The countdown to a kickoff truly began seven days before game day. In the case of today’s game, the Tennessee Titans’ equipment manager collaborated a week before with the Coopers’ coordinator to schedule the team’s arrival to Crystal Light Stadium. Much of the run-up to the game-day schedule was determined by the NFL and not up for debate. Three days before, the playing field was tested and certified to comply with the NFL requirements on hardness, depth, evenness, and other specifics. Twenty-four hours before kickoff, all game officials were required to be in Lexington. If the visiting team wastraveling by airplane, they must be in the host city no less than eighteen hours before game time.
The real countdown began four hours before kickoff.
By nine o’clock a.m., Crystal Light Stadium was a beehive of activity. As vice president of stadium operations, I had a team of football operations professionals that oversaw the specifics. From the owner’s suite high in the end zone, the different operations took on the appearance of a finely choreographed dance.
Today, I was witnessing the performance from the sidelines and in awe of our ops team.
Outside the stadium, the parking lots opened for tailgating. Fans began lining up to enter as much as six hours prior to game time. Inside, at the four-hour mark, the field was once again inspected, thoroughly walked to determine if it still complied with NFL regulations. Local game-day assistants arrived and began setting up their equipment and systems. The wireless communication between coaches and players (C2P) was assessed. Field technicians set up field-monitor systems. It took hundreds of people behind the scenes to pull off a precisely timed kickoff.
Two hours and fifteen minutes prior to play, each team provided twelve primary and twelve backup like-new Wilson official NFL footballs to the referee for inspection. Kicking balls received directly from Wilson Sporting Goods were also available to be inspected byone representative from each team. All the balls contained a coin-sized RFID chip that transmitted data on the ball’s location, speed, spin, and trajectory. That information was used for broadcasting and later for analytics.
Two hours before, the gates to Crystal Light Stadium opened, allowing people inside. Our ushers were not only monitoring each guest, but making sure each attendee felt appreciated, passing out buttons to first-time visitors and aiding with questions. At the same time, final testing was done with each team’s equipment managers to assure the C2P systems were working properly.
Nothing was overlooked.
Communication between all medical staff—local league-appointed neurotrauma consultants, airway management physician, emergency response physician, and athletic trainer spotters—was evaluated. The AT spotters were certified athletic trainers stationed in the stadium booth to help each team’s medical staff spot potential concussion or other head and neck injuries.
All printing and Microsoft Surface tablets were in place on the sidelines.
An hour and forty minutes prior to kickoff was the security meeting, attended by the referee, league and team security representatives, NFL football operations representative, stadium security, local senior publicsafety official, and often an FBI representative. Keeping our fans safe was a top priority.
Ninety minutes prior to kickoff, there was an officiating meeting that included both teams’ PR directors, sideline communications, NFL sideline TV coordinator, NFL football operations representative, the TV network representative, the network’s on-field communications coordinator, and the seven-person officiating team. During this meeting, broadcast policies and procedures were discussed. Game Day Administration Reports—including each team’s inactive list, players designated to have C2P components in their helmets, and players/coaches wearing microphones—were presented.
Watches were also synchronized—the countdown was continuing.
By one hour before kickoff, the roof at Crystal Light Stadium was either opened or closed; it couldn’t change after that deadline. Today, it was open. This was also the time when both teams were allowed onto the field for warm-up and practice. Officials also entered the field. Each team had half the field for this workout.
If the entire process was a symphony, at this point, the conductor would increase the tempo, bringing the fever within the stadium to the much-anticipated crescendo. In-house football ops working in tandem with the NFL, ESPN, or whichever broadcastingsystem, and the dozens of coaches, nearly a hundred players, worked tirelessly to give the effortless appearance to the seventy thousand fans in the stadium as well as the hundreds of thousands of TV viewers.
It was truly a scripted musical composition.
As the vice president of stadium operations, I had complete faith in my team. Today’s nerves weren’t due to the climactic lead-up. They were tightening my skin and increasing my rapid heartbeat due to my location—not safely in the family suite but on the sideline, in the middle of the mayhem.
This was our first regular season game. During the preseason, the Coopers won two of our three games. A sold-out crowd was filling Crystal Light Stadium in anticipation of today’s game against the Titans.
Our roster was now down to the mandatory forty-eight active players, with sixteen players on the practice squad. We had a solid team. While Fin received playing time during preseason, now was the time for Troy Dennison to shine.
The view of Crystal Light from the sideline was completely different than it was up in the family suite. I peered upward, squinting through my sunglasses as a sea of amber filled the seats. Lexington’s blue sky shone above the stadium through the opened roof.
At the one-hour mark while the team was out on the field warming up, I asked Drew my nagging question. “Are you sure I won’t be in the way?”
“Vee, you’ve been to every offense practice session for the last two weeks. You’ve heard the plays. You know what’s supposed to happen. Unlike practice, the real game has obstacles. Listen when I call the plays. Then watch to see if they’re played out. If they are, notice what went right. If they’re not, figure out where they went wrong.” His cheeks rose with a smile. “It’s a whole new world with an opposing team, a packed stadium, and an officiating crew.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Make notes. There’s no time to discuss during the game. Tomorrow we’ll talk about what you saw.”
I returned his smile. “Drew, thank you for being welcoming to me. You remind me of Roy Everington. He tried to include me.”
“Best compliment I’ve heard today.” He patted my shoulder.
Standing behind the white paint, I walked up and down the field, noticing the different team of technicians, identified by the color of their hats. Yellow, orange, purple, blue, and gray were hurriedly doing their assigned tasks.
The suspense grew as pregame announcements came over the PA system. The countdown clock was ticking as the visiting Tennessee Titans took the field. High above, the seats were filled and fans were screaming. The PA system roared with AC/DCThunderstruckas fireworks shot from the four corners of the stadium.
Our home-team announcer, the Big Hurt, spoke in his signature commanding tone. “Ladies and gentlemen, your Lexington Coopers.”
Applause and cheering erupted, the decibels reaching a fevered pitch.
