Jamie Erdahl will be working her first NFL Draft telecast for the NFL Network on Thursday night. The host of NFLN’s Good Morning Football will have one of the key jobs in the network’s draft coverage. She’ll interview the players onstage just after they’re selected during Rounds 1–3 on Thursday and Friday nights.
Erdahl spoke to Front Office Sports senior media reporter Michael McCarthy the day before NFLN kicks off its 19th straight year of draft coverage from Green Bay, Wis.
Front Office Sports: Tell us your approach to interviewing draftees right after their biggest moment.
Jamie Erdahl: Well, I have been preparing for this now ever since the list has been finalized. I would say about a week ago, it felt like we got the final list of 15 or 16 guys. And since I’ve never done this job before, I started to prepare and I finally landed on why it felt like a familiar thing to me. And it was as if I was preparing for my old sideline reporting job, SEC games, NFL games. It’s tracking the story of the player. Being as well-researched as possible, but then being prepared for the moment to change the trajectory of the conversation. So I can know every single guy’s hometown, I can know their moms, their dads, their siblings, the whole story. But the second that player walks to me and has tears in his eyes, or he’s screaming or yelling, I have to ask about that. And so it’s their moment, as you just said, and I feel very, very strongly that I want to handle it delicately.
As a parent myself, I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be the first person that your child is gonna talk to after their lives just changed. I understand the magnitude of that. So I’m just trying to go into it and be as prepared as possible, but also don’t allow that to strip away from the immediacy of the moment and what those guys might be feeling.
FOS: Is that why we love the draft so much? Is it about hope?
JE: It is about hope. I also think it’s about hard work. And I think people can see the path. I think that’s part of what the NFL Network and ESPN does so well, is track the path. And if you’re a fan of that young man from college, and you want to see where he goes, or if you are a fan of the team which just drafted that young man, you immediately resonate with the relief that they feel—and the hard work that they just put forth.
It’s like a bottled-up version of any form of hard work that maybe you yourself just watch unfold and how their dreams are coming true. And I also just think it’s about football fandom. You’re seeing a story develop and you are allowed to fall in love with these guys a little bit more.
FOS: NFLN’s coverage is more X’s and O’s oriented. What makes your coverage stand out from ESPN or ABC?
JE: Well, I think to your point, we roll the ball forward a little bit more. I mean, we are the NFL Network in and of itself. ESPN and ABC, they have their vast experience and relationship in the college game, and the fact that they have the College Football Playoffs, and they have been tracking these guys since their arrival on campuses when they were 17, 18 years old. We are representative of the teams and the coaches and what those teams need—and how they are changing when those players get drafted there. So I find that when we think about players, my brain just being on Good Morning Football always goes to, well, what do the Eagles need? What do the Packers need? And why is it that guy? As opposed to following the guy and seeing where they land.
FOS: You were a point guard at St. Olaf College. Do you feel like a point guard, dishing passes to your teammates at GMFB?
JE: More than you could possibly imagine. There are scoring point guards out there. I was just never one of them. I happily passed the ball. I thought it was a skill. It was a craft. It was a gift in which I learned. And my dad taught me how to be a great passer. And while we all have egos in television and sports television, I like to lead with humility and really try not to make moments about me or conversations about me. I find that on shows where I feel that I’ve heard my voice too much, they’re not my favorite shows. I’d rather let other people shine and have the ideas and bring them to light and just be the support staff. And that’s how I was as a point guard. And that’s how I like to be on TV—because it’s not about me. It’s about everybody else talking about a football game that we all love.
