Dan Hellie Interview

If you are a fan of the NFL and watch NFL Network, then Dan Hellie should be no secret to you. Dan is a diehard sports fan, sticking true to his hometown Washington D.C. teams. When he was a kid, his favorite NFL player was Art Monk, who I was also a huge fan of. Dan used to cut his sleeves like Art Monk and went to his football camp. He always respected Art Monk and how he played the game. Dan has worked every sporting event you can think of, but some of his favorite moments come from the College Basketball tournament.

When Dan was a sportscaster in DC he won two Emmy awards, one of which was for Best Sports Anchor. The life of a sports anchor can be hectic, and Dan’s was no different. When in DC he did daily sportscasts, a weekly Redskins show, and the Redskins coaches show. He may not be that crazy now with work at the NFL Network, but add a family into the mix and it all keeps him busy. You can see Dan Monday-Friday on NFL Network on NFL Total Access.

Wingman Magazine: You went to the University of Tennessee and graduated the same year as Peyton Manning. Did you go to school knowing that you wanted to be a journalist?

Dan Hellie: Oh yeah. I did a career day in the seventh grade with a local sportscaster in DC. He let me come in, watch the show, shadow one of his producers all day and pick out the highlights. I was hooked from that moment on. Since the seventh grade, I really just wanted to be THAT guy. His name was Glenn Brenner. I eventually got there and left and moved on to NFL Network.

Wingman Magazine: Did you strictly want to be a broadcast journalist or a columnist as well?

Dan Hellie: No, that was one of my bigger regrets in school, was that I didn’t do a lot of writing. I knew I always wanted to do TV work. In school I was very involved with my fraternity. I had internships at TV stations, radio stations and production companies, so I never wrote for the school paper. That’s my advice for kids now, is if you want to get into broadcasting, become a good writer. It’s a great craft that you can use in so many aspects of business and broadcasting. I stopped at TV because I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

Wingman Magazine: Were you one of those kids that would turn down the sound and do commentary on sports?

Dan Hellie: I was never into the play-by-play at a young age, which is ironic because I am getting into that now. I was always the one that would do the play-by-play for my own athletic achievement. I was trying to hit the game winner, I wanted to play. You realize slowly but surely that you aren’t going to be fast enough or tall enough to play. What I did do every night was listen to the games or sports talk radio. There was one sports talk guy on the radio, Ken Beatrice. I would either listen to him or the Washington Capitals or Washington Bullets in bed. I had to sneak a small transistor radio into my bed so my parents couldn’t hear it.

I called the preseason games for the Tennessee Titans, which was the first time I had done the play-by-play for an NFL game. I had done a little of it before, but never on the NFL level, which I loved. I thoroughly enjoy being at the events, smell and touch the grass, talk to the guys and coaches.

Wingman Magazine: You have covered Super Bowls, The Olympics, PGA events and countless other sporting events. What has been your favorite so far, and why that one?

Dan Hellie: There is nothing bigger than the spectacle of the Super Bowl. I was on the sideline when Eli Manning and the Giants beat the Patriots to ruin their perfect season, and David Tyree caught the ball with his head. I actually snuck down to the sidelines. They don’t allow media to be on the sideline during the Super Bowl but I snuck into a line of NFL PR people who were all wearing suits, so I guess I looked like a PR person. That was probably one of my favorite times of my sports broadcasting career so far. And since I have worked for NFL Network I was on the jumbotron for the Super Bowl a few years ago, so it’s really come full circle from me sneaking to the sidelines to being on the jumbotron. I have had so many great interactions. I went from little tiny Florence, South Carolina where the national sport is Nascar. I got to interview Dale Earnhardt, not Jr…the Intimidator during a rain delay. I really didn’t know what to ask him, so I asked, “what do you do during a rain delay?” As I am holding the camera myself with a microphone and trying to keep up. He looks at me in his big sunglasses that he used to wear with his Intimidator look and the mustache and said, “ What are you going to do during a rain delay?” I said, “ I don’t know Dale, it’s my first one.” He came back with, “ Well, you better figure it out in a hurry.” And he kept walking.

I sat down when I was a young a sportscaster in West Palm Beach at the NBC station there, WPBZ. I had set up to interview Jack Nicklaus at an awards banquet. I guess the PR people had forgotten to tell Jack Nicklaus because he had just flown over from Europe, given a speech at this banquet and was told he had to sit down with me. You could just see an almost look of disgust on his face, and that he didn’t want to do it. The first three questions in, all of them were pretty much one word answers. I was getting a little nervous about where the interview was going, so I asked him about his grandchildren. Suddenly, he opened up all the way, for the better. It turned into one of the most fun interviews I had ever done.

Wingman Magazine:  I heard an interview with you from a month or so ago where you said that Jameis Winston will be in the MVP race…5 weeks into the season, do you still believe that?

Dan Hellie: No, I think he is going to have shape up a little bit. We just had a convo on the air recently that several people had mentioned that Jameis Winston would be in the MVP race and pointed clearly right at me. I think Jameis Winston will be a very good quarterback, but he’s in rocky stretch right now. I had no routing interest in the game that night but felt so bad for Aguayo missing that kick. I think I tweeted out that I didn’t know if I wanted him to get another opportunity, because I didn’t want him to fail again.

Wingman Magazine: What team has been the biggest disappointment so far this season?

Dan Hellie: I think it’s kind of a combo platter. I really thought that the Cardinals were going to be really good this year. The most perplexing team has to be the Panthers. They were sitting at 1-4 after five weeks after only losing one game last year. They were supposed to be better with Kelvin Benjamin back. Cam Newton didn’t play last night, but even Cam isn’t Cam right now. There are certain times when a team gets so much hype and publicity that things are bound to go wrong. I thought that may be the Raiders or the Jaguars because they got so much publicity, because they were supposed to take the next step. The Raiders have done well, and the Jags are still trying to find themselves. But the Panthers to me are the most disappointing this year.

Wingman Magazine: Looking at the teams, which one is a sleeper that may sneak their way into our hearts…and the playoffs?

Dan Hellie: The AFC South is so interesting to me. The Texans won the division, the Colts had a terrible year without Andrew Luck and then you have the Titans and the Jags who are supposed to be the up and comers. I think the Titans will be the team that surprises people, and the division will go down to the very end. In terms of the other divisions: I think the Eagles are for real. They have to be one of the most surprising teams. You think of a lot of teams that won’t live up to the hype, there are also teams that will surprise everyone. Looking at the NFC East, no one was picking the Eagles to win the division, but their defense has played dramatically well and if they can keep Ryan Matthews and Carson Wentz healthy, they will go far.

Think about the rookie quarterbacks this year and what they have done. The most surprising thing in the NFL has been the play of the rookie or first year quarterbacks. You can throw Trevor Siemian and Jimmy Garoppolo in there. Dak Prescott, Wentz, Semian, the way that they have protected the ball and not turned them over is crazy. The quarterbacks now are so much more advanced than they were 10-15 years ago coming out of college. We talk about them coming out of the spread systems that makes it tougher adjustment for players like Jared Goff. But if you come out of a pro style offense like Carson Wentz did at college, you are much more advanced than guys did ten years ago.

Wingman Magazine: Who’s winning the Super Bowl?

Dan Hellie: Let’s go Patriots man. Once they get everything going and get Dion Lewis back and run the jumbo package with the two tight ends, it will be hard to stop them. You saw what Martellus Bennett did and now that Gronk is healthy. No matter what he says, Brady is out to prove something. I don’t know how it helps to play angry but I feel that he wants to step on the throat of every team that he plays and not just beat them, but beat them to a pulp. You want to talk about MVP race, I was wrong about Jameis Winston but in the new 5 weeks there is a good chance that we will be talking about Tom Brady.