NEW YORK — Tracy Wolfson’s preparation for a football game can start weeks in advance. As the sideline reporter for CBS’ top NFL broadcast team, she is charged with everything from reporting human interest anecdotes about the players to probing coaches on strategy during the game. The job requires voracious reading, and anytime she reads a story, a stat or a tweet with insight that might become relevant a few weeks from now, she saves the item to her Pocket app for later retrieval.
“It is the best app out there,” Wolfson said with the zeal of a convert, noting that she has urged co-workers and bosses alike to use Pocket. “I have changed everyone’s lives here.”
So fervent is Wolfson in her use of the app that she pulls out her phone to show a reporter, scrolling through what appear to be unending lists of links including stories related to the Kansas City Chiefs preseason game she recently broadcast as well as articles pertinent to an upcoming Tennessee Titans game and a tweet from Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans that she wanted to flag in advance of the Oct. 5 Thursday Night Football game she’d be covering. (The great benefit of Pocket is that links are saved for use offline, allowing Wolfson the chance to peruse the content on long flights.)
Her colleague Jamie Erdahl stressed the use of streaming NFL Game Pass to review previous games of her upcoming teams as well as scouring all of social media for insights, following players’ Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat accounts before a broadcast. Often, players will post about an off-field hobby or charity event from their weekly off-day from football.
“It could be a little thing where I happen to see them on Friday or Saturday for our production meetings, it just gives me the extra edge to say, ‘Hey, you were doing this interesting thing on Tuesday, can you talk about it?’” Erdahl said. “You wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t seen it on their Snapchat.”
Technology and constant connectivity have become essential components of sideline reporters’ work in advance of broadcasts and also during games. (Erdahl wears a Fitbit while working and said she logs six to seven miles on a Sunday afternoon racing up, down and around the field. “If it’s cold, it might be more because I’m just trying to stay warm,” she said.)
“I am all over my phone — I don’t have a tablet, it’s too consuming to hold — but I am on my phone throughout the game checking because a lot of times information is disseminated either through Twitter or the PR guys upstairs in the booth, and I might not even know about it,” Wolfson said.
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Important storylines can emanate from outside the broadcast. Executive producer Harold Bryant gave an example from college football. In the 2011 SEC championship game, LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu returned a punt for a 62-yard touchdown, but alert Twitter users noticed that he flipped the ball to the official a few inches before actually crossing the goal line. This was not noticed on field and the play stood as a score, but CBS later showed replays to let viewers know what had taken place.
“I will say, social media in general, we are cognizant of because it’s instant feedback,” Bryant said. “I think that’s helped us as broadcasters.”
At the same time, the network is careful to moderate how much outside conversation seeps into the discussion, trusting its talent to provide the most important talking points and storylines.
“It’s actually a fine line because, how much is our broadcast supposed to mirror what’s being talked about on Twitter versus what’s happening in front of our eyes?” Erdahl said. “I think we’ve done a really good job with that. I think you can get caught trying to keep up with what people are talking about when, really, you have the best product right in front of you, which is the game.”
Social media has become part of the reporters’ jobs. Wolfson hosted a Facebook Live tour of Green Bay and Lambeau Field, for instance, and has answered viewer questions about the Final Four.
“You’ve got to use technology to build your brand and to build CBS’s brand,” she said.