How JJ Stankevitz Went From Notre Dame and Chicago Bears Beat to Indianapolis Colts PA Announcer

I remember being blown away. This guy is unbelievable. I get chills thinking about that first time I get to open the mic for a third down. I start playing basketball like on the playground with Evan Turner who went on to be the number two overall pick in the NBA draft, AP basketball player of the year at Ohio State. This is sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary in Oak Park, Illinois. That is so cool.

The Notre Dame Network is unbelievable. on your feet. It's third down. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, however you may be listening. Thanks for tuning in to the Get Indiana Podcast Network. My name is Dominic Miranda and I've been covering sports for nearly a decade, most of which right here in Indianapolis.

This is the Get in Sports Podcast. We're going to be covering everything in the Hooser State, high school, college, pro, in the sports capital of the universe, in the greatest state on planet Earth. Thanks so much for coming on this journey with us. Let's get into it on today's episode of Get In Sports, a premier guest. Football season here in full swing. Colts training camp underway.

This man's about to get all sorts of busy, so we're fired up to have him on with us. He's the senior manager of editorial and audio for the Colts, which I think is just a badass way of saying he does writing and talk talking on air. He's the public address announcer for Lucas Oil Stadium for Colts home games. It's JJ Stankevitz. Thanks so much for coming on Get in Sports, man. This is great.

Yeah, man. Happy to hop on, Dom. This is a a fun podcast and uh looking to looking forward to talking some ball and I mean, we're in it now, right? The busy season is here. My PTO is done. There's not a single ounce of PTO that's being taken between now and hopefully Valentine's Day.

There you go. Love the optimistic out. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We're in training camp. Everyone's optimistic.

That's where we got to be right now. That's my favorite part about training camp actually is the the level of optimism and crisp in the air and football is here. No time for negativity. That's for the season. But anyway, uh dangerous lineup of Colts insiders. We already had Kevin Bowen on JJ or James Boyd.

You heard James Boyd just last week. Now JJ Steovitz. Steven Holder is coming on. So I don't know why people keep saying yes to us, but uh but by the way, what's what's the uh what's the JJ stand for? John James. John James.

It's not John Jacob. I get that a lot. I get that a lot. Okay. Um yeah, John James. Your your basic Catholic, you know, uh names right there.

So yeah, John James Steakovitz. Well, we're pumped to have you on it. Let's get right into it here. This whole summer, like I said, we've had Indianapolis sports media guests on because I think it's really interesting to hear how they got to where they are. Like Stephen Holder has an amazing story. So does James Boy.

He was awesome. Kevin Bowen, who's your through and through. So thought you fit the B the mold of what we're doing here. Get you on. Have a unique perspective of working for an NFL franchise. I think a lot of people would find interesting when you're actually working for the team rather than a media outlet who covers the team.

Right. So, but let's start at the very beginning. All right. You're from Oak Park, Illinois, not far from Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills. It's where my wife is from. By the way, I was just Hinsdale Central.

She was Hinsdale Central. Yes. Red Devils. Looks like a prison on the way home for Thanksgiving every every time I go. But, uh, yeah. So, Oak Park, Illinois.

And I just want to know how this sports bug that catches all of us got ingrained in you early on and how you wanted to get into sports, sports broadcasting somehow. I distinctly remember being in sixth grade and you know how like every kid is like I'm going to play in the major leagues, you know, like I have a six-year-old now who's like I I'm going to be Killian Mbappe when I grow up and then you know well you know it's like the World Cup uh you know and then it's transitions to I'm going to be Daniel Jones when I grow up and then you know then basketball season rolls around I'm going be Tyrese Hallebertton when I grow up. So, I'm in sixth grade and I'm like, I love baseball. Like, I I could totally do this, right? Why not? I start I start uh playing uh basketball like on the playground with Evan Turner.

Evan, who went on to go be the number two overall pick in the NBA draft, AP uh basketball player of the year at Ohio State. This is sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary in Oak Park, Illinois. Evan was there and you know I became friends with him and I remember just being like I I don't think this athletic thing is going to work out for me. There was there was a bit of a So Evan Evan I I convinced him to play baseball in sixth grade and this is where it kind of comes from. Like I was I'm going to be honest I was the best player on our team. All right.

Love that. And Evan we're like we needed an extra. I'm like hey Evan like you want to you want to come play on my baseball team? And he's like sure I've never played before. he steps in, he's the best player on the team, you know, he had no idea what he was doing, right? And uh he still tells this story like to this day.

He'll like tag me in Instagram comments that he stole two bases on one pitch. Like he just So I remember like that that summer just being like, "All right, well the other thing I'm good at is writing." Like I always got like really good grades on like, you know, narrative assignments in elementary school. So my parents encouraged me to start thinking about like what if you just like wrote about sports? So, you know, I kept playing, you know, wreck league baseball. Played, you know, up to like freshman year high school, but really started to think about, okay, yeah, like I I would I think I could do like sports writing as a career.

And it's I'm not a good enough athlete to play, but I could find another way to, you know, follow this passion of mine of sports. Like, I mean, I grew up just a massive sports fan, right? Um, so I I started like, you know, kind of dabbling in it for some like assignments. So, I remember in seventh grade, uh, I was in this like, um, like advanced program for like English and it was all these other kids in this class were doing, um, kind of this like extra project on top of their English assignments. And I remember like you're going around the room and it was like eight kids and it was like, okay, what are you doing? And the kid before me goes, I would like to study the syntax of Dickens.

And then they get to me and I'm like, I'm going to do a sports newsletter. So, I I kind of like started from there. Yeah. um you know was on like the high school newspaper uh and I went to University of Missouri from there. Um you know saw they had a great journalism school. I looked at them.

I looked at Iowa. I actually looked at Indiana. I did a couple journalism camps in Indiana. Okay. Their journalism program wasn't what it is today. I see early stages a little bit.

If I was like 20 years later I think I probably would have gone to Indiana seeing what they do at like Ernie Pile and you know if I could have taken a class from Mike Wells in Indiana or Zack Kefir. I mean, sign me up. Or Kevin Bowen, right? Or Kevin Bowen, right? Yeah. So, uh, I I went to Missou and started to get some opportunities there.

Mhm. From there, I uh I got an internship at Comcast Sportsnet Chicago back when unpaid internships were a thing. Yeah. I had an unpaid internship at Comcast Sportsnet Chicago and did a good enough job that they they brought me back in a part-time role. And uh the the then kind of the jumping off point from there was I was I started picking up some assignments covering the Chicago Fire. M okay.

Which was not all that big of a deal right back in 2011. MLS was still whatever but a lot of autonomy. I I there was a ton of autonomy. Yeah. Like I started to form relationships with like the head coach and Manchester United came to town and I'm this 22-year-old asking Sir Alex Ferguson a question and like you know being like wow that was cool. Um, but at so that summer though, Comcast and NBC merged.

So I went to my boss at Comcast, uh, TK Gore, one of the the most influential people I've had in my career, and I go, "Hey, um, NBC has all these Notre Dame games. We should cover Notre Dame to help NBC out. We're two hours away. Here's my plan." And he said, "Great. here's a here's a couple thousand dollars extra, which as a 22-y old, you're like, man, we're in the money here.

Here's a couple thousand dollars extra. Go do it. Go see how it goes. So, I did that in 2011. Mhm. We kept the same format in 2012.

And uh national championship appearance. I don't know if you remember what else happened during 2012. Very uh I'm a huge Notre Dame fan, so did she exist? Did she not? We don't know. Well, I think we know.

Uh, but that like that season and the way that it all transpired with, you know, I remember being in Norman when they beat Oklahoma in 2012. That was huge. And getting our page report back after that and getting, you know, at at this time, I think it was probably 50,000 page views on the stuff I wrote that just that weekend. Yeah. And my boss, you know, kind of being like, "Oh, okay. This probably should be something that we should do full-time, right?"

So, uh, I guess my Indiana sports writing roots have kind of been, that's where it started was taking the Indiana toll road from Chicago couple times a week, driving to Southbend. Yeah. Being in press conferences with Brian Kelly and and, you know, Gez. Yeah. And so much so much I could say because I I grew up just 30 minutes south of South Bend, so I was a huge Notre Dame fan. like those seasons, you know, the the what year three, year four of Brian Kelly is really what cemented it for me.

And between him just being kind of a, you know, not very agreeable and like a story in and of himself all the time. Many tale in the Heisman conversation, okay, number two, elite defense for Notre Dame, right? Interesting quarterback situation. Then great offensive lines, great offensive lines, right? Great running back. Steel Riddick against Oklahoma, by the way.

Right. You want to remember some guys. I know. Oh, we can just play the name game here. But I mean, I imagine they kept you busy. And then they're undefeated and then they go to the national championship and then they get spanked, which is like a story in and of itself.

And then Brian Kelly interviews for the Eagles job and then goes radio silent. I'm like texting guys in the team like, "You know what's going on?" They're like, "No, no." Yeah. And then the Manito story breaks. Um, so that was kind of that was kind of the the launching point for my career.

Yeah. was that probably 2011 2012 Notre Dame um I did a little baseball stuff on the side. I covered the White Socks and Cubs kind of as backups to our our main insiders. But it really was that those Notre Dame years that put my career on a path that got me to where I am now, right? it not only because with success and all these different storylines comes page views obviously but the everchanging I mean for anyone who's covered the Colts for instance the last six or seven years like throwing things at you that you just don't know what's going to happen and the constant like oh now this is a story now this is a story like I imagine that was great cuz you were this was fresh out of college yeah fresh out of college and yeah like Notre Dame had no shortage of storylines um although I I'll never forget I'm on a flight to Dallas when Notre Dame played Arizona State in the Shamrock Series in 2013.

Yes. And I I'm on Southwest and book, you know, I forgot to check in. I get a middle seat and I'm I and I I make the foolish mistake of pulling out the game notes to kind of study up and of course I'm sitt seated between two Notre Dame alums who are going down to the game. Okay. And you know, we strike up a conversation. What do you do?

You know, blah blah blah. And at one point this guy, this guy looks at me, he goes, "Did you go to Notre Dame?" And I was like, "No, I went to University of Missouri." He goes, "Oh, well, you just you just don't get it then." I remember just being like, "Oh, okay. Well, uh, you're right.

I don't get what it was like to go to Notre Dame, right?" But that was also one of those moments of being like it Notre Dame is such a different beast. It is to cover than I think any other institution. You could you could go cover Alabama. You could go cover LSU or Georgia or you know where Ohio State, Michigan. The Notre Dame alumni base is something very different.

Not fans are very different. You have to be in the right. It's like a very exclusive and they'll let you know apparently. Yeah. But I mean it and it wasn't even like a you know, oh you're bad at your job. It was just kind of like a Yeah.

You don't you don't totally get it. Uh which is fine. like you still okay I focus on covering the football team more than anything but you know then I remember the the 2015 academic scandal. Oh yes remember that uh Ever Goolson. No this was post the ever one was wild. You see what I'm saying?

I was in the White Sox clubhouse waiting for Jake Peavey to come out to do uh do media after a start and my phone starts blowing up and I'm like oh god what's going on here? and I check it and it's just all these messages from my editor being like, I know you're at the White Socks game, but I need you to get away from that. Yeah. Um, that's so interesting. It's funny. I told Jake that, you know, one time.

I was like, man, like you actually kind of saved me because he was late like showering. Um, so you just could get out. But it was it was the 2015 one when like all those players got suspended for like the tutor or whatever it was. Okay, got And I just remember thinking like my first thought was like really and then I thought about it more. I was like, "Well, no, this it's Notre Dame. This is different."

Like any sort of academic impropriety, which is the word they used over and over again. Like they're going to take very seriously. And I think that was a good thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, absolutely.

It's an elite academic institution and it has to stay true to its values. And you know, fast forward now what 10 years and I did a podcast with Riley Leonard recently. Oh. Oh yeah, that's right. He's on the Gold. There you go.

And one of the things that Riley talked about when I asked him just what he appreciated about Notre Dame at the year he was there was it that it's so true to its values and it it is different and it's it's different in a really cool and unique way that I think is it benefits them if you also have the right coach like Marcus Freeman to who right yeah that's really cool I mean I as a this is like I'm like geeking out over this just cuz I'm a humongous Notre Dame fan and because of Riley Leonard being a super smart guy. I mean, he was at Duke, right? Yeah. He fit in. I mean, he it was a beautiful fit. Obviously, they went made the run to the national championship.

He's a super nice guy. I mean, battled adversity with that Northern Illinois debacle, the whole thing. Big fan of Riley Leonard. Can I tell you one more Notre Dame story, cuz now we're You can tell me all the Okay, this is a bad one, though. You're not You're probably not going to like this one. Okay.

The 2016 season was the last year I was on the beat. It was a disaster for Notre Dame. They went 4 and eight. M um it was it was awful. And week four, Duke comes to town and it's like, "All right, great. Here's this cupcake.

Notre Dame's 1 and two. They're going to get back on track. It's Duke. They're going to be Duke at home. Of course they are." And this quarterback on Duke starts slinging it around the yard.

And I remember being like, "Who's this guy? How does Duke have a quarterback that this good?" You picked it up. That was Daniel Jones. That was my first exposure to Daniel Jones was him beating Notre Dame in Notre Dame Stadium and then getting the defensive coordinator fired the next day. Brian Van Gorder got fired the next day.

Long overdue, right? I mean, good lord, that was Yeah. Well, oh, I wouldn't write that down. I I mean, I could I could reminisce about Notre Dame all day, man. I had so much fun. Like, the guys on the beat were great.

Uh Matt Fortune is still one of my best friends. The man Pete Samson. Pete Samson, great guy. I Pete and Matt just had uh Brian Kelly on his podcast last month and I'm you know texting him stuff about like what they should ask Brian just you know jokes from previous press conferences. No way. Yeah.

I've noticed the beat and Pster probably too. I love Tim Tim Pster is the best. Uh I was on with like Brian Hamilton with the Chicago Tribune covered them. Chris Hine who now covers the Timberwolves for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Wow. Um Tim Omali I think is still there.

Great dude. I'm a big listener to Irish Illustrated and the Independent. Yeah, those are those are my two during season especially. I did I did a podcast uh it was called the still independent podcast. My first co-host on it was JB Long who's now the voice of the LA Rams. My second was Mike Monaco who you might have just heard calling Wimbledon.

What an essential and then there's me. I'm like man gez what am I doing here? But uh that is so cool. The Notre Dame network is unbelievable and you're absolutely right where they give it. So my wife is connected with a bunch of people who went to Notre Dame because of her roommate Chicago blah blah blah blah and I was at a Notre Dame wedding and it's like I don't they don't mean to come off as like oh you're not part of this group but like it's very like you understand they went to Notre Dame and me just growing up around Notre Dame this is part of the reason I love it. Now to the outside does it make sense where some people are like that's off-putting to some people?

totally get it. But when you step foot on Notre Dame's campus, it's one of the best places on planet earth and going I mean my buddy had season tickets, his grandparents had season tickets to Notre Dame games growing up. So I mean I remember like overtime win against Stanford or playing Jake Locker in Washington or like all this stuff and like just shaped my childhood. I could talk about Notre Dame all day. I didn't know we were going to get that into it because I love it and I love how that like springboarded your career. Also, real quick, I want to go back to Evan Turner because I feel like we still stayed past that.

So, you were So, what how old were you when you guys were like boys? 11. Like to this day, still still friends. Still catch up. Yeah. I mean, like uh he he he and I still will like, you know, message every every now and then.

He always asks how my dad's doing cuz my dad's the coach of that baseball team. Yeah. Like Evan was over for my like sixth grade birthday party. We're playing NFL Blitz 2000 in my basement. like, you know, but just like just like a good dude. Um, and it's funny, uh, just funny how small the world is.

So, my kids, uh, last year they took basketball lessons up at the Pacers Athletic Center in Westfield. They were in the same kind of class as John Debbler's son. Oh. Who's still in Indie? Yep. He still I think he is.

So, yeah. Yeah. But we we start talking and stuff and I was like, "You played with Evan Turner at Ohio State, right?" And he goes, "Oh man, Evan's Evan's my boy." Like, you know, my kid call, you know, calls him like Uncle Ev, you know, all that. You know, they were roommates, all that.

So, I immediately whip my phone out and I'm like, "John, you got to take a look at this picture." And it's a picture of Evan Turner with like braces, gawky sixth grader from our sixth grade baseball team. Cuz I still like had that photo saved on my phone. And he's like, "I got to text this to Evan right now." Evan goes, "How did you get that picture?" like so.

Uh, wow. Yeah. I mean, just small world type stuff with that. But, yeah. And to see him go on and be so successful, that had to be so cool for you. I mean, the game winner against Michigan, um, number two overall pick, like you said, uh, and Debbler, what a clip that guy had from the arc.

My goodness, that is so cool that the the Chicago roots run deep, man. A lot of successful people come from Chicago. But also I and we you talked about going to Missouri which is like elite journalism institution and I imagine that's kind of what sold it for you. I know you kind of mentioned IU but what is it about Missouri because you hear this right that it's like this is where journalism and journalists come and they just go on to do these great things. What is it that makes it that and is it like all it's cracked up to be? I mean for me it was the competition.

Yeah. like you go to Missou and you know the first thing you do in the journalism program is you sit in this seminar um you know for a half a se or a full semester and it's every kid who comes from out of state went to Missou at the and I don't know if it's still true but like in 2007 everyone who was from out of state went to Missou for journalism like it was this running joke of like where you from uh I'm from Texas oh you must here be here for journalism right you know I'm from Illinois Chicago journalism and you're in this huge seminar hall and I'll never forget get like one of the first uh lectures that was given was the professor being like if you're here because you want to make money, you want to have a good work life balance and uh you uh you want to find someone to marry in college, you're you're in the wrong major, you should change it. And I remember like by the end of that like it was probably like a 40% reduction in people, you know, just stop showing up by the end like I actually don't want to do that.

And then it's the people who come through that funnel. I mean, there are only finite spots available to cover, you know, do the do the kind of journalism that you want, right? So, um, it's a good way to weed people out. It is. It is, you know, so I I did a lot of baseball coverage at Missou. Like that was kind of the like I was like, "Okay, I'm going to go down this path.

I'm going to go cover the Missou baseball team, which I just missed Max Scherzer." Really? Uh, but Kyle Gibson and Aaron Crowe, two pretty good pitchers. Nick Tish made the majors from that those teams. just missed Sherzer. Yeah, just missed Sherzer.

Um Tony Vatello, who's now the manager of the San Francisco Giants, was the pitching coach then. So, but that was great for me because I had all these guys who were on that path to being like pros, right? Right. And I remember learning a lot from talking to those guys who clearly were wired a little bit differently than your average kind of college athlete. Yeah. You could kind of tell.

Yeah. Yeah. So, even though I didn't I didn't start covering the football team until my junior year, like early on, I was just like I got really good experience from covering those Missou teams and good experience of knowing how to talk to people. Yeah. And how to follow storylines and how to talk to guys after they had a bad game and, you know, stuff like that you learn pretty quickly. Yeah.

Um, and it is so competitive. Like I I didn't even bother trying out for the newspaper at Missou. Yeah. because I I knew I wanted to do kind of more multimedia stuff, but it was so competitive to just get on the Missou football beat or the Missou basketball beat, right? That I was just like I I think I can create kind of a different space. Yeah.

So, senior year, our like capstone project in the journalism school was me and my buddy um did we we formed like our own like multimedia coverage site for Missou. So, this is 2010. I was going to say you were probably pretty early on that. We were early on it. Uh 2010. We were doing podcasts.

were doing uh you know video highlights, taking our own photos, writing our own stories, blog posts, stuff like that. Um my friend who did it, Ross Taylor, is now uh the associate athletic director for football at Clemson. Really? So he's like Davos Sweeney. I love the network of JJ guys by the way. Holy smokes.

I mean I can you know I'm name dropping people who are like who's that? But uh it's still you know you saw a lot of people come out of that journalism school and be very successful doing it. I I was gonna the one of my things was a you were probably really early on the online space which is good on you and that's I mean man what a time to be in college when that's really like taken off it was right social media timing unbelievable and then correct me if I'm wrong but Missou football and basketball pretty good at that time we were pretty good that um so 2007 was Chase Daniel when he was a Heisman finalist got to number one in the country for a week beat Kansas in the only game the Missou the only Missou Kansas game that matters in my mind is 36-28 Missou beat Kansas arrowhead. That Have you ever seen those um Have you ever seen those graphics of like 2007 college football seems like a fever dream?

Yeah, I remember like South Florida, Boston College, Kansas, Missouri or something like that. I remember being in the dorms uh on like a Thursday night and Arizona beat Oregon. This is like Dennis Dixon Oregon and like the dorms are going nuts over Arizona beating Oregon. 2007 Oregon and then of course in the end it w the the championship that it should have been that year should have been Missou versus West Virginia. Yes. You would have had that was like the Pat White Taven Austin West Virginia team.

They lost to uh it was either Pit or Cincinnati. I think it was Pit in the backyard brawl and we lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. Yes, but a dude a Missou West Virginia college football championship in 2007 would have been it would have been like 49 to 48. It would have been one of the greatest games ever played. We got robbed of it. I that was when college football was at its peak in my opinion.

Unbelievable. And then basketball I want to say and maybe this was a bit later but like two seed like I'm thinking of like Yeah, we don't talk we don't talk about we don't talk about the Norfolk State. I know that was tough. We made the Elite eight. We made the Elite 8 my sophomore year, but that was like Kim English was on that team. He's a head coach of Providence now.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's awesome. What a time to be at a premier journalism program when athletics is humming and you want to go into sports and you want to go into sports. Unbelievable. And then, okay, you mentioned I mean NBC Sports Chicago again.

I mean, I was thinking this when I was writing all this stuff down for you. I'm like, man, he got into these places like the best time. Great timing, right? Like NBC Sports Chicago. I mean, that's all we watched. Like I watched every Bulls game and like I all the stuff on NBC Sports.

Well, it used to be Comcast. I used to go back and forth from WGN, Comcast, the whole thing. But uh you got you interned there and then got a full-time position there and then you pitched the Notre Dame thing. That's really cool. Like did you have to like what was that feeling like? I'm getting involved in NBC Sports Chicago like around where I'm from right after graduating college.

It was it was really interesting because a lot of people told me at journalism school, you're going to need to go somewhere small, right? Like that's what everyone says. Every like every I feel like every talented writer out there is like worked for the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. Uh like that's like the paper that's like the the incubator for all these great journalists. Um and I remember just being like I can like I'm from Chicago. I can go it was actually a part-time job.

I was like a part-time web editor coming right out of college, right? And then I like pitched him on the Notre Dame thing. Well, and in web too and like the the experience you had with the multimedia stuff, the online space, like all these bigger companies probably like, "Okay, we need to staff this." And then boom, you slide you slide right in. Yep. That's you know, it's exactly how it went.

So, um, it was great timing. And, you know, at that point in 2011, RSN's, regional sports networks were just printing money. It was like, "Oh man, this is never going to end." You know, if these trends continue a like that and it. It's so sad. But yeah.

Well, yeah. I mean, I you know, fast forward 10 years later and I know that's what I mean. Eighth round of layoffs finally got me. But, uh, it it was those first probably four years, five years out of college. It was actually right up to it was right up to when the Cubs won the World Series. Yeah.

It was like, this business is booming. It's great. And then it was like a week after the Cubs won the World Series, we had our first round of layoffs. And then it was downhill from there. It's like steep decline. Steeptunately NBC Sports Chicago was awesome.

I mean, did you brush shoulders with uh I want to say like Kaplan? Oh, Cap's the best. Love Cap. Uh I mean, and the amount of talent that came through there. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like Jen La was with us.

Um Sierra Santos is on MLB Network was there. Patrick Mooney is like, for my money, he's like the Cubs guy. Yes. In Chicago. He was with us. He was another one who got laid off.

Dan Hayes, who now covers the Minnesota Twins for The Athletic, another guy got laid off. Um Vincent Goodwill, who you see on ESPN all the time, he was with us. He was our Bulls guy. We had so much talent rolling through that place. It was unbelievable. And so many of those people lost their jobs because budget cuts and you know, all of a sudden uh no one could figure out how to make money on cable TV anymore, right?

Uh which is a you know, a shame. And then, you know, some people come in and they say, "Well, uh, our analytics are all down, so now everyone's under the gun, right?" And it's like, well, there's some context there that you need, but they didn't really want to hear it, right? Um, man. Yeah. I mean, it sucked because it was such a great place and it was such a good place for sports fans.

Yes. In in Chicago, in Northwest Indiana, where we had we had everything covered. We had entertaining programming. We had entertaining personalities like Cap. Yes. And the programming was elite.

Like it was such high quality television. I remember like it was just it was so great to watch. There were a lot of really good people behind the scenes too who put in a lot of really long hours and a lot of really good work who um you know because it changed you know the the shifting landscape and you know that that term economic headwinds right they they also lost their jobs and it sucks but you what what a time for you to be involved there. Yeah. Exactly. Pretty incredible.

I I look back on the time I had at Comcast so fondly. I mean, some of my, you know, my best friends I still keep in contact with who I worked with there. We've like, you know, I have a a couple text chains with guys who, you know, we were we were in the trenches on the desk in 2011 and 2012. Like, in your 20s, too. Oh, yeah. Right.

Like, that had to be just so awesome. It rocks. So, so between Notre Dame and then, um, do I have this right? You did some Bears, Cubs, White Socks as well. Like, how was that? I was assuming you really enjoyed Notre Dame, but you kind of got to the professional right 20.

So, uh, that that first round of layoffs in 2016, we kind of moved our longtime Bears insider, Moon Mullen, who's one of my other mentors in this this life. Uh, he got moved to kind of an ameritus role, like they they were basically like, you're not going to be full-time anymore. They moved me to the Notre Dame beat or from from the Notre Dame beat to the Bears beat. So, I then became the the main Bears insider. Okay. And I did that for four years.

uh came to find out later that I was close to getting axed I see in 2017 when we had a really rough round of layoffs. Um, but they they basically were like, "No, let him finish out the season, then we'll get rid of him after because this is in November." And shortly thereafter, um, I did I used to do pregame hits in our Bears pregame show with Lawrence Holmes, uh, Matt Forte, Lance Briggs. What What a crew right there. Lawrence, Alex Brown, a Lawrence is another one of you. I still can't believe the the names you're dropping.

Lawrence is throughout your life, man. Like Lawrence is another one of the most influential people in my professional journey. Awesome guy. Great guy. Um, so I'm on TV that I'm on this pregame hit here and as they're we're setting up at Lincoln Financial Field, this stadium worker rolls this huge ass speaker just like right next to us. And I'm like, "Oh boy, this is like a viral clip you're about to talk about.

Please continue." So, uh, they're playing Apache on this this speaker. I have my hand dug into my ear like you've you've had situations where you've had IFBB in Yeah. and you can't really hear it and you're you're jamming that thing deep into your ear canal like ah I gotta hear something. I can't hear anything. So I know like Lawrence beforehand's like, "Hey, what do you want to talk about?"

So I know when he's done talking like the three topics that I'm like getting to and the last one is about like Tariq Cohen and Jordan Howard. So I get to the end of it and Lawrence starts talking. I can't hear him and I hear him stop talking and I'm like I don't know what the hell he just said but I'm just going to be like, "Oh, you know, Lawrence, time to jump on it." And I start doing the Apache dance like on the field there and like the guys go nuts. Alex Brown's like, "No, no." Like that.

And uh it it kind of went viral a little bit. Yes, it did. And I come to find out later that like I think that might have saved my job. Hey, you were interesting, right? Well Well, right. And then I think it was like a wakeup call to, you know, some folks that, oh, he's actually kind of good on TV.

like we can use him in more ways than just like a web writer because they're kind of getting rid of all the the web people at this point. Yeah. I was like, "No, it can be a little more than that." So, uh I think it Yeah, maybe save my job there and gave me an extra couple years at at Comcast. That's And so, I can't I' I've seen this clip before. I I'm just now putting together that like that was you.

That is so funny. But, uh what about a decade at NBC Sports Chicago and it sounds like you kind of left at the right time. maybe writing was on the wall and you definitely got what you needed to get out of it uh and springboarded your career. So then the Colts come. So how did the the end of the tenure at NBC Sports Chicago go? And obviously focusing on one team working for a franchise I imagine was very appetizing to you.

Yes. Uh so I got laid off on January 21st, 2021 I think was the day. Okay. Uh on January 22nd, 2021, the Colts posted a position for Team Writer. Wow. How about that?

And uh one of the Bears media relations guys reached out to me and goes, "Hey, uh would you be interested in this?" And I was like, "Yeah, I mean, you know, like my my wife is from Caramel. She's a Indianapolis area native. Um you know, we have a ton of family down here." I was like, "Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of open to anything at this point, but when we've, you know, we had talked of like, well, if we're ever going to move anywhere outside of Chicago, it would be to Indie." Yeah.

So, um, go ahead, do an interview, it goes really well, get the job, get the position, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, we got to move our family to to Indiana now. And uh yeah, I mean it the appealing part for me for the Colts was going internal like I always felt like external you are you are kind of swimming upstream in terms of like building relationships right and um that's so true going internal I was I had always talked with Moon John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John John Moon Mullen who you know he he passed away a couple years ago he was my mentor there and he always he always would point to me at uh you you know, Bears media relations. He he'd point to Larry Mayor is the Bears team writer. Uh really good guy, too. You point to Larry and he goes, uh, he's got the best job out of all of us. And I'm like, why do you say that?

And he goes, cuz he works for the team, right? Like he gets to have access that we don't get. He gets to have relationships that we don't get. Yeah. He gets to tell better stories. Yeah.

So, um, you know, and that's not to say that, you know, you mentioned having James Boyd on here. James does a great job forging relationships, telling great stories. Kevin Bowen, same thing. Steven Holder like I the beat here in India is really strong. It's a really good beat for sure. Um but that was really appealing to me to go internal where also too when you're internal you're not texting agents, you know, you're not chasing things down in a way that you are when you're external.

So there's actually I I think there's more work life balance being internal than external. um you know, we I know, you know, we we usually know when news is going to happen and how to cover it, right? Whereas I'm not having to text someone's agent to be like, "Is this true?" and then hoping I get a response. Like, I just am armed with that knowledge, right? And then can go ahead and, you know, write the story and get the news out there to Colts fans.

So, uh that that aspect of it was appealing. It's turned out to be so much more than I ever expected. It's turned out to be so much more of a special place than I ever could have anticipated when I got the job. Yeah, that that's awesome to hear. And you bring up a really good point and I wanted to ask you this and it sounds like it was very appealing for you when you were deciding to take the job, the whole internal piece of it and you are armed with that knowledge and you're brushing. You're just walking the hallway probably walk by GM or the players or whatever.

Uh do you have to cover the team differently? Is it like there a different approach to your coverage? And I'm not saying this that like you're biased or fluffy all the time like that. Like you know what I mean? Like what how do you kind of bridge or like balance that situation? I mean look I I work for the team, right?

Having said that, the news is still the news. Everyone sees what happens on the field. We all see the same thing, right? So, you can't sit here as the team writer and tell everyone everything's okay. It's all great. When fans are looking at the product on the field and saying, "I don't like this."

So, you still have to be fair. You have to find a way to present the facts and present them in a way that is authentic because people will tune you out if you're just a polyiana and you're just everything's great, everything's great and you don't acknowledge what what they're feeling. I I remember uh I did a a podcast, a cold show episode last year. I had Daniel Jones on right before the season started and I thought it was appropriate to start that podcast by addressing just addressing the camera, addressing the our our listeners and viewers and saying I know a lot of you feel like you wish I was having Anthony Richardson on the podcast right now. But here's here's what my understanding of this situation is. Yeah.

Here's why I think the Colts are are all behind Daniel Jones. And by the way, here comes a great conversation I had with Daniel. I think if I just presented it as like, here's Daniel, great. Yay, starting quarterback. People would have been like, yeah, you know, but I think that I think that resonated and I I saw in the YouTube comments, right, there are some people being like, thanks for acknowledging that. Uh, I love that.

And then, you know, not to, you know, toot my own horn, but it it did work out with Daniel Jones last year. So, Colt was right about that one. And you knew I mean again the the internal piece you had as to what was going to happen so you could better serve your audience exactly like me saying that was knowing where fans were but also a lot of the conversations I get to have in the building of why is it going in this direction and you're kind of armed with that knowledge and armed with that context to then provide where um it's you can still get it and good reporters like Steven Holder still get that context. text, right? Um, but it's it's just it it's so much more accessible. It's so much more robust.

It's so much just frankly easy to get it. You know, you have to build up respect within the building and have those conversations, but it's kind of right there. And if you're not getting it internally, it's like, well, what are you doing? Right. So, right, and then you use that to communicate these difficult things to fans in a way that, you know, yeah, they everyone knows I got a Colts shirt on. Right.

Right. But I think I I I hope at least that fans look at me as someone who they can trust. Yeah. They look at me as someone who when I say something, it's not coming from a place of uh I work for the team, so everything's great, right? It's a I'm giving you informed analysis, an informed piece of news. Um, and it's it is going to be as accurate as you could get anywhere else, right?

If anything, the most informed, if anything, the most trustworthy just by nature of what you do and just your integrity as a as a journalist in the first place. I think that's that's a great answer because I do think it's a misconception of, oh, well, he's just writing for the team and it's just a fluff piece all the time. Like, no, not necessarily. Like, again, like you said, like you you can't just sugarcoat what happened. If they play poorly or they're one and nine, like you're going to have to write about that. I'm sure the team understands that as well.

I I had a I had a great conversation with Frank Reich. Uh I think it was my second year with the team and he he kind of asked me like, "What do you do when we mess up, when we lose a game?" And I was like, "What you say at the podium is what I start with. I don't start with my opinion. I don't start with, you know, whatever. I start with what do the head coach say?

Because at that moment, you are the figurehead of the organization speaking to the public. And of course, there's context to be added there. But, you know, I'm like, I I'm going to kind of get out of the way and take your message and I'm going to frame it in a way that hopefully people do want to hear and they do want to read and they do want to engage with. That's really really interesting. And so I I was going to ask that later, but I feel like you're the reason you found the job appealing in the first place really lend itself to diving into that a little deeper, but you're so you're from Chicago. Was it difficult to leave Chicago?

Yeah, I bet. Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm a Chicago guy. Uh I put jardinara on everything before I came here. I had rice, chicken, and I threw jardina on it. Um that's good.

I I'm very prideful about the city of Chicago. I I really want to get one of those bumper stickers that says like STFU about Chicago. Um because I think it's it's the one of the greatest cities in the world. Yeah. Oh, it is. No question.

It's got so much to offer and the people are great. Every neighborhood's great. There's this guy who's uh he ran like every city block in Chicago who I follow on Instagram and that's cool. Like he you know he'd go talk to people in areas that you know you might see on the news. was like, "Don't go there." And he would go there and like people are great.

People in Chicago are great. It's a great city. I love it. Having said that, I love living here. Yeah. Like I love being in Indiana.

I would never go back. Wow. I will be I will live in Indiana until the end of my days. How about that? Oh, we got to write that down. Write that down.

Stamp it. Live in Indiana. Well, what stuck out to you about living in Indiana, though, that that has made you feel that way, whether when it was when you first moved or that you've learned during your time here? It's the It's the community here. Um, one of the things that I missed when I left college was being able to go somewhere and run into people, you know. Yeah.

And just like catch up with people wherever. You don't, you know, I love Chicago. You don't get that in Chicago. You don't get like chance encounters in Chicago. It's too big. It's too big.

And in Indie, I feel like everywhere I go to the grocery store and I'm like surprised if I walk out of Meyer and I'm like, I didn't run anyone I knew today. That's weird. Um, you know, like I I go to I go to the gym where I met Nate, you know, our guy Nate Spangle at at Oswell up in Carmel. What a guy. And you know, I'm like chatting with Gemi uh the other day after a class and and walks Daniel Jones. Oh yeah.

chat with him for a little bit, you know, and u just like the that aspect of it I think is so cool of just and and everyone feels like they're in it together here. Um and Indie the thing I've learned about Indie is that it is a city that takes care of its own. Like when you're here, you are the the city will take care of you. And I think, by the way, no one no one emphasized that and and lived that out more than Jim Ers. Another guy, another Chicago native. How about that?

Uh, by the way, Jimmer, no one took care of Indianapolis more than Jim Ers. Yeah, that's true. And no one knows the full scope of how he took care of Indianapolis. But I like learning when I said like the Colts were, you know, more than I could have ever expected. When I started learning about who Jim Ers was as a person, I remember being blown away at like this guy is unbelievable, like what a person he he was. Um, and what an impact he made on this city and that, you know, carrying that.

I I only got to meet got to meet Mr. Ers a couple of times. I had some great conversations with him. Um, but I I have a lot of pride of being like, no, like I I work for the team that, you know, Mr. say owned and by the way his daughters are just as as impressive. They are outstanding as first and foremost as people.

Yeah. Um and and second their their vision for the team, the vision that they can have in the community, the the work that Kayn Jackson does with kicking the stigma and um it it's so impressive and it it makes me as an employee want to work harder for the team. makes me feel more pride working for the team when not only do I see, you know, how how Carly Ers Gordon operates and how she runs a football team and how she runs the business, but then I see the, you know, the philanthropic arm of this team and the impact that it makes in this like extremely important area in mental health. Yeah. And the intentionality behind it, too. Absolutely.

There's so much intentionality behind it. It is it is something that I know I'm I'm just a small part of the team, right? But it's something I take a ton of pride in saying I work for the Colts because of wow those things. That's really really cool. And you mentioned, you know, you take a lot of pride in being from Chicago. You want to talk about a place that takes pride in its own, takes care of its own, takes pride of people from here, that is Indianapolis, and Indiana just as a whole.

But, you know, and it's it's funny, Dom, just real quick on that point. Um, I I just finished up all these podcasts I did at our media day. Yeah. And I asked every guy who came by our table, 15 players, like, "What is the one thing you've come to appreciate about living in central Indiana?" Pretty much all of them said the people. Wow.

That's just good. That's just telling in and of itself, right? Now, Lyatu Latu gave the best answer, which was Turkey Run State Park. Shout out to Lu cuz that is a hidden gem here. That you want to talk about hidden gem? Nate Spangle.

Uh my wife and I went there for our anniversary. That's how much we liked it. Just like hiking and what an answer for. I know, right? This is what his third year, fourth year. Like gez, hit up Turkey Run State Park.

Yeah. Good for him. But most people said the people. Like most of the guys said the people and like they feel it. I feel it. Um it's it is a really special place.

I I tell everyone, you know, who is, you know, back in Chicago or my friends across the country, like I love living here. Like I I like I told you, I I wouldn't leave for anything at this point. That's what my wife and I say, too. Like you It's funny. You said you'd never leave Chicago unless it was Indie. We would never ever leave Indie unless it was Chicago.

Be closer to her family. So, totally understand that. I've I just love living here. Love that the people like and like what uh Nate Spangle is doing. I mean, you've met him and like to to showcase why you should have pride in where you're from. What an ambassador for the state he is.

It's unbelievable. That's why his following has grown like it has. And there's so many cool things. I can't tell you the amount of things he's put on social media that my wife and I will go do because it's awesome and it's like, man, this is why Indiana is so cool. So, love that out of you. And you mentioned the Ursay.

Is there anything that sticks out to you during your time of working with Jim Ers that you're like, man, outside of just the fact that he was so quietly philanthropic? Right. Um, he knew ball. I I and and this is something that I I've really come to to respect about him and now Carly. Mhm. They know so much about football.

Yeah. Because they they aren't just like an owner who's like, you know, kind of in the background. Um you know, they're not just sort of like here's some money and go play with it and whatever. they know football like at a level like I I had Carly on uh on the Colts show and I asked her like what's you know what's something you've kind of studied this off seasonason and she goes into how she's in Tony Spirano Jr's office uh our offensive line coach talking about uh protection schemes. No way. And I'm like that is amazing.

That's so cool. But I mean, think about it like a lot of owners in any professional sport buy the team and they were good at doing something else to get them the team. Right. Right. Yes. Or that what made their money, right?

Yes. The the the URS from from Mr. Ers down to Carly and and her sisters, they know football and like I cannot emphasize that enough. Like they know football. Um and you know, I know like Carly be being on the sidelines and the headset became this big talking point. She's been doing that for a while previously.

And you know, I I think the coolest thing too is that the way that she goes about it is she's not there to question what coaches are doing, but she is armed with the knowledge to know what questions to ask. Yeah. And I think that is so important for an owner of a football team is to know what questions to ask. It's not just why are we losing? How can we get better? She can ask a lot more intricate questions than that.

She has great relationships with our players. Um where, you know, she knows what their needs are and they're able to communicate that to her. Like I she's fantastic as an owner. Um I I think the the Colts are set up to have a lot of long-term success. Yeah. With Carly Urs Gordon as the owner and CEO because of who she is and then it, you know, it's following in the footsteps of her dad who he, you know, Yeah.

Mr. Ers played a little bit of football at SMU. Um, but he was the youngest GM in the NFL when we moved here in 1984. Yes, he was. Like he had to learn real quick football. Yeah.

And over his time he learned football and he also learned when to step in and when to step back, right? And he he he had that feel for that. And I think, you know, that has been kind of passed down and Carly has taken that as well. And she is she's also just like an outstanding person. Yeah, that's what I've heard. I I love talking to her.

um whether it's about football, it's about dogs, whatever it might be. Like she is an outstanding person, um the the Colts are in very very good hands. She seems very down to earth. All of her her sisters do. She does. And you know, it's funny you you mentioned some owners don't understand the balance of when to get involved and when to not get involved.

And the you know, her on the sidelines, too. It's never a look at me. You know, cameras find her because she's Carly or St. Gordon, but it's never about that. like she's very clearly just trying to arm herself with the knowledge. Wouldn't you want your owner to do that?

And it's not like she's calling plays or saying, "No, Shane, this is stupid." She's not doing any of that because I think too when you're a woman in this industry, you're put in this box whether for right or for wrong. And I asked her, you know, when she was made available, I remember that, you know, a lot's been made about this. You know, what why what's the biggest thing you've taken from it? And she's like, "If I'm going to hire or fire or question these people that I'm paying millions of dollars, by the way, I need to know what the heck I'm talking about." And I was like, "Beautiful answer.

Totally agree. That doesn't it you answered it in such a way that you're genuinely curious." And I think that's what you should be as an owner of a football team. And the way she comes across is super impressive. And that's really cool that that you have that opinion as well. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'm also glad that you have that opinion. I mean, it's it's hard not to. I mean, obviously there's like there's the football stuff that's like challenging obviously like Chris Ballard and Shane Stiken and that the success hasn't been there, but I feel as if she's navigated this well and like there has to be a you know it's her fir it's her second full year doing this like okay like give her a little grace that she's like let she's not going to make this impulsive decision. Okay, fired, fired, fired. You know what I mean?

Like people I know people have their opinions but I think I think I believe she's going about this in the correct way. She's going about it in the way of you have to look at it from the widest possible viewpoint. You have to as an owner that's what you have to do and that's what you should do and that's what she is doing. Absolutely. Enough said. Love that.

Didn't even know we were getting the ers but I mean just so important and influential to Indianapolis as a whole in my opinion. So it's great to hear that you love working for the organization and about this organization. Okay, I want to hit this home. Colts writer ascension public address announcer. Now, now you now you now you do both, but was this even on your radar? Like, how did this how did this happen?

You have a great voice, so I don't know. Well, thank you. How this happened? Um I I was sitting there during our first preseason game in 2022 against the Lions and um basically came to find out that um we needed someone to step in for the second half of that game. Oh. And uh I I was like, "Sure, I'll do it."

I'd never really done it before. Um, I just grew up listening to Jean Honda's beautiful voice announce number five on your rebay for the White Socks. And uh, I just was like, "Yeah, sure. I'll do it." Like, I I'll give it a crack. Like, why not?

And who doesn't want to be a P? Yeah. Well, I honestly I don't really know what I was getting myself into. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard.

Feels safe, but Yeah. Uh so it just kind of took off from there and uh come to you know the uh the Colts and you know the ERS family were supportive and saying yeah we want you to do this now for us for our home games. Wow. And it was so humbling to just like kind of wake up and be like oh my god I'm the PA announcer for an NFL team. There are only 32 of these jobs and I get to be one of them for the Colts. That is it.

It was so humbling. Um, and the thing that I I tell everyone is like as a writer, you're up there in the press box, you know, as a media member, you're up there. You're working on your stories and stuff. You're firing off a tweet or two, um, doing some research and you're you're just kind of you're kind of there as uh almost like, you know, the game's down here and then you're sort of like here. Um, being able to be part of something bigger than yourself on game day is incredibly rewarding. Yeah.

like the the game day experience with the Colts is for my money it's one of the best in the NFL. Uh Zack Baker, our director of game day production is outstanding in the vision he has for our game days. um you know all of our departments kind of come together on game day to produce this amazing product whether it's marketing you know with uh with cheer it's ticketing it's uh partnerships I mean it's the whole building comes together on game day to produce this product and to be able to feel like you are part of something like that that is way bigger than just you like it is not about me at all on game day it's about the the product on the field it's about the rest of the entertainment I'm just the voice who's yelling about third downs on it. Um, it is so humbling. It is so rewarding to do it. Um, I never knew I would feel like this on game day.

Wow. But man, I and you know, the the opportunity to continue to get to do it is one that I do not take lightly. I do not take for granted. I'm always kind of like, okay, how can I get better this year? What can I add this year? Um, and how can I, you know, kind of help push the whole the whole organization forward in one little small way.

Yeah. By doing this part of my job. It is so incredible. It's so rewarding, dude. Well, you go to games and you the sign of a good PA announcer is when you almost don't notice them. Yes.

Because they're just keeping the game moving. You love their voice, the third downs, the everything. You'll notice a bad one. Yeah, you will. Right. So, credit to you that, you know, someone had to tell me that you were it once and I was like, "No way he does that."

Like, I I wouldn't even just walking around like this guy's got a sweet voice like for it. Um, and you talk about the game day experience, which I would agree, Colts, it's it's seamless the way Yeah, we we do. It's impressive. It really is. What what Zach does in keeping everyone's attention throughout the game. Um, you know what?

I mean, gosh, Blue. Yeah. Holy I mean, Blue is what a guy. Blue is Blue is unreal on game day. The stuff that he comes up with, the stuff that he does. Um, you know, we've got a great cheerleading squad.

Like, we do we do so much to keep everyone's attention in that building. Yeah. When the action on the field is not going on, right? And it is it's something that, you know, I travel around other stadiums, right? Because I still am the team writer. I go on the road with the team.

So, actually this year when I go to Cleveland uh to end the year, I'll have been to a game in every NFL market. Nice. We're crossing it off. Yeah. Okay. Uh Cleveland kind of a weird one, right?

Yeah. This weird for the last one, but that could have been like Lambo or something, but yeah, I did a lot of Lambo when I was in Chicago. Yeah, that's true. That's true. The the Colts have one of the best game presentation Yeah. uh game presentations from start to finish of any team in the NFL.

Wow. And that again, it it's the whole building pushing toward it, right? like that that part of it is just so special. Can you walk me through a typical game day for you from the moment you wake up to the moment you're done writing your story? Let's do let's do one o'clock games. Um those are those are the easiest ones kind of and like uh that's most of the time.

Let's be honest for Yeah, I know. I sure would like more prime time games, but you know the NFL whatever. Um so I need to be at the stadium to rehearse Blues skit at about 7:40 in the morning. Wow. So, I'll leave my house. I've got I've got it down to a science.

Um, I will leave my house in Caramel. I will get a coffee at the Starbucks on Michigan Road. Uh, Michigan in like 99th. Okay. I'll get a coffee at that Starbucks. Shout out to the the workers of that Starbucks.

Never screwed up my order. Um, then I'll get on the road, get on 465, take it down to MLK. I'll get off to another Starbucks, the one on 10th Street. That is where I will get my uh tea with honey there. Ah, the pipes. The pipes.

Yeah. I mean, like eight pumps of honey. Uh, just lube up the voice, right? I love it. I love it. So, by that point, I've I've chugged my coffee and now I've got my tea.

So, I'll get that. I'll get into the stadium usually about 7:30. Um, walk, you know, take the elevator up to the press box, get up to the PA booth. Um, and then, you know, rehearsals kind of start at 7:40. Usually there's like a halftime rehearsal in there too. Sometimes I'm involved in that.

So you're kind of rehearsing then all the way up to uh you know then you kind of have this game day run through of all the elements. So that's when you know we'll kind of do a lot of testing on like you know at least for me like the PA mic. Okay, does it work today? Do we need to switch something out with this? That goes all the way up to about 10 o'clock. 10 o'clock we have our game day script meeting where we run through the entire script one last time.

So that goes to about 10:105 and then I have a little bit of a break there where I can go get some breakfast. Um, and then, you know, anytime between 11:30 and noon is when I open my mic for the first time and then I'm on until the end of the game. Um, that's a lot of talking. It's a lot of talking. Um I I use the um Rola lozenes that have a little bit of like menthol goo in them. Those I'll do because like I found I can't drink a lot of water during the game cuz there's no bathroom break, right?

You get 2 minutes and 20 seconds for a commercial break. That is not enough time for me to get from the booth to the bathroom and back in time. There's no way. And then halftime, unless we have a break of at least I've timed it out. I need like 3 minutes and 15 seconds to run to the bathroom and come back. Um, wow.

If we don't have that, I can't go to the bathroom during that. I learned this the hard way. The last game of the my first year was the game against the Texans that came down to like the last play where um they won at the end of that game. Okay. And uh I'm just standing I mean like my legs are crossed. I'm just like just like you know Petey got a pee right here just like like this.

And I'm like, I am never drinking that much water during game ever again. I give myself one bottle of water. I'll squirt some, uh, mo caffeine in it. Nice. U, you know, you know, keep the energy up a little bit. Uh, but mostly it's kind of popping the lozenes.

Um, okay. So then the game ends at about 4:00. I, you know, hit hit my button to talk to our producer Shelby. Great job today. I'm off right now. See you later.

Head on down to the locker room. Usually at at that point I'll kind of connect with my intern um who is covering the whole game by herself. Um this year it's Abby Halpin. She's fantastic. Last couple years it was Amanda Foster. She's also fantastic.

She is fantastic. Yes. Um couldn't do it without Amanda. Now Abby. Um so I'll like kind of connect with them on like storylines. Okay.

What are we going to talk about in the locker room? Who do you want to go get? Blah blah blah. Go down to the locker room and I am the team writer again. Right. So really quick.

But dude, it is hard, but you're in it. It has like It's not like you're missing any of the action. I'm in the game every single play. I'm not missing it. But here's the thing, though, is like over 10 years of, you know, being the being a writer, I learned to not watch the ball, right? As the PA, you got to watch the ball.

That's true. You got to know where the ball's going. That's very true. So, there's stuff that like I know I need to go back and rewatch. Okay. like whether it's Sunday night, Monday morning, like this one play, uh, why did this play not work?

I couldn't tell. So, I got to go back and rewatch it so I can be armed with that knowledge. I see. But, you know, go down to the locker room. I mean, sometimes I'll even be able to watch it up in the press box after. So, go down to the locker room.

You're in, you know, the press conference with Shane and the quarterback. You're in the locker room talking to guys. Um, and dude, I'm wiped. Like I bet like the the mental energy it takes to call an NFL game is unlike kind of anything I've ever experienced in my career cuz like I'll go on TV and you're on for two minutes. Exactly. Yeah.

And you know you're really locked in for those two minutes and then it's this is like you're on for four hours. Yeah. And you can't slip up. No. No. No.

Have you Has there ever been like And then Yeah. That but you move on. Yeah. You just got to just keep plugging. If you if you slip up and then you try to correct it, you know. Yeah.

Then people notice, right? Exactly. Uh, one of the best pieces of advice I got from another PA announcer was like, if you screw up, just keep going. Yeah. Because people are people might notice it, but they're less likely to kind of dwell on it. Correct.

Just kind of keep going. They'll probably like, "Did I hear that right?" Or then who gives like I said, people are like, this is no knock on you, but they're not like focused on the PA. That's what I mean. when makes a good one is like, "Oh, just like background noise and Exactly." So, I got um that's interesting.

So, down in the locker room after the game, um talk to guys, go back up, transcribe, write. Uh usually leave there about 7 o'clock. Um get home, try to grab a bite to eat, put on the Sunday night game, and that's usually when then I'm like, so I do uh on Mondays I do a five colts things column. That's kind of this big breakdown of the game. And that's usually when I start working on that is like I'll be sitting in bed and just being like, "Oh, great. The AL2 is up.

Now I'm now I'm going to go rewatch these plays that I kind of made mental notes of like I want to go back and rewatch that." Yeah. I love it, man. What a full day. I mean, we're talking It's the best, dude. It is.

Yeah. Game days are the the 20 of them you get every year are the best. They really are. I could I could You could tell me you have to work from midnight to 11:59 p. m. And I'd be like, "Yes, sir.

I'll be I'll be there. I love that, man. It's the best. That's so cool. It's just there's nothing What I try to tell people is I grew up a Colts fan and I had to like knock that out of me basically when you cover the team. Like it's just it's different.

You know what I mean? Like of course I hope they win and stuff, but like it's not like I'm Yeah. in the press box or anything, but covering an NFL team, I don't care if they're 0 and 17, I don't care. Like it is the best. It's just the best. NFL football is the best.

You do you do whatever it is you do around the NFL for the I'm calling it 20 because I count preseason in there for me because that's another opportunity to kind of get behind the mic. Um you do it for those 20 instances that you're guaranteed every year, right? And hopefully it's more but whatever it is you do, whether you're on TV, whether you're writing, whether you're internal, like in my mind, you work for those 20 days a year, right? You know, that's what players do. That's what coaches do. You're working for those 20 days a year.

Yeah. We I I I do the same. Not to the same intensity or extent that our players and coaches do, but yeah, I mean, I live for those game days, man. Like, you know, I I get chills thinking about that first time I get to open the mic for a third down, you know, in week one against Baltimore. Like, that first time I get to be like Indianapolis on your feet. It's third down.

Like, I love that. I was I was going to ask you to do your best one. Can give Give me one for real here. Okay. All right. Uh, let's see.

Lamar Jackson's pass is incomplete. Broken up by number one, Sauce Gardner. Indianapolis on your feet. It's third down. Incredible. I'm not in I'm not in game shape yet because it kind of caught me at the end there.

That is incredible though. Yeah, dude. Oh my gosh. That has to just never get old for you. And like do you do you still get butterflies kind of all the time? Dude, I that's one of the the things that I kind of learned over the first couple years of doing it is like harness the butterflies.

Yeah. Use that that anxious energy and turn it into energy for the crowd. Like cuz Yeah. Are you kidding? Of course I'm nervous every time I open the mic in front of 60,000 people in a stadium. Who wouldn't be?

If you're not, you're not feeling it. You're not in it, you know? Like, of course I'm nervous. Nerves mean you care. Exactly. Nerves mean you care.

And then I learned how to channel those nerves into just trying to, you know, bring the juice in any way I can. Yeah. Um, player intros, man, are like those are so cool because that's those guys moment and I get to be a little part of that moment of introducing these guys. Um, and you know, I tell people this all the time, like the special thing about being the PA and also like the writer and working in the building is like I get relationships with guys, so I know their story when I announce them coming out of the tunnel. Like I know their story. I know what playing in the NFL means to them.

And that gives me that little extra juice because like it's their moment. And like one of my favorite things, you know, um Wesley French was a center on the Colts for a couple of years. Uh like backup kind of third stringer. Um a guy who really had to scratch and claw his ass off to get in the NFL. Yeah. And Wes started a game and he, you know, I got to announce him out of the tunnel.

Yeah. And like I gave it, you know, a little extra on it, you know. Yeah. Cuz I knew his story. I knew how much it meant to him. Ryan Kelly, I remember, you know, it was going to be his last game in Indie, right?

I remember giving Ryan like, you know, here comes Ryan. I'm giving I'm leaving it all out there because like this is Ryan's moment here and like whatever I can do to make it, you know, to to introduce him to to give him that moment like I'm going to go all out. I'm going to go balls out on this thing. That's so cool. And it is it's so cool to be able to do that. Uh you know, I've told guys this before, like you know, like I I've told Kenny this.

I'm like, man, like that moment where you get to come out of the tunnel, um I'm like so humbled that like I get to be the voice that says your name to a crowd that's not they ain't cheering for me, they're cheering for you and they they love you and respect you and like that that thing is so cool, man. Yeah. I mean, again, the knowledge of these guys as people, what it means to them. Obviously, that's a moment they'll always remember whether it's their first time getting introduced at a specific place or their last time getting introduced at a specific place. And a lot of times the fans match the energy of the PA guy. So, right, you you're you're not wrong for taking ownership of that and I think that's really cool.

I'm not I'm not going to name stadiums, but yeah, there are some stadiums where I'm like, where's this guy's juice, man? Like, come on. Well, you get to do this. Like you're saying, isn't it cool? Philip Philip Rivers talked about it um before the 49er no the Jacksonville game that he started the the home game that he started and he was like you know as a kid like I would he was like I would always have my dad like introduce me just coming into the kitchen right you know like that moment and I was I was standing at the back of his media scrum listening to that and being like I get to announce Philip River is coming out of the tunnel this week that is unbelievable isn't that cool like how cool is that that you know Phil gets to have one more of these moments in his should be Hall of Fame career. And you know, again, I don't I don't want to sound like this is about me cuz it's not.

But like for me, getting to be the voice of that is like unbelievably humbling, right? To be able to do it because I mean, you probably did it when you were a kid, you know, like I I grew up in Chicago. Of course, I had Ray Clay, you know, announcing me Yeah. coming out for, you know, in my head I'm announcing it for like grade school basketball. Exactly. Uh so cool.

Yeah, I mean everybody every kid when we're just messing around like standing 6'4 at point guard blah blah blah like it's just it's so cool you get to do that in addition to something you already love doing writing about a team a professional sports team but then to add this that added game day piece like man that's really really cool I am I'm so lucky um I I don't know how I got this lucky right but man it is it is an honor it's incredible And and again, getting to do it for the Colts adds that, you know, that real layer of fulfillment for me that, you know, knowing I get to do that for a team that I believe in, a team that, you know, from the top down, I I believe in the people who are running it, right? Um, it is it's so rewarding and so incredible. Yeah, I think that's important, too. when you it and you said it earlier, when you really like the people and respect the people you work for or with, it makes you want to do a good job.

It makes you want to work that much harder because when you're in a bad environment, nobody's happy, right? You know what I mean? And yes, wins and losses, whatever, they'll come and go. But if as long as the consistent and constant is people who you respect and like, I think that's that's good stuff. That's the stuff we like here in Indiana for sure. All right, two more things for you.

We'll get you out of here. This has been awesome. Um, but I gotta ask, how are we feeling about the Colts this year? Because there are a lot of question marks. I'm about to do uh a couple other things after you leave. And talking about Colts question marks is one of them.

I mean, Daniel Jones is going to be eight, nine months post Achilles. You know, Pierce and Buckner, are they are they all right? You know, JT wants a new contract. A lot of rookies on this defense. A lot of stuff going on. So, how do you feel?

You have a unique perspective better than most. Um, I mean, so this episode's coming out August 7th. That's correct. We'll probably have some more answers on the injured guys by then, so I'll kind of leave them to the side. That's true. Good, good point.

Where I am optimistic about this team, is what we saw from Daniel Jones and Shane Stiken last year, I don't want those two guys to get separated here, right? Um, that was not a mirage. the what what Shane is so good at as a head coach is understanding what an opposing defense is going to do and then you know okay hey like if they do this we do that right but the quarterback Daniel Jones is so good at getting to we do that that relationship that kind of mind meld that those two guys have is where my optimism for this team is focused that's a good I understand that Daniel coming back off in Achilles is going to make people queasy, right? Like you look at the history of guys and you're like, "Well, Aaron Rogers didn't do very well and Kurt Cousins could barely move and Dan Marino threw for like 4,000 yards." Yeah. Now Dan Marino is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Like for my money for my money, Dan Marino is like he's like top three. Uh it's like it's like Manning, it's Brady, and it's Marino for me. Um I love it. But the point Daniel Jones is 29. Mhm. It's It's going to be different, I think, for him coming off the Achilles than a 36-year-old Kirk Cousins or a 40-year-old Aaron Rogers.

That's a really good point. I mean, he's he's already we saw him at OTAAS running around, dude. The fact that he was in seven on seven in OTAAS was like, we're seven months out and he's That's what I was like, it almost made me like, dude, take it easy. Like, I love how you're looking right now. I mean, you saw him at the gym. Like, he's he's jacked.

He looks great. Yeah. And I I think he can he can overcome that. The other part about Daniel that I think we should emphasize here is last year with the Colts, he averaged the fewest rushing attempts per game in his entire career. And a lot of those attempts were just a it's fourth and one, go sneak it, right? Like the Colts did not do a lot of designed runs with Daniel Jones last year.

Whereas with the Giants, that was a bigger part of those offenses was like using his legs because he is a great athlete. Shane said he's got a great mind. We're going to use his mind and his accuracy to our advantage. Those are things that I don't think are going to be impacted by the Achilles. Okay? So, he can't, you know, I don't think the Colts are going to sit and sit, you know, say, well, he he, you know, has to be a statue back there.

He's got to be mobile to an extent, but this isn't mobile to run. this is mobile to, you know, keep an he keep an edge guy honest. Um, you know, on a bootleg like the Colts are so good at those kind of play action boots. Throw to a wideopen Tyler Warren, pick up eight yards, move on to the next play. Um, but those also came from Daniel Jones getting into the right looks. True.

So, I think that aspect of the offense I feel really good about. I am so intrigued to see what Louo does with this secondary. Yeah. Right. Like I I agree completely. Like Kenny's gone, Cross is gone.

a lot of rookies. I But I don't know. But but uh Sauce Gardner ain't a rookie. That's true. Sarius Ward ain't a rookie and Camb isn't a rookie, too. Although three studs.

If you look at this team and you say, if you told me at the end of the year we got, you know, maybe 17 games, maybe we don't say 17 games because injuries happen, guys get banged up, whatever it might be. Let's say you get 15 games of Sauce and Mooney out there together as the two outside corners. I'm going to feel really good about where the Colts defense is going to wind up. Just you you give me that one thing, I'm like I I think Lou is going to figure some cool stuff out there. Uh I mean early you're playing some really good quarterbacks. You are.

You are. No question. Well, they played Mahomes last year with Sauce and and Ward out there and you know outside of kind of it was what 96 plays those two guys played together and there was like one play where Mooney kind of slipped on a drag route and it got Rasheed Rice open and that kind of you know broke the game there. Um hopefully you're not having him out there for 96 plays again, right? Yeah. Closer closer to like 60 I feel you know lose lose credit he's been pretty good against Mahomes in his career.

Yes, he has. Um, you know, the the Lamar Jackson in 2023, I know it was a different defense, but uh people forget, maybe they don't, I don't, that the Colts went into Baltimore and won a game against Lamar Jackson in week three. You're absolutely right. That happened with Carder Muart dropping a dime to Zack Moss. You're absolutely like stuff happens. So, that's so true.

I I think that, you know, yeah, that that that start of the season where you go Baltimore, Kansas City, Houston, that is a grinder right there. It is. But I think if you get guys out there, you get the right guys out there healthy and you we saw the Colts start last season awfully hot too. I think Shane, you know, maybe he's found something in terms of kind of getting guys off to a good start to start the season. Um I think you can navigate that. And if you fly to London and you're honestly if you're anything but 0 and three, I think you're like, "Okay, we you know, you want to be competitive in those games."

Certainly. Yes. Um, it's definitely the how and the more. Exactly. It's the how more than the what. Like you know the the Rams game last year in week four.

Yeah. The how of that was like you left that being like I think we might be the better team. Right. You're like the Colts good. Yeah. And it was it was like I remember like listening to some national podcasts that were like I actually think the Colts are going to be really good based off of even though they lost that game.

So it's it's the how. You're absolutely right. They're dumb. Um I do I agree with you. If you can get one of those three I feel I feel okay. Yeah.

Like I mean ideally it's you get Houston, right? Uh but the the the guys who I'm looking for this year um I I think Lu is on track to take another jump. Got to he you know he had what eight and a half sacks last year. Led the team in pressures with I think 56. He's so that's the thing about he's so close. And um I I had him on when I had him on the the podcast like talking to him about what he's done this off season.

Sounds very intentional about closing that gap. Okay. So, we'll see. We'll see what kind of comes with that. Okay. Um, and then, you know, offensively, I, you know, I know there's a lot of focus on, okay, how do you replace Michael Pitman Jr.

, um, I'm looking at the right side of the line. Mhm. With Monza at right guard, he'll probably be competing with Jaylen Farmer, the rookie out of Kentucky there. Jaylen Travis stepping in at right tackle. Yeah. Um, I have a ton of faith that Tony Spano Jr.

Yeah. is going to take the talent that those guys have because they're all talented players. He's going to take that talent and he's going to turn those guys into really good starters if that happens and this offensive line is solid throughout the year. Um I I feel like this offense is going to be really good. The offense is I mean outside of you want Jaylen Jones to be healthy. I think that's the number one thing.

But I mean Josh DS is a stud. Alec Pierce is just got paid. Tyler Warren bonafide stud. Jonathan Taylor. Like can you correct me if I'm wrong here? I almost feel like we're taking Tyler Warren for granted a little bit.

He's like after it's like he he showed up and it's like oh he's immediately exactly who we expected him to be and that's really good. Yeah, he's a stud. We all knew this. Like give us more. We want more more more. But I do you think that Alec Pierce can be that number one guy or or do you think this offense goes through Tyler Warren?

Um I don't know. Passing. Well, I think I think like number one number one like you when you think of number one, you think of Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, right? Yeah. I don't think the Colts need Alec Pierce to be that. They don't need him to be this high volume guy, right?

Because I think Warren complements his skill set so well and Josh DS, by the way, compliments that skill set well. I agree. Alec was so good last year at controlling 20 plus yards downfield. Whether he's getting the ball on those plays or not, like you had to account for him and if you didn't, that ball's going over your head, bombs away, it's going to be a touchdown. So having that aspect of your offense and then having your intermediate guys like this is where losing Pitman is going to be interesting how they pick it up because Pitman was so good as kind of that slasher. Yeah.

On those like 10 to 20 yard intermediate routes like he's great at running that 14 yard dig and you're just you're going to pick up some tough yards there. He's going to catch it right every time. But I think Tyler Warren can be that guy too. Yeah. Tyler Warren can control the middle of the field on those intermediate routes. Yeah.

And then Josh DS is he you can you can use him deep, you can use him intermediate, you can use him shallow. Um DS people forget about DS. They do because he got hurt I want to say his second year and I I mean he was on his way to a thousand yards. I to I dude I was standing there at training I remember standing there at training camp before that injury. Uh and I he was the best player in training camp. It was either Joel or Steven Holder who I turned to and I was like I Downs is leading this team in in receptions this year.

He's felt it. Yeah. And I think they're gonna figure out ways to use him this year because Warren Warren kind of made DS um he lessened D's role last year. I agree because that you know those kind of Warren kind of took over almost as like the main slot guy. DS is too talented to not find a role within this offense. He's too good.

He works too hard. Um he's going to find a role in this offense that's going to be really impactful. Pierce Warren DS and I love Michael Pitman Jr. guy who's tough as nails. Great leader. No question about it.

But it got if it you got that feeling last year that there was too many mouths in the in the passing game and Daniel Jones was doing great at finding them. But just but like law of numbers averages someone was going to get less. And I do think out of the four possibilities there and without primarily Alec Pierce's ascension last year that Michael Pippen Jr. was the right guy to maybe part with. Yeah. And you know again you mentioned like he's one of the toughest players I've ever seen.

Unreal. the dude that game against Tennessee where it was like uh Michael Pitman Jr. might have a broken back and he's not going to play. She puts it out there. Yeah. Sher said he's done and then four days later he catches the game-winning touchdown.

Like mad respect to Pit. He and like uh you know good good guy, good leader, good family guy. Like Oh yeah. Uh yeah. Hope he does really well in Pittsburgh for sure. I think that that actually fits him pretty nicely.

That culture, the whole thing. It'll be it'll be interesting. Yeah. I mean, look, to me it starts with the offensive line to go back to that though of like you get that right side settled. Bernard Ryman's a fantastic left tackle. Quint Nelson's the best guard in the NFL.

Tanner Bordellini is a really, really good center who I think is going to take another step this year after having a really good 2025. Um, you get that right side settled. Matt Gonzalez, by the way, was working out with Olen Crroos this off season. Oh, really? Uh, yeah. And like Olen I I got That's probably a guy you you know.

Yeah, I got to know I got to know him a little bit. And Olan doesn't take just anyone in. The uh one of the most recent guys he took in who was a Colts player was Will Fry. And Will Fry developed into an outstanding right guard. Sure did. Ola knows what he's doing.

Olan knows who he's do who he's taking to to kind of work with and then what he's doing with those guys. And I I think Matt Gonzalez will really benefit from that. I do too. And and I mean you're not the first one to sing Tony Spirano Jr's praises. People love him. Quinton Nelson, hard guy to please, I feel like, and just can't say enough good things about him.

And yeah, he's no BS. Uh, if there's one positive of this team past however many years, it's the the line has been good in my opinion. I mean, just turning out guys. Miss Ryan Kelly, miss Braden Smith. Those guys were great. No question.

Great Colts there. Yeah, really. They really were. But, uh, I love this perspective. I think those were the biggest question marks. I know we're jacked up for training camp.

Again, when you're listening to this, training camp will be ongoing. Hopefully nothing crazy go going on. But last thing I'll leave you with, and we kind of touched on it at the beginning, but I want to ask all my guests this, but you're a Chicago guy, kind of an Indiana transplant, but you've lived here long enough. What makes sports so special in Indiana? That is a great question. I've thought about this a lot.

Um, and I can't explain it other than it is. It's just different. It is. I don't and like I like Chicago is a great sports city. Takes a ton of pride in its teams, but Chicago, you got the lake, you got amazing culture, u you've got worldass food scene, right? You've got all these other things that, you know, Yeah.

If the Bears lose, you know, I I'll tune into 670 the squirt sometimes because I can still get it down here, you know. Yeah. All right. Uh Molly, Molly, what do you got here? Like especially on the north side. Yeah.

Um Chicago Chicago takes its sports very seriously. Um Indie takes its sports just as seriously, but there's this it's the that communal aspect of it, right? Like that I think is so special to Indianapolis. And again, I don't know how it is in other major Midwestern cities. I'm guessing someone from Kansas City might tell you the same thing, right? Um, but in Indianapolis, like the way that this city embraces you as a as a team, whether you are the Colts, you are the Pacers, you're the Fever, you're an Indie car driver, it is it is so cool.

It's so special. And I think it's also too because like a lot of these guys are among us. Like they're around here. You you see them at the store. You see them with their families at the splash pad. Um, you know, you go to uh Dolls up in uh whatever city that is.

It's not really a city. Dolls. Dolls Tree Farm. Dolls Tree Farm. Dolls Tree Farm. It's great.

We love Dolls. We take our kids there every year. Okay. Uh like you go up there, you see a player walking around there as this family. Like it's just it's so different. You feel so connected to guys here, right?

Like the you know the guys and the women who play for the teams in this city. You do see them. I do feel like you see them. And there's more of an understanding here. And maybe it's the Midwest situation that they're they are humans. Yes, they are human beings that are happen to be a great athlete making millions, but like they're really nice.

They're really cool. And it feels like every franchise in Indiana values that family culture. It just feels like embedded. Yeah, it it it's absolutely embedded. I mean, like, you know, you think about like the the impact that Tyrese Hallebertton has around here. Um, you know, you think about the impact that Pton Manning has had here, right?

The guy's name's on a children's hospital. It transformed the city. Yeah. Like the the Reggie Miller, uh, Reggie Wayne, like these guys who are are such pillars in the community and you know, when they come back, like when Reggie Miller comes back and he's like, I bike the Monan like Yeah. There probably like a hundred people who were on the Monan that day who were like, is that Reggie Miller? Who's this six guy?

But like that's so cool and it I I go back to that communal aspect cuz yeah, I mean a lot of other cities take their sports seriously. A lot of other cities live and die with their sports teams, but not a lot of other cities have this community feel that Indianapolis has. And again, whether you are a Colts player, a Fever player, a Pacers player, I see it with Indie Car drivers, too. Like Yeah. Yeah. If you're in that kind of fraternity here, um this city will take care of you in a way that I think is is very special.

Yeah, that's a great answer. Uh JJ, this has been awesome, man. Seriously, thank you. That's a sweet hat, by the way. Where do Where'd you get that? Uh Dad Brand Hats.

Dad Brand Hats. Shout out Dad Brand Hats. They uh they they hooked me up with this because it's a big third down, right? Like, is it a third down? Yes. Then it's a big third down.

Big third down here. That's That's incredible. Uh love everything that we talked about. Really appreciate you coming on. I think this is going to give people a really unique perspective of what you do, especially working with the Indianapolis Colts. So, appreciate it, man.

Hopefully, we get you back on at some point. Uh, get in sports, man. We get all the great great names in Indianapolis. I don't know why they keep saying yes, like I said. But that's JJ Steakovitz, PA announcer, Colts. com writer.

Watch his stuff, listen to his stuff. Guy's the best. And, uh, really appreciate having him on. Stay tuned for what's next here on Get In Sports.