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Episode 5 · 1 year ago
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Episode 5 · 1 year ago
4. Jessica Blaylock, Fox Sports Florida Reporter, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Conversations with real women who makesports happen, this is, and so she goes, here's your host, Amanda Morgeous,Hello. I hope you are staying healthy and safe in this very crazy world,we're in right now. I know some of US are getting pretty tired of stayinghome all day, trying to get work done. Canceling plans missing our friends andfamily. It is not fun, but I am holding onto hope that we will make it throughtogether, a'm, very thankful. I have this pod cast to focus on to keep mebusy. This episode features a conversation with a friend of mine whocovers the Florida Panthers and the Miami Marlins. We recorded thisinterview right after we found out that both the NHL and the MLB seasons cameto a halt because of corona virus jess dives into the behind the scenes of howshe learned that news and how serious this has become. We also talk aboutsome later topics like how she got her start in sports broadcasting. We tellthe story of when I replaced her at a radio station when she moved to SouthFlorida. We discussed the challenges that come with, covering the same teamsfor several years and the importance of tuning out the noise and believing inyourself, even when it's hard here is my conversation with boxboards Floridahost and reporter Jessica, Blaylock, Hello, Jessica, Hey aanda. How are youI'm so great? How are you IAM good, it's nice to hear your voice? I feelinhaven't seen you or talk to you in so long. I know it really has been forever.I'm sorry that it Um has to be under these circumstances that we get tocatch up, even though we will get to some happy fun things, but there is alot of craziness that I want to get to first. So thank you for joining me. Iappreciate it. I know you're in this kind of like limbo stage Um, coveringthe NHL and covering the MLB. We know by now that both seasons are canceledalong with other pro sports and collegiat sports, but I just want totalk to you about how it affects you directly with both the panthers and theMarlin. So, first of all, how are you feeling have you wrapped? Your headaround all of this, yet no, it's still pretty surreal to know that, like yousaid it's just kindof limbo right now. It's just kind of a holding patternbecause we're still just waiting to really hear how both the NHL and MajorLeague baseball are going to handle um the start of the season and then forhockey potentially resuming this season, because there were still games left tobe played. So it's surreal is, I guess, the bestway to describe it and just kind of in this process of waiting beenalso very thankful that I'm not the one that has to come up with a resolutionas to how both leagues are going to handle things from here on out, becausethere's just so many things you have to take into accounts and, of course,public safety and health being the number one priority, but yeah it's just.It's obviously been a lot of news in the past couple of days or so, and alot to process in a short amount of time. So first we heard about the NBAshutting down and then you know the writing was kind of on the wall. Wefigured that the NHL would make the same decision and then obviously the mill be followed, so starting with hockey take us into the behind thescenes of how you found out that everything's shut down yeah. Well,that's kind of interesting about the whole process is I cover what sixtyfour out of eighty two regular season games and I do travel on occasion, butthere are road trips that I don't travel for, so we had just finished upa couple of home games at the bbnt center and then the FLORDOF panthersactually left to go on a road trip to play St Louis in Dallas. I wasn't onthat road trip, so I actually wasn't...
...really around the team at the time thatall the decisions were being made. I just you know. Like you mentioned, wesaw the news with the NBA and you figured because the NBA and the NHLshare, so many venues and locker rooms that the NHL would most likely followsuit and also temporarily suspend the season by just reading everything andseeing some of the news releases and seeing some of the text. Messages Umfrom the organization and just kind of ask things were developing. The teamwas trying to keep us in as much of the loop as possible Um. You know we went from initiallythinking. Okay, maybe we're just going to be able to make some adjustment.Maybe we stop doing intermission interviews, we kind of switch up, howwe do obviously dressing room, sound and things like that, but we should beo k and then it went from that to well. This may be coming to a point wherewe're going to UM temporarily suspend the season, becauselooking at the bigger picture, you just want to make sure that everyone stayshealthy. Everyone stays safe and that nobody's in a position to spread theCORONAF Irus any further than it's already been spread. So it was more just following along withanycell insiders, seeing what they were saying, what they were hearing, keepingan eye out for team press releases and so forth, and then, when the decisionwas made, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday. I think it was Wednesday whenthe news came out. It was just making the switch from preparing tohost for the devils at the panthers when the Panthers wereturned to SouthFlorida to okay, I am going to be taking a break from hockey for a littlebit. Well, at least I can focus on preparingfor opening day, which is coming up in a few weeks, and then we kind of hearthat major leaue baseball is going to be smart and postponed the started theseason for two weeks and then all of a sudden you're like Oh man, okay, thisis becoming very real in the sense that now it's impacting what you do for a living, essentiallyand and totally like. That's not at all to to say that in a complaining way, oranything like that, because I agree public safety people being healthy. Allof us being smart is the number one priority, but I guess it just makes itbecome very real um when you're impacted in it. In that sense, ofcourse, and it feels even more real when you hear about an MBA player whotest riotive and you're like Oh right, wait. So really we should be takingthis seriously in sports. I think that's what freaked a lot of people oupeople that work in sports and and even just spectators- and the thing is youknow about specifically hockey dressing rooms- they're, not that big out of allthe dressing rooms out of all the locker rooms club houses. I think thathockey is definitely the most intimate of all for major sports, so when, when the when it came down that you like media, was not allowed in thedressing rooms even like leading up to that were players, like speaking evenjust casually about like. Oh, maybe we should be careful like. Was it a topicof conversation in dressing rooms or not at all? I don't think it was somuch a topic of conversation in dressing rooms or at least if it wasamongst the players. It probably reached the point where media was notallowed to go into the dressing rooms any longer. So it's not like. We reallyheard those conversations, but that policy also was not implemented untilthe panthers were on the road. So, while I was still covering home games,we were still allowed to go into the dressing room and once the panthersleft to go on the road, that's when...
...some of the changes started takingplace. So I didn't necessarily experience any of the changes firsthand, but I did see some of the adjustments that they were making withhow the media was able to interact with players and Um. You know, obviously, the keeping safedistances um not going into the dressing room things like that to totry and get ahead of it Um so, like I said, I didn't really necessarily seeit first hand. I more Sau it second hand Um, because the team was on the road, I'mjust thinking back to my time with the Rangers when I travelled with the team-and I just remember, even if a player had the flu, he was pretty muchquorantined because you don't want to get anyone else sick, and so I'm justlike imagining how they're trying to keep everyone safe now and it's notsomething you've ever dealt with before, like people have gotten the flu foreverand ever and you just you- know, se in your hotel room if you're on the roador you stay home if you're home and now, like yes, quarantine yourself. But howdo we keep this from spreading when it's spreading? Anyway? That's what'sscary in sports right and that's kind of what puts it into perspective as towhy it's so important to make the decisions that the Nashel andthe NBA and Major League baseball are making, because you really, you knowyou think to yourself. Well, I'm a healthy person. I take care of myself.I work out. I do this. I do that. I take vitamins whatever it may be. Likeyou think to yourself all right, I'm a pretty healthy person. I'd probably beOK. If I did come down with it, I'd probably be able to fight it off, butthe more you think about it. How many people come into arenas and the varyingages of fans, or even you know, people who work entarly in the building willmaybe that's seventy five year old usher who's been doing that job foryears, maybe he doesn't have the same ability to fight off. You know a pretty lethal virus,something like that. So taking that perspective and expandingit beyond yourself or even expanding it beyond well professional athletes,they're in such good shape, they're so healthy. They probably wouldn't youknow, catch it or spread it or whatever, and just like you pointed out, you knowwith Gober, obviously coming down with it, and and now you see how easy it isfor it to spread nd and all that all that goes along with it. So youkind of sort of start to step back and see the importance behind why thesedecisions are being made as hard as it is. To wrep your mind around the factthat right now we have no hockey, we have no basketball, wehave no college basketball. We have golf that's in a holding pattern, Imean it really is impacting in hiwords world and it's something we've neverreally seen before. I know that's the craziest part and Ifeel like we could spend so much time talking about that and a lot of peoplealready have so truthfully. I think that we covered enough of what's goingon now, Um. I I want to get more into you and your job and how you got towhere you are as well Um so covering both hockey and baseball they're,pretty different sports. So if you could pick your favorite part of eachseason for each sport, what would it be yeah? It's so funny, because a lot ofpeople have asked me throughout the past several years. You know coveringbaseball covering hockey, which are too incredibly different sports. You knowwhich one do you like best and I always say it's so hard to pick between thetwo, because they are so incredibly different and there are things that Ilove about. Each one and I've thought a lot to answer a question about what Iappreciate and enjoy about each sport m...
...with baseball. I know people are like.I can be so slow. I I just it can't hold my interest and so forth and so on,and I think to myself, but man baseball is such a game of chess right, whether it'spitcher versus hit er, whether it's why you're hitting and you know,running like why you're intentionally walking ahitter like why you'reshifting against there's so much strategy behind it, and once you startto think along those lines, it just becomes so much fun to always try andthink those three or four steps ahead as to what's going to happen next Um, and so I think, with baseball. I justabsolutely love thes strategy and I love that it is such a chestmatch and Ilove that it involves so much thinking with hockey. Man Hockey is justexciting. You know you know from your time covering the Rangers teams spendso little time in the neutral zone. You know you're either in the offensivezoner the defensive zone. Ninety five percent of the game so you're eitheralways trying to score the puck or stop a team from scoring so there's justalways so much action Um, and even if it is a two one final or one, nothingfinal. There is so much action throughout the course of a game thatit's just so exciting to watch from start to finish and Um. You know I so I love, I love howcompletely different hockey and baseball art, but I love how beautifulthey are in their own unique way. So I I mean I've, I think about it every dayhow incredibly blessed. I am to cover two sports that I absolutely love butlove for incredibly different reasons, so it always keeps it fun, so I've never covered baseball. So Ican't speak to the players, but I had covered primarily football and a littlebit of soccer um before going to New York to cover the Rangers- and I just remember not knowing anythingabout hockey players like who they were as people. So my question for you is interms of telling stories about them and interviewing them. What is the biggestdifference between hockey players and baseball players? I don't know if there's that big of adifference between how I approach telling stories about the players, beit hockey or VAT baseball the way. I always look at how I want to tell anystory about a player you know we have play by play. We have an analyst and Ilike to try and leave most of the XS nos to those guys right there they'regoing to know more about the sport most likely than I could ever really hope to know, especially withour analysts, having usually played the sport themselves. So what I like to do-and my approach to telling stories is what can I tell people about this guyto help them know them better as a person as afather as a son as a brother? As you know, a huge fan, O music as a guy whohad an uncle that played in the League or whatever it may be, because I thinkwhen you know, I think, when you feel like you know aplayer not just as their position but as a person. It makes you feel moreinvested in the game. It makes you feel more invested in a sport and it makesyou feel more invested in wanting to pull for somebody Um, and I always tell people you know it's, it's so much fun getting to coverone team rather than the whole league, because you really get to know theseguys so well and especially baseball. I mean my goodness: you spend more timewith these players. Then they probably...
...spend with their own family throughoutthe course of a season. So you just get to know people really well and, and themore you get to know a person you know on a personal level, the moreyou want to cheer for then, and so that's kind of one of the the mainthings that I really try and focus on Um when I'm, when I'm doing storiesfrom the sidelines for either hockey baseball or really any sport that Ihave covered throughout the course of my career well, on the other side ofthat you've been covering these two teams for how long now this is going tobe my sixth year and I'm just wrapping up my fifthseason of Panther's hockey so with some of these guys for several years now. So the challengethat comes with that is, you have to get creative in telling new storiesabout the same players. Now, of course, there's you know there are new playersand players come and go, but that's still a challenge to find new ways todo that. Yeah and I think, that's kind of the fun part of it is. What canyou constantly continue to be learning about people Um? There's always storiesto tell even throughout the the course of a tough season, there's alwaysstories to tell. Sometimes you just have to dig a little bit harder forthem and I think it's also. I think it's also fair every once in a while tobring back a story from the past, because vewers are always coming andgoing right, you're always gaining new viewers Um. So you may have a great story and youfeel like it's worth telling again. So maybe you want to retall the same storybut find a little bit of a a newer spin on it or an update on it, or somethinglike that. So I think Um ie definitely revisited stories throughout the years.But yes, it is a very fun challenge to constantly be finding new stories totell especially in baseball. You know we face the braves and the mets and thephillies and the nationals so many times throughout the course of theseason, so sometimes when you're seeing the same team over and over ung who tokind of get a little bi a little bit creative but um. I like challenges. I I always O. Ialways want to be getting better right. We should never find a place in in anycareer where we're like, ok, I', finally mastered it, I'm good there's,nothing else. I need to work on. I always want ta get creative. You alwayswant to keep digging. You always want to find fun stories. You always want toget to know the game better. You always want to get to know the players better.So that's Kindof the fun one of the fun challenges that goes along withcovering the same team, as is like you said, just finding ways to be creativeand and finding new stories to always be able to tell fans yeah. Definitely Itotally agree. Can we go back to young jess for a little bit? Ow theyare, not young, now, but Younyoung jest. Did you know that you always wanted to get into sportsbroadcasting? So I knew in seventh grade that I wanted to be a reporter. Itook a broadcasting class as an elective and middle school andabsolutely fell in love with it and I'll be totally honest. One of the mostexciting aspects of it was the first time that somebody said Hi to me in thehallway, and I had no idea who they were, and I just assume maybe they hadseen me on the morning announcements. I think that's oent that I was like. Yes,I totally want to do this with my life t it was when I was seventeen years old.I was junior in high school. I fell head overheels and love with theFlorida basketball team that made it to the national championship game andeventually lost in Michigan State. I just I loved that team. I lovedwatching them watch like almost every...
...game of March madness that year Um just following the gators journey, andI just remember thinking to myself how much fun would it be to get to toreport on sports like how much fun would it be to get to talk aboutcollege basketball, and so it's seventeen years old, I I you know I was like I want to go tothe University of Florida. I want to study journalism, I wanto work one dayfor ESPN or Fox sports or whoever it may have been at the time like that'swhat I want to do with my life and so to be sitting here at thirty sevenyears old, and no, that I've had the chance to cover the N fl and the NBAand majorly baseball and hockey, and do some college basketball and do somecollege football. And I mean it s just every single day, I'mjust overwhelmed with gratefulness, and it blows my mind that I get to sit hereand say wow I get to do exactly what I always knew. I wanted todo. That's just such a blessing absolutely, and I also want to make aside note that we are proof that gaiters and seminals can be friends. I know that's hard and I I still youknow. I think we hold that against each other, but we find a way to to move on. That's just life right. I think it willbe fun to tell this story of how we even know each other. In the firstplace, we obviously didn't meet in college because we were there atdifferent times and we went to separate schools rigbut. I think it's kind of afun story, so I tell my side first Um I was working in Tampa at the timeoutside of Tampa. I was at a subersuber small radio station and I got a joboffer to move three hours up to Jacksonville to become the Jaguarsreporter for the radio affiliated for the team. Ten toxel. Ninety two pointFivefm as you knowjess, and as I'm learning more and more about the areaand the team. I make this announce in on H, social media, that I have thisnew GIG and I'm so excited and people are reaching out to me on social mediaand saying just so. You know the girl you're replacing is awesome. You havereally big shoes, TA L and I'm like twenty three at the time,so I do not have enough experience to have thick skin or to like brush thosethings off. So I'm like. Oh my gosh, like what am I going to do everyonealready hates me from the beginning. I haven't even got there like I'm likethinking myself out before I even get there Um. Obviously that was for noreason at all, because I ended up loving it, and I know you can speak tothis as well. conipent a lot more to imptocleam in and you worked hard andyou found your place right away. So that's a massive credit to you as wellfor being able to to go in and transition so easily and so smoothly.Well, thank you. I appreciate that Um. I have to admit that it was. It wasscary, but still to this day it's one of my favorite places that I've everworked and ever lived. Really, I mean the people, the community, the Jaguars,the everyone at the station like everything about that town is justhomemy. It's warm and write people I mean I still keep in touch with themlike it could not have been a better place for me, but I guess the point I'mtrying to make is that, especially in this business, we really have to beable to tune out the noise and really just focus on being our best selves. Wecan't let people who don't even know us have control over the way we feel aboutourselves, because what? If I let that get to me so much so that I'm like I'mnot doing it, I can't it's too much pressure Um! I I don't know how I got the courage to do it, but I'm soglad that I did because I loved it there well and it speaks to what afamily ten tx. Ninety two Poin, five FM...
...still is the Fahoa um one just how supportive everyone was of both of us. While we were therethe things that were encouraged for us to take on that. You know a lot of women hadn't donebefore, like helmets and heels, which was awesome to be able to be a part ofUm. You know to be trusted to go and cover an NFL team and and B really oneof the main sources of getting interviews from inside the locker roomand developing relationships, and things like that. But I love that when I go back andvisit Jackson Mill, I always try and go and sit in with the radiosation, and Ithink I love that oath relationships like they will. Theywill be in existence forever, and you know, even when I'm sixty years olddriving home to visit my family, if frank and hays and all those guys are still therethey'll be like just come and sit in the jog wars. Let's talk about some ofyour favorite baseball, you know what I mean like it would still happen. Youknowtotall down the road. I think that's one reason why I love radio somuch because I had a totally different experience in radio in Tampa. It wasvery, it was way smaller and the people. I don't want to speak ill of them, butit it was not the same at all. In fact it was. It was kind of the opposite M,which is really sad, but I always like to encourage younger people to startsmall, because you do get an opportunity to do a little bit ofeverything, and even though that radio station is the affiliate for the team,it was small enough where I felt that I could literally do whatever I wanted. Icould pitch any idea and they'd be like yeah go for it and I would go and do itlike. I wanted to do more on camera stuff. So I'm like I'm, going to take aCamerao, Jacks practice and record myself, and it was really terrible, butlike it just you know, it gave me reps and it was just. It was a big deal thatthey like it's just such a family where they're constantly building you up andthat's really important at any point in your career. But for me it wasimportant towards the beginning. We and I think that it's very important forbroadcasters, if they have the opportunity to work in radio to takeadvantage of it. becase thousand percenring in radio made me so muchbetter for television because you know like in radio. Okay, let's say you havea twelve minute segment and you have to hit braks at a certain time right. Soyou have a twelve minute segment. You've prepared notes, you've, preparedtopics that you want to talk about. Well, maybe you fly through them andyou get through your twelve minute segment in eight minutes. Well, youcan't break four minutes early so now to just be able to fill for fourminutes, and four minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but when you just have totalk, it really become a long time and so radian ahead as a treadmill minute.If you have a Tralminulong, four minutes in radio is a long time hour. Sometimes it's just such a great way to really learn how to develop your skillsof adliving really learn how to develop your skills of incorporating yourpersonality into your reporting Um. I don't there's just so many so manygood things that you can learn doing radio that will just make you that muchbetter in the long run. So I really any time somebody askd me for advice. Imean there's a lot of things that ID tell Hem, but one of the things that Idefinitely hit on is, if you get an...
...opportunity to work in sportsstockradio, take it because you will be better off for it. I totally agree evenfor me. I was I wasn't shy, but I think there's this there's this element ofradio. where, because no one can see you you're willing to open up more andbe yourself more ecause, you know no one can see you. It's definitely amental thing, but that really helped me gained confidence for sure yeah, andI'm glad that you mentioned at the kind of the beginning of the story: AbaltTen tonexcel in ninety to pint five SM, the importance of not letting outsidenoise impact, how you felt about yourself or how you felt about takingthe opportunity, because that's another thing that I always try and mention, Ithink not only in your career but in life in general. That's another thing Itry and and tell people don't ever let anyone else determine yourself worthyour self value or just how you feel about yourself in general, because weknow, I think, one of the hardest things with what we do for a living iseveryone makes mistakes right. Everyone every single day in some canacity makesa mistake at some point. Well, when we made mistakes, our mistakes arebroadcast to in audience. Everyone knows about it only did you feel badabout the mistake you just made, but with social media and how accessibleeveryone is to everyone. Nowadays, people love to point it out, and it'sso I've always said to myself and it took time to learn this lesson and ittook a lot of ups and downs, but I I just finally made the decision I waslike you know what I am going to always be the at the endof the day. My biggest fan, I'm not going to letanything whether it's the the really good or the not so good, I'm just notgoing to let it dictate how I feel about myself and my job performance,because you're going to constantly be on this rollercoaster ride of ups anddowns. If I, at the end of the day, can say to myself, you know what I preparedas hard as I could. I worked as hard as I could. I did the best job possible. Iknew how then I feel like at the end of the day. I can rest my head easy. So that to me is another thing you knowalways just being. Sometimes your biggest fan is so important, especiallyin this business. Definitely and there's a lot of noise, whether it'scoming from fans of the team you're covering um top executives. That networks whenyou're trying to get a job Um. Anyone and everyone has an opinion and it isdifficult, and I think it's a daily thing for you to remind yourself Rightr,just stick to who you are stay trea to yourself and just keep moving forward,because that's really that all all any of us can do truthfully, which bringsme to the question. What is something you've had toovercome, either personally or professionally in order to move forwardHM? That is a good question Um and one that maybe I would have to think aboutfor a little bit Um, because I, I will admit I've. I've beenvery, very lucky moving down here to south Florida, Marlins fans and Pantherfans have been so awesome to me so incredibly good to me and so supportiveand in Jacksonal Jaguar fans, ten Tex celonae to point by the FAM listeners.You know I still get really nice sweets from people who listen to theradiostation who are like we're so proud of you we're so proud ofeverything that you've accomplished. We miss you here, but it's so great to seewher you're going that's so nice. I I am so incredibly grateful for that. Soincredibly, grateful, I think maybe one of the biggest challenges was mostlikely when I was first starting out. I...
...was so lucky in the sense of I workedbehind THA SCENES FOR E SP N for five years and Foxwortz Florida with no priortelevision. Experience gave me a chance and my first sever assignments werehigh school basketball, the High School Basketball State finals in Lakeland. SoI worked the Guswegen one weekend and the girl's weekend, the next weekendand a month later, Um Fox sports fora called the executive Proofer at thetime Ned tate and gave me the chance to cover the magic give me the chance tocover the NBA, and I think the biggest challenge. Those first couple of yearswere just getting comfortable just learning how to not have everythingmemorized learning how to listen, because there were so many times whereI would do an interview with a player, and I would be so concerned about mynext question that I wouldn't even listen to what they were saying. Youknow, yg Yo have to almost learn how to listen. It's not Wyou have to learn.You absolutely have to learn, and I I learned the hard way a couple of times.I would either rewatch an interview or someone else would mention why didn'tyou follow up all right, x, Yz and I'm like honestly, I did' I di, hear it I'm or with you like somebody would belike. Oh you know, I saw you just talk to so, and so what did they say and Iwould be like Um. That's a great question. I they saidBecaus onely, like I wasn't listening, and so that was a big challenge andthen also I was. I was not working every game. I was only working likeMarkuy game, so I'd work, a game. Then I'd have two weeks off. Then I'd work,another game, then I'd have a week off and I'd work another game than havethree weeks off, so it was really tough to get into a rhythm, and I meanI was super grateful for the Games. I was able to work, but it wa. It washard to get into a rhythm and get comfortable. So I think the biggestchallenge. Those first couple of years was just really learning how to becomfortable, how to be confident in myself and not question every singlething that I was doing o whether I was doing it right whether I was oing itwrong. What other people thought about how I was doing things Um, and so those first couple of years wereall about growing, but they were about growing in front of a larger audience.You know to get your first opportunity at a regional sports network. Is suchan incredible incredible opportunity, but it's sometimes tough, when yoursfirst starting out learning how to do this job, because practice makes perfect rightlike it takes repetition. It takes time it takes working, Moltopul, multiple games, andI'm not talking about twenty or thirty. I mean I'm talking about working,hundreds of games and, finally, just finding your groove and finding how tobe comfortable and confitent in yourself. So I thin- maybe that was thebiggest challenge- is just learning how to go from having no confidence, having no beliefthat I was cabable of doing this job to finally just reaching a point where,like I said, learning how to believe that, yes, this was something that Icould do and Um something that I knew I had wanted to do for so long,so to fully fully take advantage of the opportunities that I had been given. I don't really like the phrase fake ittill you make it, but there's another version that I think is sort of true. Ithink that you, almost especially in the beginning, trick yourself intobeing more competent than you are just so that you eventually start believingit and you start acting that way, especially on camera. You know if you,if you are not saying what you're saying with conviction, no one's goingto believe you, even if everything...
...you're dying, is correct. There's noreason for anyone to not believe what you're saying or not listen to you. Butif you are questioning yourself and it comes off that way, then you'reautomatically not good at what you're doing so. I sort of had to trick mybrain into like you're the best at this you are so great, like likeyoyouliepump yourself up just to get to a mon of like. I need to be confident in whatI'm saying so that people see that, and they see that I know what I'm talkingabout and that's an art. Well, and I don't know if for you, butI think for me too, just learning how to be myself right, like all, have amenir in this industry. We all have someone that we want to be like and forme, like, I literally, I was lucky enough to work with aarin Andrews forthe five years that I worked behind the scenes three SPN and she was supergreat to me and she would let me tag along on the sidelines and she would.Let me ask questions- and I remember she sat with me in the lobby of one ofour hotels one day and basically just encouragedme to follow my dreams of being on camera, and so when I first got my onair like first opportunity, I didn't want to be just to blaylock. I wantedto be Air Andrews. You know what I mean like. I wanted to do everything the waythat she did things Um and I eventually had to learn how tidjust be myself and not try to copy someone else.So I think that was part of that learning process too, of course, takingthings that I had learned from Aarin and implementing them into my style, butnot trying to be somebody. I wasn't just really figuring out how to bemyself and let my personality play into who I was as a journalist as a reporter.Definitely and I'm glad that you bring aarin up and and how grecious he was toyou, because the main reason why I started this show truthfully is becauseI love the Camaradere of women in this industry, and I wanted to do more tohighlight that m. So I would like for you to leave us with awoman who inspires you or someone. You know well anyone you work with that. Ishould ask to be on my showf. Well, I would say, as far as my role models lake, I thinkDorsburk is hands down the best in the business and one of the things that Ilove so much about Dorsburg is. She can literally do anything she can host. Shecan report, she can be analysts, she can be color and the thing that really stands out to me about her isyou can tell the players, have so much respect for her, like they call her byname. They have combobutions with her they Li and to me that that speaks more thananything, because when you have the respect and the trust of players andcoaches and so forth, that's when you know you're doing things right like Idon't care. If someone thinks I look good on cameraor not, I really don't like what I care about is do I have the trust andrespect of the teams and the players that I cover have I proven to the fan base that I'mtrying to do the best job I possibly can to cover the teams that they loveso much like those are the things that matter to me. Um. I don't know how easyit would be for you to get doorspark on your Pi, a leding with anothersuggestion M, I'm shooting for the stars here Iwould go my girl, Kelsey wingart Um, who justbeencorrect with seasons covering the braves, who, I think is a tremendoustalent and it's so so far beyond her ears of how good shealready is in this business, or, I would also say, Um one of my girls that helps cover eitherthe marlins with me, Kellisaco or the...
Panthers with me, Katy Goz. I thinkthose are all just tremendous recommendations. I think I think allthree of those ladies be at Kelsey Bat Kelly or be it Katy um would all befantastic. That's what's so cool to me is it was so easy for you to not nameonly one but to keep going, and I bet you could you could keep going andgoing and going and again that's why I want to do this because there are somany and I eventually would like to get into people that are more behind thescenes as well, because there are a lot of women that are top executives, thatare producers that are NPR that are working behind the scenes that are doan working and really amazing, staing, absolutely ye it's just. We don't seethem. We happen to see you all the time and all the other amazing women thatyou just mentioned. So, yes, I will add them to my list forsure, but you're doing an awesome job. You just just said that you know youhope that the fans trust you and the players trust you you've been therelong enough. I think your work speaks for itself. I don't! Please know thatyou are amazing at what you do. Thank you so much. I really Wonn't believethat, and I'm super super superhonored to have had the chance to join you on thispodcast. Thank you jess. I appreciate it. Um Good luck in this weird limbotime, and hopefully we will get to see you on the TV very soon ot to spend with mypuppies and Soll, then so I'll soak up every second, it's like hanging out. Iget to hang out with my children. I'll put it that way. I get to hang out withmy little boy and my little girl. Yes, technically they are Chihuahuas, butstill I love Aon thing better than Papeli World Yeah exactly I am one thousand percent certain thatpuppy hangs are what's keeping me sane during this time. A day spent with mydog is never a bad day. I hope you learned more about Jessica and herpassion for sports as a whole, especially the panthers and the Marlins.You can tell she is obsessed with her job and she really cares about that fanbase south Florida. You are very lucky to have her I'd love to get your feedback on our chat, subscribe rate and review and leave a comment. So I knowwhat you want more of thanks for listening.
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