Beth Mowins explains how to call your first ‘Monday Night Football’ game

On September 11, 2017, Beth Mowins called ESPN’s Monday Night Football game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. It was the first time in 30 years that a woman had called play-by-play for an NFL game. Mowins, who has been with ESPN doing play-by-play since 1994, started calling college football games for them in 2005.

Mowins will do it again in 2018 — she’s assigned to call the Week 1 Monday Night game between the News York Jets and Detroit Lions.

So, what’s it like to call your first NFL game? One year after, I decided to ask Mowins.

“It was a lot of excitement and a lot of just thinking back to when I was a little kid and I always wanted to do this: be a sportscaster,” Mowins said.

“Watching college football and the NFL — I always wanted football to be a a part of that. When you talk about the Monday Night Football franchise, there’s nothing bigger on television when you think back over all the people that have been a part.

“So it was a tremendous feeling of just satisfaction of all the hard work and all the time spent trying to prepare for that opportunity. Very shortly thereafter, it clicks into prep mode — OK what’s the game, what are the teams. And you fall back on a lot of the repetitions over the years calling other football games.”

“The basics are always the same,” Mowins said. “As play-by-play announcer, I’m the who, what, when, and where. And I do my best to try and work with the analyst to get the how and the why. So the template is the same — names, numbers, stats, stories, background on coaches, background on players, background on the rivalry.

“I like to always prepare game boards for both teams, and then I want to have information — often it’s on an index card, or it may be typed out on a separate sheet.

“For example the Monday Night Football game, I want to know team things about the Chargers, team things about the Broncos. I want to have information on the AFC West, I want to have information on the AFC. I want to have information on the big stories around the NFL heading into the season.”

“As the game gets closer, you start to work on what other promos are we doing, what else do I want to talk about, big picture in sports? An SEC game, I want to know about the SEC. I want to know national storylines. I want to know the other games going on over the weekend.”

“For an NFL game, I probably spend some time over the summer just looking into the rule differences between college and the NFL. And obviously having Raiders preseason a few years before that, I already kind of had that,” Mowins said. “So one of the things I’m doing now to get ready for this year is what’s new in terms of rule changes.”

Mowins was assigned with former NFL head coach-turned-analyst Rex Ryan.

“I think we got the assignment maybe in March or April,” Mowins said. “I knew I was gonna be working with Rex. And actually on that initial phone call, that was also part of the conversation, ‘we want you guys to get together for the Florida State spring football game,’ which I think was only about 10 days later.

“Rex obviously knows all of the football stuff, and he’s a great storyteller. And you want to make sure that you bring out his personality and talk Xs and Os and things like that. But he was new to the TV side.

“He was terrific right from that Florida State game and throughout the summer, wanting to understand the technical side.”

“In August, we sat down in a booth in Bristol and we actually called the Raiders-Texans playoff game from the year before,” Mowins continued. “And we prepped as if that was a real game.

“And then we did an NFL preseason Monday night game. So Sean McDonough, and [Jon] Gruden, and Lisa Salters and their whole crew, we did a game in Cleveland, and then we did a Jacksonville-Tampa game.

“And we actually set up a second booth at the stadium with our producer and director that we were going to use for the Monday Night game, and we basically did a rehearsal. We just worked on flow, and got Rex used to having the producer talking in his ear, and the game traffic. And he was fantastic.”

“Typically you’re about a week out and starting in on your meetings and your conference calls,” Mowins said. “So we had a little head start since it was the opener, but usually we get into town a few days in advance. And I already have my boards done, and we would have already had several conference calls to discuss our gameplan. You have graphics people involved, you have people that have been building video packages of certain players or matchups.

“There were still some unknowns that we were working with and some position battles. And then we would get into town and we’d have dinner meetings, and we’d grab some breakfast and talk about storylines.”

“We’d meet with both teams — typically for the NFL, that’s a meeting where you get to talk to the head coach and the coordinators, and they’ll usually bring in a couple of players,” Mowins said.

“And so you get an opportunity to add some last-minute quotes from the coaches and players that you can use in the game. Those are often significant because we’re the only ones sitting in on those meetings, and sometimes you’re able to get really good nuggets.”

“I had some family and friends that came into town to just show their support, and just kind of hang out,” Mowins said of how she spent her hours before kickoff. “So it was good to just relax and talk about the real world . But for the most part we were all just eager to get going.

“I think those goosebumps are a good thing. I think I’m always a little nervous before games, and it’s a positive kind of energy that you embrace, ‘hey, you know, I wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else.’

“You prepare as best you can so that in those moments leading up to the game, there’s almost a sense of calm that comes over you. We’ve prepared for anything, we’ve got a great team of people around us, and you’re just kind of ready to go. And you’re hoping that it’s going to be a fun game to call.”

“You’re just kind of running through last-minute things in your head, and we probably already talked about what we wanna do in the opening,” Mowins said.

“You may need 10 seconds to set the scene — a wide shot of the stadium — and there may be a blitz package that our guys put together that has the music going. And in that situation, certainly the Monday Night Football music coming on the air that’s so iconic is kind of cool,” Mowins chuckles.

“And then really once you’re in that booth, that’s kind of home. And when the red light comes on, you’re just talkin’ football.”