Behind the Scenes with FOX NFL crew: Mixin’ it up in the Big Easy

By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer

Editor’s Note: Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and the lead producer for the last 20 seasons. He has more than 40 years of experience covering the league and has produced six Super Bowls. Throughout the 2022 NFL season, he will provide an inside look as FOX’s new No. 1 NFL team makes its journey toward Super Bowl LVII.

NEW ORLEANS — Producing live sports television is a constant barrage of quick decision-making. 

The senses are pushed to the brink as you sift through all your options within split seconds. Make the wrong call and you might let down the entire crew. The responsibility is enormous. And I’m just talking about where to go for dinner.

The crew dinner is a longtime staple of our business, as old as leather helmets and dropkicks. This is where bonds are formed and friendships are made.

I’m surprised to learn it’s a dying art form at other networks because at FOX, it’s part of our fabric. It’s an opportunity for all parts of the production organization to mingle, laugh and chow down.

The crew dinner is a staple of every road trip, forming bonds within the team. (Photo courtesy Richie Zyontz)

I’ve worked with some champion eaters in my 40 years on the road. My great pal, Matt Millen, who I spent nine years working with at CBS and FOX, knew his way around a fork — his and mine. 

Millen wasn’t choosy about the cuisine — quantity trumped quality. Uneaten food was not safe, and Millen would attack it the same way he tracked down ball-carriers at the goal line.

John Madden was another legendary fork man. Nothing fancy — but Tabasco sauce was required. Always. 

In fact, John so loved Tabasco sauce, he once took a detour on his way to New Orleans to visit Avery Island in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, where they make it. 

Long before he put “Turducken” on the culinary map, Madden had a favorite restaurant in New Orleans that was convenient to the hotel and usually empty. John liked empty. 

John Madden, right, was a man of simple tastes. The Hall of Fame broadcaster did introduce the world to the “Turducken,” and that rare delicacy was cooked up this week for the FOX crew by Glenn Mistich, left.

Well, it was empty for a reason — the food was awful. But he was happy, and a happy John Madden could make bad food taste good for us all.

These New Orleans anecdotes are relevant because in Week 2, we ventured to the Big Easy for the