Working Hard to Stay in The Room
Every Monday, I will share a resident of the South Bay contributing to making our community a better place. Today’s MCM title belongs to Sean Boling, who has turned his love for football into a career at the NFL Network with hopes of only working harder than he did the day before.
Sean, 26, was born in Torrance, CA and raised in the South Bay. Upon graduating from South High School in 2007, he went to El Camino College and then transferred to U.C. San Diego soon after.
Today, Sean is a Production Assistant at NFL Network. Sean’s primary roles include graphics in which he writes, produces and operates the side ticker on live shows. In addition, he works on highlights where he assists the highlight producer and editor in producing a highlight. “I mark shots throughout the game and keep track of the entire game and press conferences,” he says.
A typical day for Sean depends on what he is assigned. “If I’m doing graphics, I will check which shows I’m assigned and prep for shows. This includes talking to show producers to gauge what they want on the show and how they want it written,” he says.
Sean has found that different producers want different ways of presenting their shows. When breaking news occurs, Sean must make decisions on the fly with everyone else since plans can be discarded at any moment for certain levels of breaking news. “If I’m doing highlights. I will check which game or sometimes games I’m assigned for the day,” he says.
Prior to creating content, Sean will do pre-game research which includes knowing story lines/injuries/producer guidelines. He calls this “purely teamwork.” The Highlight producer, Editor and Sean all have to be on the same page so that they know what to look for and also communicate if they notice anything that has a potential to contribute to the main story line of a highlight. This could entail an injury, arguments on the field or the sidelines, reoccurring themes or chasing a record.
Sean’s role is to essentially be the constant eyes and ears on the game. “It’s a lot of multitasking for all of us because the highlights are built on the fly and edited ASAP,” he says. Despite the fast pace, Sean finds the most enjoyment out of his job doing highlights.
“The process of creating a highlight is a mix of crazy and fun. Most of all it truly is a team effort building the highlights and I have been fortunate to bond and work some of our most talented producers and editors,” he says. He says his team and him have handled some of the craziest NFL highlights in the year that would often rattle the inexperienced, but they handled it in full stride.
Sean is most proud when his team’s work gets praised because he says it can be a real challenge. He became employed by the NFL Network with what he calls “a lot of luck and coincidence.” His high school friend works at NFL Network on the PR-side and he had met a producer golfing shortly after graduating. He made his interest known in the field and exchanged contact info and got interviewed and hired that fall after graduating.
“I’d love to say that I worked my ass off and got rewarded for it to pursue this career, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Networking is everything in this field to get your foot in the door, but it’s working hard that keeps you in the room,” he says. It is evident how much pride and commitment Sean has in being a wonderful contribution to the NFL network. Just last year, Sean worked every holiday including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
When asked how one can become a member of the NFL Network team, Sean explains that there are intern spots and entry-level positions that are usually in the fall for the season (applications start in the summer). “This line of work has a lot of jumping ship to other companies and ties with each other. Somebody always knows somebody here or there and build the right reputation for yourself there will always be an opportunity opened for you likely,” he says.
He says to also make yourself noticeable and be willing to learn new things and take criticism in stride. However, he says one must have a passion in sports or football to survive because that is what is going to fuel you to grind out the long and hard days you will encounter. “Everyone here has grinded out overnight shifts, super long OT shifts, getting up at all hours of the day for work, working sick etc. Times are different. Jobs are hard to come by and it’s highly competitive especially in this field so networking is the key to success,” he says.
When Sean is not working at the NFL Network, he enjoys watching Kings games and golfing during his off time. He has always been a huge hockey fan and says he loved the Kings through the great times winning the cup to the horrible times when they were a bottom feeder team continually floundering year after year.
Golf is something he picked up as a kid and never let go of. Playing golf is the best getaway for him no matter how good or bad the day is. “I could spend a day on the course just enjoy myself and the sights,” he says.
“If there was one thing I want to point out about NFL Network is the ridiculous amount of talent we have working here. There are a lot of men and women that work hard to create an awesome product day in and day out,” he says.
The NFL also engages and gives back to communities in many ways. “Whether it’s having employees volunteer at the Special Olympics, making a family’s dream come true with player’s events or games, highlighting players’ charitable ventures, holding clothing drives or school drives those are just a few ways our company gives back,” he says.
Thank you, Sean, for being a wonderful member of the South Bay community and inspiring others to pursue their greatest passions.
“Ultimately, if I didn’t take pride in work I contributed to, I was either not trying or wasting my time. I give myself goals every day to keep myself motivated and enjoy the process of the work I put in. I’ll admit it’s not a flawless process for me, but it keeps me grinding on the road of achieving even greater work.” -Sean Boling