Working on my Craft: Carolina Panthers Shadow Day
I never thought I would hear a 50 year old man nonchalantly exclaim that he is a cheerleader. But that is exactly what I heard on Tuesday. And more importantly, I learned that there is an aspect to my career that surpasses interviews and deadlines.
Ever since July of 2014, I have been trying to link up with Mike Craft, the Senior Producer of Digital Media for the Carolina Panthers and Panthers.com. I’m pretty sure I sent him over 50 emails simply to get in contact with him during the juggernaut known as the NFL season. When he finally contacted me, we arranged to meet up during the offseason. After almost a year of anticipation, the day had come for me to shadow him.
My excitement and nerves inhibited me from sleeping the night before. I had to make sure everything was right. I went over my résumé at least 10 times and tried on 5 outfits so that I would look as sharp as I could. Running on less than 4 hours of sleep and a grande Starbucks frappe, I began my 30-minute trek on I-77 to Bank of America Stadium.
Believe it or not, I actually arrived there before he did. We had met before, so our conversation started mostly with catching up and small talk. But after about 30 minutes or so, it got strictly to business as I began to bombard him with questions centered around how he started his career and any advice he would be willing to give me. When we sat down in his office, he noticed I wasn’t taking any notes. Usually when I shadow individuals, I take mental notes. I want to be able to soak everything in and scribbling on a pad snatches away my attention. When I told him I had a blog, he said that he expected to see a blog post the next week and he was surprised that I hadn’t thought of it before he mentioned it.
“The ability to write to a writer is like breathing,” Craft said. “If you tell me I can’t write, it’s like telling me I can’t breathe. You have to keep working at it to perfect your skills. You should never leave the house without a pen and a recording device because you never know when a story will pop up.”
That advice will stick with me for as long as I call myself a journalist. From now on, I will always be on my guard and alert. So if you ever see me interviewing one of my friends after a pick up game of basketball, or frantically writing notes during a dinner table conversation, you’ll know exactly what I’m doing and why.
During our time in his office, I began to learn incredible tidbits of information and history about the field. Craft’s primary objective is to be a “cheerleader”---to always promote the Panthers in a optimistic light and convert the negatives (Greg Hardy, Cam’s accident) into a positive in anyway possible. He’s been with the Panthers for 16 years and has been a journalist for over 30(that’s almost twice as long as I have been alive).
“Back then, I had to prepare a video and let it sit over night because of how slow the computers were,” Craft said. “ There were times that I would leave the office at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. Now, if I push myself, I could produce a video in less than 20 minutes with a few clicks of a mouse. I’m not nostalgic at all about the way things used to be.”
After we chit chatted for a while about the industry, we began talking about x’s and o’s. Craft is the offensive coordinator at Phillip ‘O Berry high school, so he taught me the schematics behind the run plays isolation, counter, and power. He said knowing the game of football on an analytic level has made his job of covering it that much easier. He also told me that play action is the most successful pass play on the gridiron, which I saw first hand at the Panthers’ OTA practice later in the afternoon when both Cam and Derrick Anderson scored on the defense with that play.
Right after our white board session, Craft took me around the facility to meet more individuals involved in communications. These included Greg Brannon (TV and Digital Media Executive Producer), Max Henson and Bryan Strickland (Staff Writers for Panthers.com), Stephen Herbster (Post Production Manager/ Elon graduate), and Brandon Swett (Live Production Director). While talking to these established communicators, I learned how much the business has changed, heard tips and tricks on how to improve my writing, and learned what I had to do in
order to be successful.
“In this industry, its not necessarily about how good you are, but about how much you are willing to get better,” Swett said. “You can’t teach someone to stay afterhours while their friends are out partying. It’s all about work ethic--- you get out what you put in.”
Around noon, I watched Craft, Henson, and Strickland produce “Panthers Pulse,” a weekly radio show to inform fans about the latest news around the franchise. Then we went to the Panthers’ OTA practice. It was surreal to see the people whom I idolize on Sunday afternoons. There are only a select few who can say they took a selfie with Cam Newton. With that, the shadow day concluded, but Craft invited me to lunch with him at Subway, his treat.
On the way there, the conversation geared more towards life rather than journalism. He began to talk to me about dealing with adversity in the work place, smart handling of money and how to carry myself in a cruel and unforgiving world.
“I never had anyone give me advice like what I’m giving you right now,” Craft said. “You’re young, but you’ve already gone through difficult things to know that this is a dog-eat-dog world. You’re doing all the right things to jumpstart your career, and I applaud you for that, but you can’t do it by yourself. That’s why I didn’t mind you shadowing me today because as long as I’m in the position I’m in, I’m going to use it as an opportunity to mentor someone.”
That quote hit home to me and it will resonate with me for the rest of my life. As a journalist, it’s my job to tell the stories that need to be told. But I never realized how much of an impression I could make until Mr. Craft and I had our conversation. Now I know that I have the ability to make a difference in someone’s life simply because of what I say and what I do--- more so in this field than any other occupation. You don’t have to be on ESPN to make an impact. That’s what I was failing to realize. Because of what I learned on Tuesday, I’ve not only become a better sports writer, but a much more better person as well while making a lifelong friend along the way. And from this point forward, I will never sell myself short of the power I have and use whatever medium at my disposal to make a constructive influence on somebody else.
