 33 that year, it might be like a lesser-known stat or something.
[17:57] Someone's going to crush me for it.
[17:58] But again, it's not about me.
[18:00] But they've got one team and one game to look after.
[18:03] Yes, exactly.
[18:03] You got 26 of them.
[18:05] Welcome to the United States of America.
[18:07] No one is forgiven for anything that they make because everyone else commenting on stuff is perfect except for the person that they're commenting on.
[18:14] And, you know, the weak man wants to point out where the strong man fails, right?
[18:20] I like that.
[18:21] Yeah.
[18:21] The weak man wants to point out where the strong man fails.
[18:23] Yes.
[18:24] Yeah.
[18:24] And, again, not that I care because I'll tell you what.
[18:28] If somebody hits me up on social media and says, oh, you suck, you don't know anything about football.
[18:31] And believe it or not, I get some of that.
[18:33] Yeah.
[18:34] That doesn't even faze me.
[18:36] But if they say, you suck, you don't know anything about football.
[18:39] You said Aaron Rodgers threw 33 touchdowns.
[18:42] He threw 32 touchdowns in 2018.
[18:44] And I look it up and that person is right.
[18:46] I can parse through the criticism, this, the nastiness and say, you know what?
[18:52] I got to swallow my pride.
[18:53] You're right.
[18:53] A fact is a fact.
[18:55] And if I made a mistake, I need to correct that if I can or at least acknowledge it.
[19:01] I am not above my critics being my coaches as long as it's reasonably respectful and as long as what they're saying is factually true.
[19:14] So you're walking on a tightrope.
[19:16] Yes.
[19:17] You are walking on a tightrope.
[19:18] I love analogies.
[19:19] If you can tell right now, I often tell people this.
[19:21] We're Indiana Jones running across the suspension bridge while it's collapsing behind him.
[19:28] So you must have to have tremendous faith when someone in your ear, one of your researchers, you said you got a couple of researchers on the day, stats guys, we call them here, stats guys or girls.
[19:37] When they say to you, okay, Purdy's just thrown for something, it's the most yards he's thrown all season.
[19:44] Yeah.
[19:45] Yeah.
[19:46] But you don't have time to check that.
[19:48] So you're parroting that information.
[19:51] So you've got to have absolute faith that that person is getting you the information.
[19:55] Because when it's wrong and it's 32 touchdowns, not 33, people aren't saying, oh, mate, the researcher got it wrong.
[20:01] They're like, Scotty got it wrong.
[20:02] My right – of course.
[20:04] And my right-hand men, Tim Galanian's Brian Larrabee, literally sit next to my right side here.
[20:10] Yeah.
[20:10] They're the only two people in the studio that are that close to me.
[20:14] They both sit there with their laptops up.
[20:16] I've worked with both of them for years.
[20:18] I trust them implicitly.
[20:20] They're human beings too.
[20:22] They make mistakes.
[20:23] And I'll see it where one of them will tell me a piece of information and I basically parroted it.
[20:29] And it ended up being wrong.
[20:31] And I see the countenance on their face just go, oh.
[20:34] Because we are all trying to support each other.
[20:37] We're all moving in the same direction to give the audience 100% accurate information.
[20:44] But on any given show, seven hours, I probably disseminate a thousand facts.
[20:51] Wow.
[20:52] If you consider like anything from the live score to this guy's stat record to this guy's how far that is.
[20:59] I probably say a thousand things that are factually verifiable.
[21:05] How many of them?
[21:06] I'm a human being.
[21:07] I'm shooting for 100% accuracy.
[21:09] Yeah.
[21:10] I probably land at 99 point something, but I know it's never going to be a hundred, which really it hurts, but I, we, we, we push forward like a free throw shooter in basketball.
[21:22] We ain't ever trying to miss one.
[21:24] We're trying to hit every one of them.
[21:25] And if you're great, you're going to hit in the, in the nineties.
[21:28] Uh,
[21:28] Um, and, and so I, I appreciate it when the audience, you know, knows that I'm a human being and I'm not above, like, I don't think I know everything about the game.
[21:36] And if it is a bad error, I will come back on.
[21:39] I will come.
[21:39] Ladies and gentlemen, I said 33 touchdowns and it was actually 32 touchdowns just to clean that up.
[21:44] Okay.
[21:45] Let's move on.
[21:45] And move on.
[21:45] Yeah.
[21:46] Yeah.
[21:47] Back to Scott in a moment.
[21:48] Now, our broadcasters have been some of our most popular episodes on this show.
[21:52] So if you like your commentators, go back and check out the back catalogue.
[21:56] You can hear the likes of Bruce McEvaney on episode 33.
[21:59] I always get nervous when people say they respect me.
[22:02] How are you?
[22:03] F1 whiz Martin Brundle on episode 93 of the show.
[22:06] It's a privilege to be on, joining a great list of guests.
[22:09] The voice of soccer Martin Tyler, who just did a great job on the recent World Cup.
[22:13] Thank you for putting me on your bucket list.
[22:15] Thank you.
[22:16] All-rounder television star Joanna Griggs on the artist series number 19.
[22:21] Joanna Griggs, I can't actually look at you because it'll make me laugh.
[22:24] There are heaps to go back and listen to, plenty more, including the absolute voice of cycling, Phil Liggett.
[22:31] Now, Phil, this is a man that can tell a good story on episode 31.
[22:37] And I remember sitting down in the studio, because I learned then that nobody tells you how to do TV.
[22:42] And so I sat there, two monitors, and a telephone, and a box.
[22:48] and I'm up a ladder 50 feet in the sky.
[22:51] Then this guy comes up the ladder.
[22:53] He goes, hello.
[22:54] I said, hi.
[22:55] He said, everything all right?
[22:57] I said, yeah, fine, just don't know what to do.
[22:59] What?
[23:00] Is this your first time?
[23:01] I said, yeah.
[23:02] This is the guy we now know as the floor manager.
[23:05] He says, well, you've got two televisions here.
[23:07] We call them monitors.
[23:08] He says, when the pictures on both are exactly the same, you're live.
[23:11] He said, if you want to cough or swear, press that red button, it won't hear you.
[23:15] He says, other than that...
[23:16] Enjoy it.
[23:17] Good luck.
[23:17] And that was him gone.
[23:19] That is Phil Liggett on episode 31 of the show.
[23:26] Let's get back to Scott.
[23:28] So if you Google Scott Hansen, Red Zone, first thing that pops up is – I haven't Googled myself in a while.
[23:35] Well, it's no bathroom break.
[23:37] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[23:38] Everyone wants to talk about – Is it the first thing that pops up?
[23:39] It doesn't surprise me.
[23:40] It doesn't surprise me.
[23:41] You know when you get like – it's Google AI now.
[23:43] So you're knocking out seven hours.
[23:45] It's not like you can –
[23:47] I read you're like me.
[23:48] You don't drink coffee, yeah?
[23:49] No, I don't.
[23:50] And I'm in the city of coffee.
[23:52] Right, well, I know that's why.
[23:53] And I don't drink coffee either.
[23:54] Okay.
[23:54] No.
[23:55] But it's not like you can go and drink three liters of water and be nice and hydrated in the morning.
[23:59] Because you've got seven hours.
[24:00] Yes, sir.
[24:00] Where you can't go for what we in Australia call going for a slash.
[24:03] Is that right?
[24:04] That sounds a little extreme.
[24:06] No, it's the same.
[24:07] Trust me, it's the same on this side of the Pacific as your side of the Pacific.
[24:10] It's a wee, it's a slash, whatever you want to call it.
[24:13] No, it's not because it swirls the opposite direction.
[24:14] Well, that's true.
[24:15] It does in the bathroom.
[24:16] So are you just hanging on here for seven hours or are you dehydrating pregame?
[24:21] I'm not trying to be a hero, Howie.
[24:23] I do not take bathroom breaks.
[24:24] I have not taken a break in more than 10 years on the show, I think.
[24:28] Not one slash in 10 years.
[24:29] Not one slash.
[24:30] Yes.
[24:31] Not one in show slash never.
[24:33] Uh, but, and I go through a process.
[24:36] I dehydrate myself.
[24:38] Like at the beginning of the Sunday, I eat the same exact breakfast.
[24:41] I have a routine.
[24:43] I go to the bathroom twice without putting any more liquids in my body.
[24:46] And then I focus on the football.
[24:47] Now I'm not trying to be a hero.
[24:49] I could take a break if I wanted to, but my earpiece, we call it an IFB and American television.
[24:56] My earpiece is wireless.
[24:57] I'm,
[24:58] So if I went to the bathroom, I could still hear the games going on in my ear.
[25:01] So it could be play of the year.
[25:03] Exactly.
[25:03] I am convinced, Howie, if I break my streak, I'm going to hear one of the guys in Chicago or whatever go, that may be the greatest touchdown in the history of the end.
[25:16] I have never seen anything like that.
[25:18] I'm going to be zipping up my fly.
[25:20] You talk about a slash.
[25:22] I'm running back down the hallway and going, I knew it.
[25:25] I knew it.
[25:26] I knew it.
[25:27] So I don't.
[25:28] Thankfully, biology, my body, like it knows when it's NFL Sunday, I've never had any emergencies or anything like that.
[25:37] This is such a thrill for me to talk with you about this stuff.
[25:41] Likewise.
[25:41] This is fun.
[25:42] It's so cool, but I can only keep you here for so long.
[25:46] So just some short, sharp answers to some short, sharp questions that will pop into my head as we go.
[25:52] When you started Red Zone 2009, the NFL, like the NFL has exploded.
[25:58] Like what is it?
[25:59] Of the top 100 shows in America, how many NFL games?
[26:01] That's one of the most amazing facts that there is.
[26:03] It depends year by year, especially if there's like an election year and politics get involved on TV, which is massive.
[26:09] But by and large, if you take the top 100 things on television, not sports.
[26:15] Things.
[26:15] Sports.
[26:17] sitcoms, dramas, whatever, you know, the Oscar award, Academy Awards, whatever, the top 100 things, 90 some of them are going to be NFL football games.
[26:28] That's how the NFL is king in the USA.
[26:31] So why in the last 15 years, it's always been popular, but again, let's keep these short because these can be four answers.
[26:39] What is it about the NFL that makes it 90 of the top 100 programs?
[26:43] I think the Americans love the competition.
[26:45] Literally, we have a saying, any given Sunday, any team can win any game, even though the worst team can beat the Super Bowl champion from the year before.
[26:52] Legitimately, Americans love the physicality of it.
[26:56] And then fantasy football and gambling are two contributing factors to have attention riveted to NFL football.
[27:03] We're going through it at the moment now.
[27:05] This is not a political question because I think we follow a lot of what happens in America.
[27:09] We're going through concussion lawsuits in our game of Australian football.
[27:13] Is that right?
[27:14] And you'll have seen why because you went to a game on Thursday night.
[27:17] How has the NFL dealt with player welfare and the concussion situation?
[27:24] Well, the NFL, believe it or not, does more studies on the human brain in terms of contact and trauma to the human brain than, I believe this is true, than any entity outside of the United States Army.
[27:40] That doesn't surprise me.
[27:41] It's the only entity that does more studying and trying to figure out and get helmet technology to the absolute best and most protective that it can.
[27:50] However, the NFL is a collision sport.
[27:53] And everyone knows from the time they're a little kid playing tackle football for the first time—
[27:57] that there are certain inherent risks to, you know, to the physical body by the physical nature of things.
[28:03] But the NFL has a player health and safety committee that literally spends their entire year saying, how can we make the game safer?
[28:11] How can we get the head out of the game?
[28:14] Because the brain is the most vulnerable part of big time collisions.
[28:18] Even if you break a leg bone or something like that, the brain is something to be obviously more carefully guarded.
[28:24] to orchestrate the rules, the equipment and the style of play to make it as safe as possible while still being a crazy hard contact sport?
[28:34] It's a great answer.
[28:35] I know you're studio now, but you've been to all these grounds, all these experience, all these teams, all these players, people listen to this show, we're fortunate around the world, but a lot of Australians, obviously a lot of expats.
[28:45] If you were going to go to one city in America that embraces the NFL, I know they all love it, but if you're going to go to one city in America,
[28:51] If you go to one city that really embraces football, where would you go?
[28:56] Ooh, every town considers themselves a big football town in the United States.
[28:59] That's true because, like I said, the TV ratings hold that out.
[29:03] But I would say one where the majority of the populace are crazy football fans,
[29:09] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[29:11] Really?
[29:12] Yes.
[29:12] The birthplace of freedom in the United States.
[29:15] One of our top five biggest cities.
[29:17] But most people think I would say like New York or Chicago, which are great football towns too.
[29:22] But Philadelphia, if you just go take a thousand Philadelphians...
[29:26] 990 some of them are going to say oh i live and die by the philadelphia eagles and the nfl where if you go to new yorkers you might have someone that's like oh i'm into the arts or i'm into something else i'm not that much into philly football but you'll also find tons of football fans in every city but philadelphia per capita in terms of a condensed thing that would be my answer about sports towns in the united states
[29:49] Americans do sports and entertainment so well for the show.
[29:54] I went and saw Vance Joy, an Australian artist at SoFi, in a small part of SoFi, and I was sort of peeking over trying to get a look at this stadium, and it's like, wow, this is blowing my mind.
[30:03] It was a couple of years ago.
[30:05] But we see the Super Bowl show, but consistently for the show, the razzle-dazzle, the entertainment, if I'm going to see a team play, who am I going to watch?
[30:13] Yeah.
[30:13] Oh boy.
[30:14] For the show, the spectacle.
[30:16] Well, you just said SoFi Stadium is one of the greatest buildings.
[30:20] I mean, MCG is unbelievable and the size of MCG even dwarfs SoFi.
[30:24] But in terms of cutting edge technology, if you wanted to have like the whole bells and whistles experience, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, it's actually Inglewood, California, but right there in LA and then Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
[30:38] Okay.
[30:38] which the Super Bowl was just there, what, three years ago.
[30:42] And then you get the Las Vegas experience with it.
[30:45] Both of those are two of my favorites.
[30:47] And the Raiders occupy the Vegas Stadium.
[30:50] We have two teams that share SoFi Stadium, the Rams and the Chargers.
[30:54] That's where the Olympics are going to be at SoFi.
[30:56] And the Olympics are going to be at tons of events, including the swimming is going to be there.
[31:00] The swimming is going to be at SoFi.
[31:01] So the Australians will be looking at SoFi Stadium.
[31:03] They're going to build a swimming pool inside of it for that.
[31:06] It's going to be great.
[31:06] I would say try one of those two stadiums because you get the city involved in it as well.
[31:10] Las Vegas, Los Angeles, two great entertainment towns.
[31:15] And the stadiums, like in terms of the accoutrement that come with it, definitely.
[31:20] pretty top shelf.
[31:22] College football, the whole reason we did the diary series with Joe Maguire, Eddie's son, was because I was reading an article with no understanding that it was something like 200 Australian punters in college football.
[31:34] These young guys going to the other side of the world, saying goodbye to their families, getting this astonishingly elite education and being involved in these sporting spheres.
[31:43] So...
[31:46] The Australians in the NFL, majority punters, we've had some others, but how are the Australians viewed as athletes in the NFL?
[31:54] You know what?
[31:55] I think the average NFL fan probably would have said, oh, Aussies, they're punters.
[32:02] They would have fought that, right?
[32:04] Because...
[32:05] not only the Aussie, it's kind of unique to us.
[32:07] Oh, that guy's an Aussie.
[32:08] That's kind of cool, you know, but there's a little bit of different style that someone who came from like an AFL background will actually punt the ball different than an American style punter.
[32:17] And it does some different things to the football in the air.
[32:20] And it's very successful, which is why not only the quality of the player, but the coaches in the NFL like to try out Aussie punters because they can affect the game a little differently than an American, traditional American punter can.
[32:33] That's what I would have said my answer would have been.
[32:36] until about five years ago or so when a young man, a young big man by the name of Jordan Mylotta.
[32:44] He's a huge man.
[32:45] Dominate your box.
[32:47] We don't need to do anything else.
[32:48] Just do your job.
[32:49] Okay.
[32:54] That guy has come over and taken the United States by storm.
[32:58] First of all, he's a quality bloke, as you might say.
[33:00] He's a good man.
[33:01] He's a good dude.
[33:02] Beautiful singer.
[33:05] And the fact that he came over and it was like kind of a sideshow, like, okay, he's a huge Australian.
[33:11] Yeah, his YouTube videos are insane when he's running through these poor little, looks like toddlers bouncing off of him.
[33:18] But can he come and do it here?
[33:19] Not only has he done it in the United States.
[33:24] There's 1,700 players, basically.
[33:27] So if you took the 1,700 players in today's NFL and ranked them, the best one to 1,700, he'd be on people's top 100 list.
[33:39] That's how good he is and how fast he's become an elite player.
[33:43] He signed a $100 million contract or whatever it was.
[33:47] So I said he himself—
[33:50] with the physicality playing left tackle with one of the most brutal positions in the game and stands up to the best American football players and beats them a heck of a lot of times, people thought, look, anything is game when it comes to the Australians trying to come and play NFL football.
[34:06] And I hope there's more guys on the way.
[34:08] It's a great description, Scotty.
[34:11] Visit Victoria have done a fantastic thing to bring you out here and show you our country, but to expose us to you and the explanations you've given about sports broadcasting and your passion and your excitement.
[34:22] You've done a million things.
[34:23] To come in here like a tornado and just explain to us what you do, it's a massive thrill for me and Tommy, and we'll be taking notes thinking how we need to sharpen up next time.
[34:32] getting a broadcast mate but travel safely on your way home probably with red zone you probably won't get out here because you'll need to be doing it's the first round so i'm sure you'll be in the studio but mate i hope you enjoy the rest of the time here and thanks it's been a real thrill for us to have you on the how we go this was great and this believe it or not this is my last interview in country right now and we may have saved the best for last this was an absolute pleasure i mean that good man thanks brother thank you
[34:58] Thanks to Scott, who is elite at his job and brings elite energy levels, as you just heard.
[35:04] I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did talking to Scott.
[35:07] Until next week with our former AFL star player and coach, you know the rest of the story.
[35:13] Peace and love.
[35:14] And we can do it if we try, try, try.
[35:22] If we try, try, try.
[35:27] If we try, try, try

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.