You’ve worn a lot of different hats in football. When did you first get involved in football, and how did that turn into a career?
I am originally from Connecticut and moved to the United Kingdom about 11 years ago to work with horses. Because I have dual citizenship, I felt like it was a great opportunity for me to work outside of the United States, and I hate to say that I never was big into football growing up, because working with horses is 24/7. When I moved, I was 22, on my own and wanted to find a social group, meet friends and get a little bit of the American culture, if I’m being honest. I saw an ad on social media for an American football team in Manchester, where I was living. When you’re out of your comfort zone, you are much more willing to take risks, so I just went for it. I tried out, having never played contact football before, and made the team. Because of my dual citizenship, I am eligible to play for Great Britain, and I have been playing for the national team for 10 years in tackle and flag football.
After my playing journey began, I knew I couldn’t play forever — though I am still playing at 33 years old — so I started looking at my options for coaching. I thought it could be a way for me to give back to the sport that’s given me so much. I got involved in youth coaching and later at the adult, club or senior level. I ended up at the NFL Women’s Careers in Football Forum, where I first met people like Buffalo Bills owner Kim Pegula, former NFL executive Scott Pioli and so many other amazing people. They were so genuine about what it’s really like to work in the NFL. I was asked in one of the interviews where I saw myself a year from then. I said, “I want to be an NFL coach.” And it was almost a year later, and after applying for the Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship, that I was with the Buffalo Bills. It was madness.
What a fun journey. How did that opportunity segue into a broadcasting career?
I did that internship with the Bills during training camp in 2017, and after that, I was a volunteer coach at Bryant University (Rhode Island) for one season. The Bills wanted to bring me back for the following training camp before transitioning into a season-long role that went into OTAs, but between Bryant and going back to the Bills, I began working for NFL UK at the NFL Academy. I felt like that was where I could make the biggest impact in young people’s lives, and Bills head coach Sean McDermott was super supportive and understanding of my decision.
I loved coaching. I loved being around the elite mindset of the NFL and in a Bills organization that really wanted to be the best version of itself, not just for the people in the building but everyone else. I think we’ve really seen that come through in the last few seasons. When I came back to the U.K., I knew I still wanted to coach, but I’ve always had this itch to do more. The NFL isn’t limiting by any means, but when you’re in an NFL season, you can’t even think about doing anything else. I felt like I wanted to impact more people. I do still coach our national team, and though it’s not the NFL, I still have the opportunity to impact people’s lives from a coaching perspective.
All along, I wanted to help be a connection between the U.S. and the U.K., and I don’t think I knew what that looked like until I got into broadcasting. I began doing broadcast when the pandemic hit. I was doing one small show each week on Sky Sports for casual fans. Then one Sunday morning during the pandemic, the main host of the Sunday show got sick. They called me and another woman, Hannah Wilkes, to fill in, and it was the first time they had women on the show, and two women hosting it, for that matter. It was that stay-ready mentality. I’ll be honest, we had no idea what we were doing, but we figured it out. I love that I can take what I’ve learned as a player and coach and share that with a foreign audience that doesn’t have access to a certain level of expertise.
What is your favorite part of the game to coach?
With Buffalo, I was with defensive backs and tight ends. Learning the whole picture is amazing, but linebacker and outside ‘backer/nickel position are my heart. It’s read and react, and you have to play with passion and attitude and aggression. I love that element of it. I love the schematics and thoughtfulness of offense, and the players get to be themselves within the confines of the offense. But on defense, players get to leave it all out on the field.
2023-09-26 15:22:00
#Phoebe #Schecter #NFL #analyst #Sky #Sports
