Peter Schrager’s Big Day

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2:00Congratulations. You made the varsity for the podcast. My name is John Aranda, and I'm Puck's sports correspondent and the host of this pod. First of all, congrats to Peter Schrager, who debuted a new show on ESPN last Thursday called Big Day with Peter Schrager. Peter's my guest today, and this is going to be a fun one. But before we get to Peter, today is Sunday, September 13th, and here's what I'm watching. Before the Rams and the 49ers opened the season in Australia, Roger Goodell sat down with CNBC's Alex Sherman for an interview. Goodell didn't break much new ground, but he did say something that I've been ranting about for years.

2:35The NFL, Goodell said, is starting to evaluate whether it should repackage its current media packages. To which I say, it's about time. A quick little history lesson. Back in 1970, the NFL decided to sell an NFC package to CBS and AFC one to NBC, and it created a primetime package called Monday Night Football that it sold to ABC. Today, the NFL's media packages look remarkably similar to the ones that it sold back in 1970, an NFC one, an AFC one, and some primetime ones. So how can the NFL change the packages so that they conform better to the 2026 media environment. Now, I really don't have a good answer to this.

3:16Maybe the NFL starts flexing games the whole season, assigning games to networks in September, October, and November, rather than back in the spring when the schedule comes out. Networks will hate that, of course, as they'll have to adjust the way that they sell ads, but they will adjust. Anyway, it's a fun thought experiment. As for now, let's get to Peter Schrager. Peter Schrager, thank you for coming on the pod, first of all. Second of all, you're wearing a blazer. Yeah. You launched a show on ESPN that has your name in it, and you didn't have a blazer, a tie, like you're standing around. But you come on the varsity, and you dress up for me.

4:00I can't thank you enough. It shows me a lot of respect, I think, right? Hi, John. And when you have the words Puck and you have the last name Orand, you come dressed to impress. This is like a black tie affair for me. I know the market here is a little different than the two o 'clock Eastern market watching ESPN. The market here are industry leaders. It is essentially the trade magazine of our industry. And I would not want to show up dressed like a schlub to be interviewed by you. you know i described you in uh my newsletter on thursday as a puck super fan so i appreciate that but i i do want to say like i think everybody can can tell like i'm a big fan of peter schrager i've i met met met you at the very beginning of your career and i've just seen you know uh i've seen i i've been it's been so fun to follow your career seriously because it what i notice is that it's hard work of course because anybody that you know ends up with their own show on espn has worked hard to get it but it's also like you prioritize relationships and you just have a positive outlook and like i kind of i i i want to go through um your road to get to hosting big day with peter schrager on espn five days a week when when i when we first met which i think was like 2007 uh 2008 is is this what you expected your career to be is it is not expected is this what when you set your goals was this like a goal of yours that that you set back then like i take me through how you went from this this like schlub like really nice kid but uh to to being the uh the host being the host of an ESPN show daily.

5:47I think that's part of the, what would you say? Schlub is, Schlub seems insulting, but the common guy who's just, that was harsh. I know. I'm sorry. I'll take Schlub, but I'll tell you what, I've been in the gym working. I'm trying to shed that thing. The truth is when you met me, I, it was 2007, 2008. I was writing for Fox sports.com writing NFL stuff. And the stuff I was writing about was, you know, I love the stories of the New York Giants. And I love where, you know, this team has turned things around. And then it's, you know, eventually we go on from doing writing to then getting a dream opportunity from Pete Radovich and inside the NFL and letting me be their editorial contributor with those guys.

6:34Then eventually Jacob Ullman and John Entz and Eric Shanks put me on sidelines for Fox. And then FS1 starts and Jamie Horowitz is like, all right, we'll throw you a bone. You can try to do this. So each step along the way, there was no expectation of forget even having my own show on ESPN. I remember making it to ESPN. This has always been one day at a time. And what a cool opportunity this is. So it comes across as like maybe short-sighted or maybe not the most ambitious thing. But I didn't go to broadcast school. I didn't go to journalism school. I didn't ever had this expectation of someday I'm going to sit atop the mountain.

7:11If you told me in 2007 that someday I would be doing a Fox NFL sideline game, I would have said, great, sign me up. We're good. So all this is just almost extra. But now that I'm here, yeah, I want it all and I want to do great TV and I want to make it great content. So my story is one of perseverance and being honest and being real and being authentic and just not being an asshole and being a good person. And when someone texts you, text them back. And when someone says congratulations on the new show, that's them going out of their way to show love. Show love back. It's always been very easy to be the person to jump on the bandwagon.

7:51But I like to look out for everybody in their career pursuits and people who are even down on their times. Like I like to check in every so often to see what they're up to and how I can help. And I think being a good person is not that hard and going out of your way. is not that difficult so my mantra is always it's easier and better to reach out than not to and all things come full circle and i feel like you know if you look at me as the schlub or the guy who came from nothing and shouldn't have ever had this opportunity that's cool because guess what that means it's possible and here i am and i'm trying to make the most of the opportunity you know what i love most about about your answer is that you i i speak at colleges uh pretty regularly.

8:34And the people that in college know exactly what they want to do and have a have a roadmap to do it is not my experience. It's more of your experience where you come up to a fork in the road and it's like, OK, let me figure out whether to go. Because, yeah, in 2007, I bet you would have said like, oh, wow, I'm going to I could retire as a sideline reporter. Yeah, I'll do that. And of course, that'll be it. I'll tell you a big fork in the road moment and why relationships matter. And this is true. 2016, I had never worked for NFL Network. Michael Davies, who runs Embassy Row, which is men in blazers and was Andy Cohen, Watch What's Happening Live, and the comedians in coffee.

9:17He's brilliant. British guy who has become a mentor of mine. He approached me and said, would you be willing to leave Fox where I was a regular on FS1 and I was doing NFL pregame show at this point, which we're willing to leave Fox to do Good Morning Football, an upstart NFL network show in New York. And I really thought about it. And there's life, there's money, there's all this stuff. And I went to my bosses who at the time were Shanks, Jacob Ullman, John Entz, Brad Zager, and then Jamie Horowitz at FS1. And I said, hey guys, I've been given this opportunity. I'm considering it. I want to be upfront with you that I'm considering this.

9:52And they all said, well, why don't you just work with us on the weekends and you do that on the weekdays. And it was one of the coolest responses. It was, you know, actually gracious. And then I ended up doing NFL network every day for 10 years on their morning show and then flew out every weekend to either a sideline assignment or the LA Fox studios. And I was able to build both of those careers almost simultaneously. And then, oh, by the way, they all let me go on Bill Simmons's podcast. And Simmons was amazing to me for all those years as someone who would come on as a guest. And all of a sudden I was able to build all these different footholds.

10:28And you might've known me from my writing. You might've known me from inside the NFL, or you knew me from good morning football or from going on Simmons's podcast, or of course, from all the work I'd done with Fox where it all comes together. And it's like, Oh, good people. These executives at every point could have shut the door and said, no, you can't do that. Or no, Simmons could have said, I don't want you on my podcast. You're doing Fox stuff. We're not with Fox, but everyone's been really cool along the way. And I think it's because at the end of the day, It's all how you treat people. What can you offer?

10:56And I feel like my content's always been pretty solid and I like to have a good time. Let's talk about a big day. You referenced FS1. You have a ton of studio shows on ESPN. You have YouTube. You have TikTok. You have all of this competition. What sets you apart? What are you trying to do with this show that's going to be different and make people tune into it. All right. So we've done one show and that was on Thursday and it premiered and we built it for like two months, everyday meetings. Like, what are we going to do that's different? What are we going to do? Can I interrupt you for a quick, I got to interrupt you for a quick second, Peter.

11:37On Peter's show on day one, you introduced the panelists and they come out and you gave them all a big bro hug. I loved it. I loved every part of that. I'm not sure if it went over well. So wait, so for two months, every second of that show, we were like, we're going to do this. we're gonna do this because it was all very by design and it was all great and then i called baker mayfield uh before he got his contract i'm like would you come on my show and he's like i don't know i'm in this contract but okay like i'll do it for you i called sean payton who's not doing any media and he was like i'll do it for you so i'm like all right already i've got two things in the back um but we decided that like the last second not gonna go shirt and tie gonna go smart casual we'll see how that goes i don't know how many outfits i have but we're gonna try it we decided to to not be just seated at the desk we said let's be standing up and then that introduction that was at the very last second we're like why don't we introduce the guys like you would introduce players or wrestlers coming out of the tunnel and actually give them their bona fides as they come in and we were like four-time all pro steve smith three-time pro bowler zach ertz dapped him up and all right let's talk football uh the goal i think of this show is to be a bridge in many ways.

12:46And the bridge, how I look at it, is a bridge in the day, in the daytime schedule for ESPN. So we're from two to three East Coast. A lot of times it's on in the hotel lobby or it's on your plane or it's on in the airport and it's just wallpaper. It's like, how do we be the bridge where it goes from McAfee, which is so high energy and so fun and take McAfee and carry that torch and then be the bridge to like the second half of the day where we lead to NBA Today and NFL Live and SportsCenter and then the big game of the night, whatever ESPN is showing. So that bridge, but also the bridge from yesteryear to the future.

13:22And by that, it sounds very ambitious, like I'm Elon Musk or something. But the fact is, I grew up loving the ESPN that I grew up with. And I'm talking like Craig Kilbourne's lines, I would write down on a notepad, and I would recite them at school the next day, because I thought resourceful was like most hilarious thing in the world. And Chris Berman could do no wrong in my book. And it was every Sunday night, I would get on that couch. And this is before Red Zone or before DirecTV really was in every household. And we'd get our highlights for the first time from watching NFL primetime. And that was everything.

13:54Grew up worshiping ESPN. I go on this career journey. I'm not jaded about ESPN. Usually when you go to Fox or other places, you're like, oh, ESPN sucks. I never had that. I'm like, ESPN is still ESPN. And then I got here and I'm like, they've got some really good stuff that's here right now. And I started working with producers. I'm like, SportsCenter is still very good, despite what you read. I love being on Get Up. I love being on First Tank. I love going on McAfee's show. I like NFL Live and what we're doing as an Emmy award-winning show. I'm like, there's a lot of good stuff here. So my hope is to maybe be the bridge between dipping into the nostalgia a bit more than the other shows do, even though Greenberg's been with ESPN for 30 years and Stephen A has helped build this whole New York situation here in ESPN, like show an old Chris Berman clip and not just show the highlight, toss to sound.

14:39And we're going to show a 1989 Rams Falcons highlight with Chris Berman on the call. Or by the way, I grew up, I loved, you know, Kenny Maine. Hey, let's go 2007. It's Cowboys versus Packers. Here's the sports center highlight that Kenny Maine did on that show. Let's toss to it and let's pay tribute to the guys who built this, this network and the gals who built this network and not shy away from, oh, we shouldn't be protective or defensive that everyone says, oh, I used to love ESPN. I don't love ESPN anymore. No, let's embrace what you used to love about ESPN and combine it with today's ESPN, which I'll tell you, John, is damn good.

15:15And I'm proud of being here and the work that's being done. So hopefully you watch our show, you turn the volume on, you see a good vibe and you're like, I like these guys. I like these guys and girls. I enjoy watching them talk sports and it looks like they're having fun on air as well. you talked about being a geek watching you know sports center uh your favorite um berman nickname what is it temple beth l johnson who was a wide receiver for the new england patriots beth l johnson and that is so deep cut and so in the temple beth l johnson was my favorite one but i could probably list you 50 of them and i've only met berman a few times my favorite story is like, and he's been great.

16:00Like he texted me when the show got announced, which is like crazy. 2013 Superbowl in Arizona flight back to the East coast is delayed after the famous Marshawn Lynch game where he throws the interception instead. And we don't get a second Seahawks Superbowl victory. And we do get the Patriots and Tom Brady and that amazing reaction. We're sitting there delayed. Chris Berman walks to the gate larger than life wearing like what It was essentially a giant straw hat. And he's the biggest guy at the airport. He's the biggest name, biggest face, talks to everybody. We don't know each other. I'm at the gate.

16:38He kind of puts his bag down and sits next to me and looks at me and nods. I'm like, hey, how you doing, Boomer? And he goes, you got Earl Campbell in the backfield and you're throwing the football. And then we just get right into it. It didn't matter who I was, where I was from, if I worked in sports. He just wanted to talk ball. And then we spent 30 minutes for a delayed flight sitting there talking about the decision. And I'm like, oh, this guy lives and breathes it. This is it. It's real. It's not an act. It's not a facade. This dude is legit. And that's kind of what I was raised on. Loving sports.

17:13And I know it sounds Pollyanna. And trust me, I live in New York. I've lived in New York for 20 years. I am a cynic in a lot of ways. But when it comes to the importance of sports TV and sports in our lives, I think it's real. and I want to be that show that you turn on and you're like, you could turn off the rest of the stuff in the world. And if there's a lot of stuff going on in your life that's bringing you down, put us on for an hour. We'll bring you up. You'll be excited and you'll actually feel good about yourself. All right, your first show was heavy in the NFL. Obviously, the NFL is kicking off the biggest sport that's out there.

17:44You had Baker Mayfield, Sean Payton. I know because we've talked earlier, you want this show to be about a lot more than just football. even though you do come from the NFL network and you're the sideline reporter. How much more outside of the NFL season? Let's say we're in like March right now. Are you still going to have your NFL segments? How much do you expect this? I feel like I'm trying to picture myself in like a car and I'm driving the car and it's manual and it's like, are we going this way or that? Like yesterday, for example, which we're recording this on Friday morning. on Thursday, I had all the information from the Rams themselves about their flight patterns.

18:25It was the biggest story in sports. I had the entire plan. They're texting me when they land. They're texting me when they're in the hotel room. They're texting me multiple guys like, Hey, we have a curfew here. We're going to be in this room. And then, so it's all right. I know I've got the best information out of anybody on this topic in the NFL, despite being the host and usually the facilitator and the point guard. I have the best information. I'm hearing it right from the sources, how they're traveling, what their strategy is, what they've done to prepare for this. Do I want to share that?

18:52And hey, look at me way. It's my, or am I going to take it back and kind of just present it? Those are the conversations that I've got to have with producers and say, how do we still take advantage of the information that I have with all my relationships in the NFL, which has made me, you know, the person that I am professionally up to this point and then transition it to, okay, but I'm the host. And I also love the U S open and And know that Tiafoe against Shelton is going to be the biggest match in American tennis since Sampras versus Agassi. And where do we stack that as far as priority? Because the fact of the matter is this, John, I am a sports fan.

19:29Professionally, I have been NFL, but I found myself watching that indoor golf on Mondays last year and having thoughts on that. You know, like, oh, you get me. And I love sports. Little League World Series, I was all in on this Bayonne team. I would have loved to have made a whole thing about the Bayonne team in Omaha and what they were doing. And they came up short. So, like, I love all sports. And the goal is going to be hitting on all sports. And not from this, we have to do it or check the box because ESPN is showing it. But because it's interesting to me and I'm curious about it. You know, Burke Magnus, who has been very instrumental in this version of ESPN and Mike Foss and Jimmy Pataro, of course.

20:11These guys are sports fans. and like Burke is a huge lacrosse person. So like he wants to talk lacrosse. I'm personally, I don't have a big background in lacrosse, but I'm interested in it. And if lacrosse is a topic that comes up, I'd like to tackle that. But I am a big fan of the New York Knicks and watching what they did for this city. And you go through different sports. I'm a guy who plays paddle. I know that's a hot topic in sports business right now. And if you call it padel, that's okay. I call it paddle. But that's a new sport that we haven't tackled here. I feel like there's a place for an hour, especially if it's in the off season of the NFL, we can do different sports.

20:52We can have different experts on. And again, spread love, have fun, and be smart about it.

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21:40Matthew Berry here, and my podcast, Fantasy Football Happy Hour, has the sleepers, bust, and start-sit advice you need to win your league. We're diving into the tape. We're crunching the numbers to bring you sleepers, bust weekly start-sit advice. Whether you're defending a title or desperately avoiding last place, I've got you covered every single weekday. The bar is open. It's Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry, wherever you get your podcasts. So one of the reasons I was happy to get you on, I'm happy to get you on anyway, but you could talk so much more than about X's and O's. And you seem to be very in tune with the business side of things that are out there.

22:20Off the field, what are some of the big storylines that you're following with the NFL right now? Yeah, the Australia game that's now in our rearview mirror is a good talking point, not only because of how the Rams approached it in their sleep and how it looked when they actually took the field. But because the NFL - By the way, I got to tell you, I was so happy to see the Rams get crushed in that because they seem so smarter than everybody. Oh, we got the plan. We got the plan. I think that's what it is. I don't think people like, the term is shout and fraud, obviously, and that's what everyone else had for this.

22:54But I don't think everyone liked around the league and at home, the thought of a dream team alone. That was enough. And when it's all this stuff about Sean McVay getting promoted to be on 60 Minutes throughout the week, and we see the commercial, and here's the boy genius and Les Snead's not going to give up five. I understand all that. Then you add on this departure from the traditional approach to a trip to Australia. I think people want to poke holes at it, but I will tell you this, and this is not me carrying water for them. I will just say this. As someone who's been doing this for a long time, do not read too much into week one.

23:29I would also look at this as a marathon. The Rams were not treating this game like necessarily nothing, but they also knew that this was one game and a piece of games that is a puzzle of 18 different regular season weeks that includes games on a Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas and a bunch of different primetime games where they're going to have to get out of their comfort zone. So this was their approach they went with. They got their ass kicked and trust me, they're eating it today, both publicly and I'm sure internally, they're not happy with how it looked um but yeah i know a lot of people said oh look the smart guys they got their lunch handed to him fine let's see how they respond week two week three week four when their bodies aren't on australia time and i think that was part of this decision as well yeah and it should be noted people wait for years you're at super bowl picks you you have a lot and uh you you you've been right more than you've been wrong uh making the super bowl picks and you have the rams i saw i do i had Rams over Ravens.

24:28But to your point about the off the field stuff, I think, you know, knowing the legal office, well, having worked for them, international is massive and flag football is massive. And the two of them are almost intertwined because they want to see the flag football be an international game. So you've seen Diana Flores, who has been in a lot of the different NFL promotional stuff, a woman who plays flag football for Mexico. That is like, all right, we've got our Venn diagram, like it all hits there. And that's the goal. We're hitting females. We're hitting flag football, which is a game that they think can really get kids playing at a young age and then also get boys and girls playing at a young age.

25:05And that all trickles down to a love for the sport, which means they're going to be watching on Sunday and playing at the high school level, then eventually becoming lifelong football fans. And then international, it's an untapped resource for them. Even still, as much success as they've had in the 20 years since going over to London, they're now hitting all these different markets. And as much as American fans begrudge it and they don't love the early wake times or the streaming, having to find it on streaming. To the NFL, this is an untapped resource and something that they see as a great, A, opportunity to spread the game and build new fans, but also B, financially.

25:42This is one where, hey, we've hit every bucket in America. We've hit every bucket with the guys who are ages 18 to 35. Now let's hit all the different spots in culture where we have an international women's flag football it's all there you know every time i ask people like what are the big off-field issues the first two things they mention are international and flag football just like you did international you can totally see that they started the season for goodness sakes in in australia you know division game yeah i with with high quality teams that uh that any one of the networks on netflix on exactly with a streamer that they want to get more involved in in the nfl because they're international all of it makes sense yes uh everybody also mentions flag and i'm i'm uh so i i know i know that intellectually that that's a big push for the nfl as a fan even as a a business reporter where am i seeing that where am i seeing this nfl push on flag yeah so at the youth level the nfl's investment has been massive and not everything that the nfl does is for necessarily television and for promote nfl play 60 and the nfl flag they sponsor most of these leagues across the country and they pour a ton of investment in time and money you've got team logos everywhere if you go to a a ball field in syosset new york in long island or you go to one in carmel indiana They're wearing the same pretty much standard uniforms, which are these NFL teams, whether it's the Bengals, the Colts, whoever, they break them up that way.

27:22That's where it shows up. But then this year in Indianapolis, they had the flag championship, and it was a major initiative from the NFL and from ESPN to really have a role. And then, of course, as we keep on going with the Olympics in 2028, the NFL isn't running away from this. They're not saying don't watch flag, watch pro. you're seeing the NFL really lean into it and say, hey, we're going to have Jalen Hurts on our commercial for the NFL Olympics. I'm not sure it's ever going to be a massive TV thing or that they can sell rights to a flag football league or whatever it is for TV rights. But I do know this is as grassroots as the NFL gets.