USFL broadcasts require 'at least' 100 people to get games on air | Behind the scenes

Jun. 29—It takes a village to raise a child, the ancient proverb says, and it also takes a village to put a football game on television if the network is going to give fans what they want.

Mark "T-Man" Teiitelman will be producing the FOX network telecast of the USFL championship game at 7:30 p.m. July 3 between the Philadelphia Stars and Birmingham Stallions at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. He said "at least 100" people are involved in putting a game on the air.

"Whenever you see the credits at the end of a movie, you see a lot of names of people doing things you don't even know exist," Teitelman said in a phone interview before the USFL semifinal games in Canton last weekend. "It's the same here. We have an army of technicians and camera operators, tape operators and logistics people. It really takes in excess of 100 people to put a show like this on the air."

Mitch Riggin is the director of the USFL telecast. He said his first job when he gets to the stadium for a game he is directing is deciding where to put the cameras. The next step is talking to the camera operators so each operator understands his or her role.

The FOX television USFL director Mitch Riggin (with glasses), director Mark Teitelman and technical director Lindsey Plosjac get ready inside the production truck for a game last weekend at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. pic.twitter.com/I5aE4fn0Tc

— Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) June 29, 2022

Fans lounging on their couch at home, nibbling munchies and sipping a cold drink while watching a game on television might suddenly see what is on their screen go from game action to a sideline shot or fan reaction in the stands. Maybe it will be a player reaction after a good or bad play, a coach covering the mouthpiece on his headphones while calling a play into his quarterback or something else. Riggin has to make a split-second decision on which camera to go to while watching a bank of monitors as he sits inside the production truck.

"In the end it comes down to I select what goes on the air visually," Riggin said. "Mark will call the replay sequences, but I'll say, 'Go to A!, Go to A!' So anything you see on the screen, I verbally put there, is the best way to describe it.

"I'm like an auctioneer. I do talk fast. I tell my camera operators they have to listen fast. When people come to visit the truck, they tend to not realize how many people are behind the scenes, which is great because fans shouldn't be thinking about what we're doing. They should be enjoying the game. We're kind of like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz."

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Teitelman compared his production team to a football team. As the producer he is like the head coach and Riggin is the quarterback.

"I have a game plan for how I want this game to be attacked, but my quarterback is out there and he's making adjustments live to that game plan," Teitelman said. "He's making it better. He's seeing the field differently than I am. If you have a good relationship with your quarterback, then you can change the game plan as you go."

Teitelman compared the center on a football team to the technical director on the television crew. Lindsey Ploszaj has that job for the USFL telecast on FOX. Just as the center has to know the snap count, Plosjac has to know which of the hundreds of buttons on the control panel to press when Riggin makes the call on which camera, replay or graphic to use.

"She's phenomenal," Teitelman said.

Riggin sits in a chair in the producer's truck with about 140 monitors in front of him. He said he can focus on about 50 monitors at the same time. His experience has taught him to anticipate where the ball will go and therefore which camera to use.

Riggin said he and most of the camera crew have been together for 20 or more games on FOX during USFL telecasts. They also teamed together for some Sunday night telecasts on NBC. So they know how to work together.

Riggin said 25 manned cameras will be in operation for the title game. Another 25 or so will include helmet cameras, umpire cameras, pylon cameras, a drone, on-field hand-held cameras and line-to-gain cameras — close to 50 in all.

That yellow line seen on your screen marking the line to gain? Riggin said it requires four people to make that operation work properly because of all the calibration necessary to show the line accurately.

"As a television story, we all feel like this has been successful," Riggin said. "The coaches have been a big part of it, and they've played along. To have all their calls over the air — we can listen in. We have unprecedented access, and I'm sure some of this stuff will be developed in other leagues as well.

"We can put our sky-cam on the defensive side, which we aren't allowed to do in the NFL or college. There are so many things that have been ground-breaking television-wise; having the cameras on the field, listening in to the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator, the head coach. We have cameras dedicated just to shooting 16 miked up players on each team and an editor dedicated specifically to building audio packages."

Riggin's experience as a director came through at a precise moment of a game between the Pittsburgh Maulers and Philadelphia Stars during a game played June 12 in Birmingham, Ala.

Isiah Hennie of the Maulers fielded a punt at the Pittsburgh 47. Cody Brown of the Stars stopped Hennie with a vicious hit to Hennie's helmet. Hennie walked to the sideline and spit out a wisdom tooth knocked loose in the collision. It was all caught on camera.

"It was incredible," Riggin said excitedly. "We had the hit live and then we had the guy miked up afterward saying, 'Yeah, I lost a tooth. It was just a wisdom tooth. It was cracked anyways.' He got some free dental work out of it.

"Having access like that, being able to turn it around in a matter of minutes as opposed to a week or so, is unequivocally successful. We hope to continue to do this and we hope it pushes other leagues to let us have more access to see things fans have been wanting to see."

The USFL has already announced it will return for 2023.