By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer
Editor’s Note: Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his twenty third season as a lead producer. He has greater than 40 years of championship expertise and has produced seven Super Bowls. Throughout the 2024 NFL season, he’ll present an inside look as FOX’s new No. 1 NFL workforce, together with NFL legend Tom Brady, makes its journey to Super Bowl LIX. Read extra behind-the-scenes tales from Richie Zyontz right here.
The Green Bay Packers’ sport at Minnesota in Week 17 has at all times stood out as a gem within the NFL schedule. Our crew had but to see the Vikings in particular person, so we had been wanting ahead to this crucial battle.
December visits to Minneapolis conjure ideas of lengthy underwear and freezing temperatures. And sure, over time, we have skilled our share of blizzards and even a stadium roof collapse.
But my abiding reminiscences of greater than 40 years of visits to the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” are totally heat.
Perhaps the journey that stands out probably the most occurred in January 1992 throughout the week main as much as CBS’ protection of Super Bowl 26 between the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins. With a day to spare, I recommended John Madden discover the world of ice fishing, which he instantly agreed to do.
Needless to say, we had no concept what we had been getting ourselves into.
Ahead of Super Bowl 26, members of the CBS broadcast workforce, together with author (second from left), John Madden (far proper), and producer Lance Barrow (Madden’s left), determined to attempt your hand at ice fishing. (Photo courtesy of Richie Zyontz)
So, with the assistance of an area information, we hopped on the Madden Cruiser and drove 75 miles north to Mille Lacs, the place we spent a number of hours fruitlessly jigging our strains in a gap, catching no fish. This, in itself, was fairly an achievement. Some locals felt so dangerous for us that they loaded up our bucket with walleye and perch and despatched us on our merry manner.
The subsequent factor I do know, Madden was on the telephone with the late USA Today media author and kibitzer, Rudy Martzke, who the following day wrote about Madden’s haul from his day on the ice. Madden’s main misinformation within the article sums up the expertise: “We caught them, we cleaned them, we cooked them, and we ate them.”
No one may provide you with an awesome story like John Madden!
(Related: More from Tom Brady | More from Richie Zyontz)
Battle of the North
Now let’s return to the unique premise.
The matchup between these two NFC North rivals has been the most well liked ticket in current reminiscence, in response to Vikings officers. The anticipation of the large video games actually stimulates the movement of vitality: for gamers, coaches, followers and TV crews. With solely 280 and 4 and a half miles of highway separating these cities, the ocean of purple Skol warblers was dotted with patches of golden Cheeseheads.
The smooth glass backdrop of US Bank Stadium belied the gritty, black nature of this rivalry.
It’s laborious to think about legendary coaches Vince Lombardi and Bud Grant exchanging pleasantries earlier than a sport at Bloomington’s previous Metropolitan Stadium. Yet proper earlier than our eyes, an hour earlier than the sport, Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur and Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell had been embracing. Sure, they’re buddies and have a shared historical past collectively, however nonetheless… what would Bud have thought?
I as soon as requested the famously laconic Grant what it was prefer to struggle with Lombardi all these years. His response summed up these moments clearly and concisely: “Lombardi was an fool.”
Matt LaFleur and Kevin O’Connell are buddies, however what would the nice Bud Grant have considered this change? (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
A workforce effort
A broadcast is barely nearly as good because the efforts of the technical crew. They do all of the laborious work and set the desk for us to make the fitting selections within the truck. Let’s attempt to not disappoint them. On Sunday the desk was set completely.
Our cameras captured the depth of the day with a continuing stream of response photographs contained in the helmet. LaFleur would not conceal her feelings, which is to our benefit. Earlier within the season, throughout a Zoom name, he shyly instructed us that his spouse wasn’t joyful seeing him scream and look depressing on tv on a regular basis.
We took it as a praise. And once more on Sunday, it was LaFleur’s many faces that added cinematic taste to the manufacturing.
A key to the sport, which we mentioned at size throughout our assembly on Saturday, was how Green Bay would deal with Minnesota’s all-world huge receiver Justin Jefferson. The response was illustrated by way of many overhead replays of the Packers protection double-teaming and generally triple-teaming him.
It’s straightforward for broadcasters to trace the ball, however transferring the viewer away from the ball usually tells a greater story.
The sounds coming from the trenches had been large, particularly when Minnesota had the ball and the house followers had been sipping beers as a substitute of screaming on the high of their lungs. Quarterback Sam Darnold’s voice and cadence got here by way of loud and clear. And that allowed Tom Brady to stroll us by way of the which means of all these misunderstandings.
Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game: Vikings’ Sam Darnold | Week 17 DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE
One of the areas we knew Brady may grasp as a broadcaster was explaining all of the machinations on the line of scrimmage. And because the season progressed, he delivered, translating the quarterback’s seemingly indecipherable language into plain English. His weekly tackle the quarterback sport is at all times fascinating to hearken to. It’s an old-fashioned concept that the quarterback should present management by way of toughness and intelligence. Take a shot. Be good with the ball.
Darnold additionally carried out nice, incomes Brady’s fixed reward and making all of his profitable quarterback performs. And man, can he compress the ball. His spirals appeared sensational in NFL Films-quality tremendous slo-motion. Before the sport, the Vikings had been the workforce flying beneath the radar. After beating Green Bay 27-25, the Vikings might be the workforce we see in New Orleans in February.
So now we go from the depth of the black and blue of the NFC North to the pastel colours of the NFC South, because the Tampa Bay Bucs can clinch their division with a win over New Orleans.
The season has flown by and the Super Bowl is now solely 39 days away. We do not know which groups will play within the huge sport, however we recognize the truth that our crew will probably be there, prepared and keen to face no matter surprises the sport throws at us.
And this time there will probably be no frozen lakes to fish in, profitable or in any other case.
Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his twenty third season as a lead producer. He has greater than 40 years of NFL expertise.
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