By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer
Editor’s Note: Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his 23rd season as the lead producer. He has more than 40 years of experience covering the league and has produced seven Super Bowls. Throughout the 2024 NFL season, he is providing an inside look as FOX’s new No. 1 NFL team, including NFL legend Tom Brady, makes its journey toward Super Bowl LIX. Read more behind-the-scenes stories from Richie Zyontz here.
Upon entering our television truck, one’s eyes can go off in many directions.
Monitors blanket the front wall. Work stations are set throughout in a fashion logical only to those who man them. And there are so many dials and switches that it reminds one of what the inside of a spaceship might look like.
Well, the Captain Kirk of our operation is technical director Colby Bourgeois and our “Starship Enterprise” can’t flourish without his deft mind and nimble hands. Controlling a board with 1,100 button options, this job is not for the faint of heart or for the fat of finger. It also requires a special temperament. Any producer or director will cite the TD as the true brains of the outfit. With Colby, that goes double.
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The front row in a production truck consists of producer, director and technical director. The TD listens to the cues from the director and hits the appropriate key in response to every command. Nothing appears on your screen without the TD punching the right button. Amid the occasional organized chaos of live television, the TD must float above the fray and methodically keep the show afloat.
We’ve all taken different paths to occupy our current seats. Colby was a tinkerer as a kid, and used that curiosity to study math and electrical engineering at Arizona State. That led to work at a local station in Phoenix, and ultimately a jump into network sports in 1998. For the last 18 seasons, Colby has sat at the elbow of director Rich Russo, having switched six Super Bowls.
Utilizing youthful piano skills, he lords over his massive control board while keeping his eyes on dozens of monitors.
Now things can go awry in this age of computerization. At Super Bowl 48 in New Jersey between the Seahawks and Broncos, Colby’s station suffered a glitch and temporarily failed. Without missing a beat, he calmly went to the emergency plan, which required him switching the show while standing up at a different panel. The 110 million viewers were never the wiser. And now I know if I see Colby standing up during the game it’s not a good thing.
Technical director Colby Bourgeois is the Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise that is our weekly FOX NFL production. (Photo courtesy of Richie Zyontz)
What also hasn’t been a good thing is the non-competitive nature of virtually all the games our crew has witnessed so far this season.
Week 7 was sure to be different, though, with two legendary franchises meeting up for the first time since their Super Bowl showdown in February, and the league’s best quarterback taking center stage.
Brady and Mahomes cross paths … again
When the NFL schedule was released in May, the title-game rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers became FOX’s most anticipated game of the season. Patrick Mahomes would be on the field, and Tom Brady would be in the booth. It sure seemed like a dream Sunday.
The fun started on Saturday, when Brady was tasked with interviewing Mahomes for the FOX pregame show. The image of the all-time greatest quarterback sitting side-by-side with the NFL’s current greatest quarterback was simply iconic.
The mutual respect between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes was clear during their interview ahead of Sunday’s Chiefs-49ers game. (Photo courtesy of Richie Zyontz)
The mutual respect was evident in the interview. As a player, Brady’s competitive fire prevented him from becoming pals with his fellow QBs. Now in retirement, he sees a kindred spirit in Mahomes, dedicated to winning in any way possible.
This was not the first face-to-face interaction between Brady and Mahomes, as they crossed paths after the 2019 AFC Championship Game when Tom’s New England Patriots beat Patrick’s Chiefs 37-31. For the only time in his career, Brady made it a point of stopping by the opposing locker room after the game to console and give props to the rising young star.
During this weekend’s interview, Mahomes looked back on that moment and what it meant to him.
“For me, the biggest thing was obviously you’re Tom. You’ve done this for a long time, and you had that thought-process in that moment to come into the locker room, and you looked at me, and you said ‘you’re doing it the right way. Keep doing it like that, and you’ll have success,'” Mahomes said.
Brady knew what kind of game Chiefs-49ers would turn out to be
Our Saturday meetings have been fascinating. The crew of about 14 will listen raptly as Brady shares the results of his research and his take on the upcoming game.
This week, he predicted a game that would be decided by the defenses. Not what you’d expect in a game matching offensive gurus Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan. Yet it was the blitzing and tight man coverage by Kansas City that played a large factor in its 28-18 victory.
Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes discuss Super Bowls, family & more
With injuries depleting the offense, Mahomes had been forced to play with many backups. He needed to adjust his game to suit the depleted talent around him. Gone was the exciting downfield passing, replaced by a tough running game that punished San Francisco.
Of course, Mahomes did manage one eye-popping moment on a career long 33-yard run, juking and jiving his way past defenders and reminding everyone of his enormous talent.
Tom Brady on Mahomes’ BIG run: ‘Plays to win’
Next week we have an interesting matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks. This will be a chance for Brady to watch quarterback Josh Allen sling it around in the NFL’s loudest outdoor venue.
Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his 23rd season as lead producer. He boasts more than 40 years of experience covering the NFL.
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This article was originally published at www.foxsports.com
