INDIANAPOLIS – Suzy Kolber is always prepared. She looks over her notes, scanning the thick stack of papers in front of her. At times she pauses to write down something that comes to her in a mini yellow legal pad. A few moments later, Adam Schefter takes his seat next to her, and Bill Polian and Louis Riddick sit down, as well. It’s 2:30 on Thursday of the NFL Scouting Combine, and they have a show to do.
Kolber has a binder with enough information in it for about 100 shows. It’s color coded, and divided into sections marking the various events around the league calendar. The chapter for this year’s combine – and the players participating in it – is noticeably thicker than the rest. She’s not the only host who does this, but she’s unabashedly proud of the work she puts in, and of the preparation that goes into this show.
“I’m such a geek,” Kolber says. “This is what I do for every phase of the game. It’s all marked, so every position is here, as well as notes starting way back at the Senior Bowl. This is where it all starts for me. This is kind of the story of my life.”
Without Kolber, there’s no NFL Insiders. And without NFL Insiders, fans don’t have yet another outlet to satisfy their insatiable need for more information.
Producer Todd Snyder worked with NFL Live about 10 years ago, then helped with NFL 32, which was almost a bridge between Live and Insiders. The show had Kolber, Chris Mortensen, and former players who rotated in and out. But the natural evolution was Insiders, which started in 2013, to help differentiate from NFL Live. While that show was focused more on the players’ perspective, Insiders seeks to show the ins and outs of the league from a front office viewpoint.
“Insiders have the pulse of the team and the league,” Schefter says. “It is their job to stay in touch with teams on a regular basis, and so to have three insiders on one show brings a unique and knowledgeable perspective. It never has been done like that on TV before and in the times we live in, with an emphasis on information, it was overdue.”
People who follow the NFL have made it into a truly year-round sport. There are very few gaps when there isn’t something to talk about, so Insiders gives that deeper look into what teams are doing, whether it’s in OTAs, the combine, free agency, the draft, minicamps, or otherwise.
The combine is the perfect example of this. The show brings in experts on various levels: the reporters who are plugged into the source game (and make no mistake, the source game is on full display this week as everyone goes out after each day’s events to various bars and restaurants seeking out every tiny bit of information), the former front office personnel who can give insight into what is going on, and former players like Riddick who can explain the process, and on-field results.
“You’re not really getting opinions,” Riddick says. “You’re getting the real deal of what’s happening. I think that’s unique to us. We take it very seriously. The thing people have respected about me is that I tell it the way it is. I try to represent players the right way, and the front office the right way. Players don’t mind people saying things that don’t catch them in the most positive light, especially on the field, as long as they respect you. They don’t mind if you’re critical. They mind if you’re making stuff up.”
In one of the breaks during the live show, new Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase sits down and starts getting prepared to go on air. A member of the production staff gets Gase’s microphone set up, and shows him where each of the cameras are. John Elway spots Gase from further down the concourse and wanders over.
Elway is all smiles (and why shouldn’t he be – his team just won the Super Bowl), and he chats with Gase and Schefter before patting Gase on the back, cracking a couple jokes and leaving as quickly as he arrived.
Plenty of other coaches and executives stop by to talk to the team on set, and it starts to sink in a bit how well respected the NFL Insiders crew is. Say what you will about the ESPN machine (and its NFL coverage as a whole), but this show has the ear of the league – and it’s clear teams are paying attention to what it has to say.
“The very first meeting we ever had,” Riddick says, “our producer said, ‘We want to be the smartest football show on TV. Period.’ And that requires a different level of in-depth knowledge. It means tapping into the resources we all have in the NFL at the highest levels.”
Panthers coach Ron Rivera and Pete Carroll of the Seahawks arrive unannounced to get some time on set, and Rivera enjoys his interview so much he takes a selfie with the group afterward, forever immortalizing the brown fishing vest he is wearing.
“The thing that’s most gratifying is you look at the number of coaches and executives who have come on the show this week,” longtime former Indianapolis Colts president Polian says. “They realize the people who are asking them questions are knowledgeable and aren’t going to play gotcha. This event more than any other is where you can have an opportunity to spend time interacting with the people you spent most of your professional life with. Friends, colleagues, even people you competed against, and at the same time you get to know younger people you don’t know after you leave the game. They’ll come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m with the Lions, and I’ve worked with this guy, and he said to say hello.’ It’s really nice. It’s the pro football convention.”
The group bounces from interview to interview, and makes time to discuss how the quarterbacks performed in the combine this week, as well as which teams might be in need of a signal caller in the first round.
While other ESPN shows develop their “Rundown” from topics the producers come up with, Insiders is the opposite: Schefter, Polian, Riddick, and others tell Snyder what they want to discuss, and he builds the show around them. Polian, for instance, wants to make sure he gets a chance to discuss what teams take away from the combine stats – or more importantly what times and measurements actually matter.
A big part of the conversation is set by Kolber, who Polian calls “the traffic cop.” She monitors body language and makes eye contact to see who should talk first on a given topic, and who really has something they want to say before moving onto the next talking point.
At 3:30, Kolber packs her papers back up into her binder, and straightens her other notes. She still has some live hits to do, and to record a couple more interviews that’ll be used later, but the tough part of the day is over, and she can take the evening to rest and get ready for tomorrow. As Snyder puts it, “you’re only as good as your next show.”
“My job is to make everybody else look good,” Kolber says. “I pride myself on anticipating where the guys are going to go in the moment, so I can put a good bow on the end of whatever we’re discussing. What makes the show work is chemistry. Our way makes it so fun and relaxed.”
