Scott Hanson has one of the most exciting jobs in sports media.
As host of NFL RedZone since its inception in 2009, he provides fans the iconic whip-around simulcast coverage of the Sunday afternoon games.
Sometimes, that can get quite frantic.
Take last weekend for example, when a one-minute clip of “RedZone chaos at its best” went viral on social media.
With three games finely balanced in the final moments, the programme bounced between a triple-box view, with Hanson doing his best to break down the action as it unfolded across the league.
He jumped between the New England Patriots vs the New York Jets, the Indianapolis Colts vs the Houston Texans and the Arizona Cardinals against the Miami Dolphins.
“This view is wild! I’m here for every second of it,” one fan wrote.
“What Sundays are all about! Absolute madness,” another said.
“This is an all-time, immaculate witching hour of NFL RedZone. If you’re not near a TV, I’m sorry,” a third concluded.
After the clip was posted on X by NFL insider Ari Meirov, it was viewed more than 5.6 million times.
Hanson was barely able to take a breath throughout, hammering home just how tough his job can be at times.
Thankfully, his 15 seasons of experience ensure he well-prepared for any situation – as did his audition all those years ago.
Speaking to former NFL star Julian Edelman this week, Hanson recalled his gruelling audition for RedZone.
“An audition for television is typically 10-15 minutes long,” he told Edelman’s Games with Names podcast.
“But because of seven hours of commercial-free football, the audition for NFL Red Zone was five hours long.”
Hanson went on to explain that producers took eight random games, queued them all up to the kick-off, and played them simultaneously.
“They said, ‘Talk. Broadcast it,’” he continued.
“I had a suit on. I sweated right through the suit. At the end I remember thinking that I either got the job, or I just embarrassed myself.”
Hanson added that he found out he landed the hosting role three weeks later, with the executive producer at NFL Network explaining that he only had to watch the first 10 minutes of the audition to realise that he was the right guy for it.
While he joked that the five-hour audition wasn’t all that necessary, he has always spoken highly of the role, describing it on X as the greatest job in the world.
