Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily "Snow Day" Pod, Part 2: Inside My Winding, Unpredictable Journey To Becoming ITB's Eagles Reporter

Transcript

The DiCecco Daily "Snow Day" Pod, Part 2: Inside My Winding, Unpredictable Journey To Becoming ITB's Eagles Reporter · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into another edition of to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Checko Daily. It's Andrew de Checko here egos beat reporter
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: for Inside the Birds dot Com. Hope everyone out there
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is staying safe and enjoying their snow day. I promised
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: you to podcast, and this one's going to be a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: little bit more off the beaten path, and it stems
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: really from the end of the season reflection that I
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: sometimes have where you're looking back on the career path,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the some of the steps that you've taken to get
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to this point, nothing but gratitude. But I've also gotten
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: emails with those asking about my story, or maybe those
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: who are looking to break into the journalism field and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: are looking for some advice. So I figured I'd at
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: least share the steps that I've taken to get.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: To where I am, and maybe it'll it'll help.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Help someone listening, or maybe it'll inspire someone, or maybe
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it'll prompt some more questions. But I think this is
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a really healthy conversation and a look back on the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: steps that I've taken because it hasn't been an easy road.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: It's not an easy road for most who break into
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: this and it just gives you even more gratitude, more appreciation,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: more hunger for striving to continue to grow and never
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: being complacent with it, but also trying to find other
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: ways to.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Improve your craft and different things like that.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I've had a lot of mentors, have been very fortunate
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to have a lot of mentors, a lot of people
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: who have been vocal in their support of me and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: my work, and this is kind of a vehicle for
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: me to express that, but also to kind of look
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: back on all the different paths and winding paths and
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the roadblocks and the detours that I've taken to get
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to this point, and I think it'll be kind of therapeutic.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: But for those wonder No, I never entered this or
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: had this in my mind as a young kid as
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: an adolescent, that I was good at this, that I
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: wanted to do this, that this was something that I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: could realistically do as a career. I didn't, frankly know
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: what I wanted to do with my career. I was
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: really into sports. I knew a lot about football, to
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the point where I would know everybody from from top
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to bottom on the roster. I would know their background,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: where they went to college, what their stats were, what
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: their snap counts were and that wasn't just what the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Eagles growing up in the Philadelphia area, that was across
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the NFL. It was something that I really took a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: lot of pride in, I took a lot of interest in,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and I always just wondered, Yeah, I mean, this is
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: kind of useless information that I had, but I'm passionate
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: about it. And I kind of went through much of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: my life through my twenties really not really knowing that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: this could be a potential avenue for me to really
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: showcase and take this even a step further. And it
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: really wasn't until I got to about maybe twenty six
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: twenty seven years old and a friend of mine, Kevin Reeve,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: who co wrote a book, a great Phillies book called
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Ring the Bell with Jack Fritz of WIP check it
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: out if you haven't already. He and I are friends,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and we were friends back then, and we were talking
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and in conversation it was more like, hey, you know
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: a lot about football, You're really articulate. Did you ever
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: try your hand in writing? And I looked at him
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and I said, well, no, I never even thought of that.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And going back to my school days, the subject that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I was proficient in was English, and I took a
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: lot of interest in writing, but I never correlated the two.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I never put two and two together and thought, hey,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: you know what, this could be a really good way
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: for me to kind of carve out a career and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: try to and try to make my way.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: And so I I talked to him.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: For a little bit and he said, look, I know
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a guy named Frank Close, and Frank Close forever grateful
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: for him. He owned a small website at the time
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: which also had Tim Kelly, who of course now writes
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: for on Pattison does a great job covering the Phillies.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: He was part of the staff that wrote for this website,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and Kevin reached out to Frank and said, hey, listen,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I have a friend.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: He's really sharp when it comes to football.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I told him to write something like a draft, picked
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: something to write so that I can send it to you.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Are you open to it? And he said yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So I quickly wrote up a synopsis of the twenty
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: seventeen Eagles wide receivers, top to bottom, every player that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: was going to be in training camp, where they went
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to college, what they did well, how they factored into
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the roster, equation, What were some of the challenges that
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: they faced going into that training camp? And I wrote
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: it and it must have been, you know, two thousand words,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and I sent it over to Kevin, he sent it
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: over to Frank.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: They liked what they saw. They brought me on board and.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I wrote sporadically for the site. I had a lot
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of passion in it, and I think the real breakthrough
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: for me came for came when I tried to find
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: an idea to write about that would separate myself and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: be different and really challenge myself to step outside my
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: comfort zone and and interview a player and try to
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: really focus on a bottom of the roster player who
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: many didn't know about and reach out to that person.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And in the off season, I wrote about wide receiver
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Marcus Johnson. He was someone who had been intriguing. I
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: liked watching him at Texas. I thought that he had
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to make the Eagles, and I wanted to
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: shed light on his story. He made a decent impression
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: in training camp the year before. This was his second season,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: it would have been a second season, and I wanted
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: to write about his career path at Texas, what led
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: him to the Philadelphia Eagles, why he maybe fell short
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in his first season as a rookie free agent, and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: maybe some of the training that he was doing, some
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of the things he learned on the Eagles practice squad
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to hopefully, I guess, serve as a launching pad into
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: a second season. And we had a conversation, we spoke,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I wrote a long feature piece on him. It gave
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: me exposure to the interview process, but it also sort
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: of kickstarted my knack, my passion for shedding light on
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: players who are kind of undercovered.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: They're under report.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And on, and it allows you to almost separate yourself
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and kind of do something a little bit different. Everyone
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: talks about the stars, and they're important. You have to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: talk about, of course, the starting quarterback, the starting running back.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: But I always pride myself, and I prided myself then
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and I certainly do now for being able to cover
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: players one through ninety if you're including training camp, being
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: able to tell you something about any player that you
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: were to ask me about and without having to read
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: up on that person. I pride myself on just gathering
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: information and just absorbing all the content, all the information
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: that I can to give you all the best sort
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: of perspective on your favorite football team. And it started
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: really back then, and so I wrote that story. Marcus
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and I sort of stayed in touch. The story did well.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I got a lot of really good feedback on that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Then eventually I move on to another website that was
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Eagles focused, and that was I sent something over to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Tehan Davenport who was looking for a writer a contributor
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: for this website. This was about going into the twenty
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: eighteen training camp. And so Turan Davenport another instrumental figure
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: in my career.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: He is now the ESPN reporter for the Tennessee Titans.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: About a year, not a year a month into me
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: taking that role, he left for that ESPN job, And
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: so I wrote a ton of stories for this site,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: gained a.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Lot of experience.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I'm a big proponent and the more you do something,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the better you get. So I would just continuously write
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and write sometimes two stories a day. And keep in mind,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: my first couple of years in the industry, I didn't
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: make any money. And if you're aspiring to go into
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the journalism field and you're trying to cut your teeth
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and write and establish sort of a resume so that
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you can eventually showcase what you're.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Able to do, what you have done.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: You have to kind of invest in yourself and see
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the vision, knowing that, yeah, I might not be making
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: anything right now, but it's going to pay off. And
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: there is a lot of late nights where I would
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: be whether interviewing draft prospects for the site and writing
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the profile story up until four am, working a full
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: time job, getting up at six am to go do that.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: There's making a lot of sacrifices doing whatever I had
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: to do so that I was one making money doing
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: something else while I was still driving my career and
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: trying to chase after what I was really passionate about
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and what I discovered that I really was passionate about.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: For much of my life, I never knew what I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: was good at, and I sort of discovered that this
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: was what I was good at, and this is what
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I was born to do. And it never made more
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: sense than it did in my late twenties. I was
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a late bloomer, but it was
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: something that it was a natural fit and it seemed
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: like something that I wish I had.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I wish I had gone to.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: School for I wish I had done a lot of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: different things earlier in my life, but nevertheless, sometimes that
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: finds you. And I credit Kevin Reeve for even putting
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: that in front of me, and it never until then
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: was even a thought in my mind. So there was
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of late nights where I was writing stories,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: interviewing prospects, trying to do things that were outside the norm,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to separate myself, to.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Get some eyes on my work. But not only that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: It wasn't just because of that.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: It was because this is legitimately what I'm passionate about,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Legitimately what I like to do, and.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Just tried to.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Whether it's a player who on the Eagles you probably
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: don't know about, or a draft prospect on Day three,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: or a late Day two guy from a small college
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that you might not be familiar with, that's something that
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of passionate about to bring their
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: story to light, to inform the audience on that.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Jay loox Hunt is a.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Player that I was talking about before the draft and
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: talking quite a bit about, and that's an example. Alex
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: high Smith, who of course was drafted by the Pittsburgh Stewards,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: has become a really consistent pass rusher for them. I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: was saying before that that he was going to be
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a late third round pick, and many looked at me
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and said, he's from Charlotte. There's no way he's going
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to be a late third round pick. I've never heard
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: of him. Well, funding your own way to the East
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: West Shrine Bowl or different events like that, I think
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: is another example of me believing in myself, betting on
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: myself and doing what I need to do to try
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: to make things happen. And I saw firsthand the impact
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: that Alex Highsmith was having in practice.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: And sometimes when you look.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Back on your career and my career is obviously still
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: in progress here, but you make a lot of sacrifices
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and I don't think that that that's something that you
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: take lightly, and it's not something you even realize in
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: the moment.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: But there were so many nights, so many nights.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: You're coupling the fact that you're putting in a lot
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: of work that you're not making money.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: For, and.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're also not getting a lot of sleep for.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: But it's all for the greater good. It's because you
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: believe in yourself and you believe in the work and
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: you believe that the right person's going to see your
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: resume and what you can bring to.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: The table and invest in you.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: And it took a while, and then eventually I well,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I guess it was that summer that I reached out
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to Jeff Mosher, who had left The Fanatic, and I said, look,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: this is I really want to pursue this as a career,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: and I really respect your work, and how might we
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: be able to work together?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And we started doing Patreon posts together while.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I was doing other things, while I was writing for
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: that Eagles site, and while I was working my full
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: time job.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: It was a lot of work.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: And you know that that consumed my life at that time.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: But again, when you're committed to something, when you believe
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: in something so strongly, you're going to do that, You're
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: going to put everything else aside, your free time hanging
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: out with your friends, You're going to put all that
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: aside because this is what I.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Knew that I was good at. It's all I wanted
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: to do from that moment.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And eventually I ended up leaving the Eagle site, leaving
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: that Egle site and going to a site called Pro
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Football Network.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: And then they made me after being part time.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: It was my first writing my first writing gig, like
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: it was my first writing gig that I was getting
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: compensated for. And I started out part time and there
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: was a large pool of us, and I remember that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: they brought on Tony Pauline, the great draft expert.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: They brought him on.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And they were trying to whittle the group down to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: a handful that Tony wanted to bring on to be
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: part of his draft coverage team, and there was a
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: lot of talented writers there.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I was one of the people that they brought.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: In that Tony liked my work and they brought me
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: into that group. And then eventually, maybe six months later,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I became the senior draft analyst for Pro Football Network
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and working right under Tony Pauline.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: So we worked together.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: In fact, going into that twenty twenty draft, Tony and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I did a live blog where we each wrote something
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: for every prospect that was drafted. We had that knowledge,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: We had that information of every single player that was drafted.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It's something that was a lot of work, but I
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: look back and I take a lot of pride that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: we were able to do that, and that's one of
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: my fondest memories from covering the draft Tony and I
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: kind of going back and forth and doing all that.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: But the fact that within a year I had moved
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: up from part time to that it instilled in me
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: that it was sort of a confirmation that I made
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the right choice, that I was doing everything properly, and
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I needed to continue to do what I was doing. Meanwhile,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I was still talking, you know, I was still working
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: with Jeff, I was still writing with him, and he'd
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: always told me that, hey, you know we have I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: have my company Inside the Birds. We're a podcast right now,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: we're going to make a website. And when we do
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: make that website, you know, be ready because you're going
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: to be our writer and full transparency.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: When you hear that, and I've heard, I'd heard so
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: many different things to that point from so many different people,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: stay positive.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: If this happens, If that happens, you're like, oh, okay, yeah,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that sounds great. But to Jeff's credit, he comes back
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: to me and he goes, remember that website I told
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: you about, Well, we're launching it at this time, and
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: I want you to be my writer. And this is
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: about man February twenty twenty. I've been writing and working
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: for Inside the Birds ever since. And I mean, I
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: just can't thank Jeff Mosher and Adam Kaplan enough for
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: believing in me, seeing the ability that I had and
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: investing in me, knowing that I had a lot of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: value that I could bring. And I mean, I'm continuously
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: trying to find different ways to showcase that on a
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: daily basis, with these podcasts, with my writing, with my
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: coverage of.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: The Philadelphia Eagles.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: It's a never ending question for me. I'm never happy,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I'm ever satisfied. I always want to get better. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: always want to improve and find ways to refine my craft.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And so I started writing for them in twenty twenty.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: We've accomplished a lot together, and we still continue to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: accomplish a lot together. You know, my first game covering
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the Eagles as a media member was in twenty twenty
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: one when the Eagles played the Chiefs, and that moment
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: right there was humongous for me. I don't know how
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: else to put that into words. It was a regular
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: season game, Jalen Hurds versus the Chiefs.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: He played well in that game, remember they lost, But.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: That was my first game covering, first regular season game
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: covering the eagles for inside the birds, and it was
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a tremendous experience and gave me a taste of what
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: it could be where I could take this thing. And
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: it was sort of validation for the work and the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: sacrifices and all the people who told me I couldn't
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: do it, or a neat little hobby that you have there.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Do you ever have do you have a fallback plan?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Do you have another career path in case this doesn't
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: work out?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Because the likelihood of it working.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Out isn't very pro it's not your favorite probable, and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: you know, you hear all these things, and you hear
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: all the detractors.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: It's not an easy feel to break into.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: But I believed in the people who I was working
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: with and for I believed in the network that I
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: had surrounded myself with, and for those listenings. Surround yourself
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: with people who believe in you and your vision, because
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: surrounding yourself with positive people is ultimately going to help
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: uplift you. And the negativity has no space, has no
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: purpose for me. I can't be around anybody who's negative.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I couldn't be around even at that time, anyone who
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: was saying Hey, Andrew, Let's go grab something to eat,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Let's go out to Westchester, Let's go do this, let's
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: go do that. Well, how is that going to help
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: me get to where I want to go? I already
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: sleep two three hours a night. How is that going
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: to I still have to write my story. I still
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: have to do this, I still have to do that.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And I guess in theory, I didn't have to at
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the time because I wasn't making any money and it
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't an obligation, but it was something that I felt
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I needed to do to continue to build up my resume,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to continue to differentiate myself from a lot of people,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and such a lot of talented people in a saturated field.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of what I've been able
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: to do and really break through with Inside the Birds
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: has been validation for a lot of the hard work,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the sacrifice, the investing in yourself, those telling you that
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: you can't do it, or maybe laughing and like I said,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: saying it's a neat hobby and trying to dissuade you
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: from that, And I mean, my gosh, in twenty twenty two,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I was there for every home game. I covered every
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: home game as a media member. I got to go
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I covered a Super Bowl. I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: was on Radio Row and in Arizona that whole week
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: with Inside the Birds, And it was almost like, when
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there with Adam and Jeff and you're.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Sitting on Radio Row.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: They may not have thought this way because they they're
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: pros and they've been doing it.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: For a long time.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: But I'm sitting there with those guys knowing what their
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: vision was and their belief in me, and we're all
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: all three of us sitting there in that moment covering
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: a super Bowl. I mean, I can't really put that
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: into words. You know, it's there's not a whole lot
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that I can really say to to articulate how much.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: That that really meant.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And the point that it drove home that you know,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: hard work pays dividends, and betting on yourself pays dividends.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Football has taking me some really some places that I
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: would have never been in my life. And had I
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: not thought to go down this career path, had I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: not been encouraged to go down this career path, who
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: knows where it would have gone. And so there's the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Season and that was obviously.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: One that required a lot of a lot of legwork
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: because it was a collapse, So that that forces you
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to to explore every angle of the team and do
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: different things like that.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: The twenty twenty four season.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I was back in the Super Bowl, I was back
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: there at New Orleans, and I was there every day
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: for the Eagles.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: And in twenty twenty five, I was.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: There every day, and you really start to build relationships,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: You start to build a lot more, I guess, a
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: lot more of a foundation into the style that you
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: want to do it, because the reality is is that
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: everybody covers teams differently. Everybody has their own style. I
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: don't know that there's a right or a wrong right way.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I pride myself on integrity first and foremost. I'm a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: truth seeker, but I'm also someone who likes to humanize.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I really really pride myself on humanizing athletes because I
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: feel like for someone on the outside, you see them
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: on Sunday for three hours, you rip them. You don't
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: know what they're dealing with. You don't know what their
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: story is, you don't know if they're dealing with something.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: You may not even be familiar with who they are
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: are well. I take a lot of pride in being
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: able to tell their story and I'm so thankful that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: they entrust in me to allow me to share their story.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I really do take my job seriously.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that you all can tell from listening to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: me over the years, from reading my work over the years,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and that that that comes first and foremost integrity, being
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: someone who can be trusted, and and really just continuing
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to lean into your style. You have to first and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: foremost find your style in how you want to cover
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the cover a team, cover a draft, cover a sport,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and and just lean into it, you know, and you
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: just have to You just have to do it. You
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: have to trust in yourself, but you also have to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: surround yourself with positive people who believe in you network
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and for me, I was able to connect myself with
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of really positive people, none more so than
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: as I mentioned, Kevin Reevey, Tron Davenport, Jeff More, Adam Kaplan.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be where I am without him, and they're
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: always going to be a part of my story. And
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: as we continue to move forward inside the Birds, I'm
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: so optimistic, I'm so I'm so positive about the direction
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: that we're going, and we have a lot of really
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: good content ideas, and I'm just.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Really really passionate in what I do.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: That's a word that you've probably heard me say many
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: times over this podcast, but it's because I believe so
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: much into what we're doing, what our vision is.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: I believe in myself, I believe in the work that.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I'm putting in, and I believe in the way that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I go about doing my job.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: And so my job, my objective, I should.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Say, is always to provide my audience with the most
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: comprehensive analysis and objective analysis of the Philadelphia Eagles as possible,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: but also never being overreactionary, always being the one who's
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: going to point out and shed light on every corner
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of the Eagles, of the Eagles roster, even those who
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: don't get the proper recognition or get written about enough.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: It's a job that.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I look at it and I want to bring you
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: all the information from players one through fifty three. Heck,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I even want to share stories from the practice squad.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I'm just really all in in everything that I do,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and I just when I started this in twenty seventeen,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I could never have imagined that I'd be where I
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: am right now.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't happen. None of that happens if you're
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: an aspiring.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Journalist without you being willing to bet on yourself, take chances,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: network and really commit to a certain way of doing something.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: There's not a right or wrong way, but you have
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: to find a way to differentiate yourself because it is
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a crowded field.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: No matter what market that you're in.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: And there's other things that I've done, even in between
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I got to before me getting to Inside the Birds,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I was there was a time where I briefly did
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a podcast with set Joiner and we had a great
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: time doing that. And I was juggling so many different
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: things that I had to make a choice and I
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: ended up going with you know, Inside the Birds and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I and I went with Pro Football in network. I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: also had that full time job. And so life's about choices,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: it's about give and take, and you have you know,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: you have to you have you can't do it all, right,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, you want to do it all and realistically
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: there's only one one of you, and you have to
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: go with with what your gut's telling you. And you know,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Inside the Birds took a leap of faith in me
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and as much as I did with them, and I
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: think that you're you know. When I look back, I
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: have nothing but gratitude. And my advice to anybody looking
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to pursue a career in sports journalism is be confident,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: ask questions to to get the best you know, to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: get the best answers out there, Ask questions, take chances,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: invest in yourself, and surround yourself with positive people. And
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I think probably the best piece of advice that I
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: can give is try to find a way to differentiate
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: yourself from the field, because, as I mentioned, regardless of
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the field that you're in, it's going to be crowded.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Hey, it's that time of the year that everyone's trying
• 25:19
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• 28:36
  Speaker 1: But I can tell you this, regardless of where this
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: career takes me, ten years from now, fifteen years from now,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: none of that matters because I will never change. I'm
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: going to remain committed into to who I am as
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a person. I'm extremely grateful for those who have consumed
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: my work, many of which have been along for the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: ride from day one and believed in me.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: And I'll never change. Oh. Always make it a point
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: to respond.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: To comments on social media as long as they don't
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: border on disrespect. I also welcome feedback, and I think
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I didn't add in as
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking the storyline of me getting involved with ninety
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: seventy five The Fanatic. Another great example of networking and
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: making an impression, and it was I guess sitting next
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: to John Kincaid, host of Kincaid and Sauchunis on ninety
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: seventy five The Fanatics six to ten AM weekdays.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Check them out. But I'd sat next.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: To John from twenty in the twenty twenty two and
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three regular season, and I guess I made
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: an impression on John. He told me that he wouldn't
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: vouch for me if he didn't believe in me. That's
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: not the kind of person that John is. He's not
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: just going to go out on a limb if he
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: likes you.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: He has to believe.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: In your knowledge of the game, your way to articulate
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: and resonate with a with an audience and convey your
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: point in a succinct manner.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: And I guess it read served with John.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: He brought He was telling our program director, Scott mass
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Tower about me, and it was about the going into
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four offseason where I became an employee there.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I became their Birds insider, and it was because of
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: John Kincaid putting me in front of Scott Mass Tower
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and saying, look, I believe in this guy. He's going
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to be an asset for our station. I think that
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: you need to give him a shot. And look, there's
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of people that could have done that job
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and done it well. But I thank John for believing
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: in me. And that's another thing that I keep saying,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that believe in me, and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I never look at it.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Now and say I'm.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Trying to prove this person wrong or that person wrong. No,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to prove those people who believe in me
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: right every day, and I hope I've done that. I
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: hope I continue to do that. And so when I
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: look back at my career, which is obviously still in progress,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I have nothing but gratitude. And I feel like on
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a day like this, where it's a snow day, where
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: there's not a lot going on, where the season just
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: ended abruptly, it's a moment for me to look back
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: on the steps that I've taken to get to this point,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the people who have helped me get here, the people
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: who believe in me, the work that I put in,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: because God knows, there's been so many hours, so many
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: struggles and sacrifices that people don't even realize, and I think,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: when you look back on it a mucht therapeutic. But
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I think that maybe that story can either help somebody
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: or answer any questions that maybe some have been curious about.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: And I look forward.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: To continue to delivering the best equals content that I
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: know how to do for Inside the Birds and right
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: here on the Checkodaily, Inside the Birds dot Com. So
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: plenty of good stuff on the way, But for now,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I've run a little bit longer than I normally do.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: I can ramble a little bit, but as I'm thinking
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: about all these different things that I want to make
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: sure that I include everybody.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: But that's going to do it.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: For this edition of the Checko Daily, I'm Andrew de Checo,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and I'll catch you all on the next one.