MEMBER PROFILE
NFL Network is fun and games for Adamo
By
Nov 3, 2006 - 12:35:00 PM

By Carolyn Braff

Glenn Adamo, a decision-maker at the National Football League and one of the founding fathers of the NFL Network, is not the typical hard-nosed football executive. A genuinely thoughtful person who is known in the industry for being a nice, happy guy, the vice president of media operations for the NFL considers himself blessed to wake up every day and do what makes him happy.

 “I work really hard, I give everybody’s an honest day’s work and more, and I’m a man of my word,” Adamo says. “My thing is the glass is a lot more than half full, but we can only see half of it. The reason I’m happy is because I’m accomplishing what I set out to.”

Adamo did not begin his career with his sights set on the NFL. He was a hockey player in college, but after a knee operation ended his hopes for a professional career, he enrolled in an intensive summer television course at New York University.

“I fell head over heels in love with television,” says Adamo. “I got the same buzz in terms of instantly knowing whether you did well or not that I did playing sports.”

Adamo’s first job out of college was a receptionist position at WNBC local news, but after meeting Marv Albert and Dick Schaap, it was not long before Adamo was speaking to the Sports department. He was hired the following year as a runner for the network’s NFL coverage.

“That was the first year we ever did graphics on highlight packages at halftime,” recalls Adamo. “They needed someone to help coordinate graphics package info, so I developed a numbering and titling system that was used for many years for our highlights.”

When Michael Weisman became executive producer at NBC, he promoted Adamo to producer, where he remained for 15 years, producing everything from various Super Bowls and World Series to the Olympics.

In 1993, Adamo reconnected with his days as a college athlete and joined the broadcast department at the NHL.

“Hockey is my passion,” Adamo says. “It’s the thing I love most. I love most sports, but hockey is the one I had played growing up and that I’m passionate about.”

After nine years in the world of hockey, Adamo received a phone call that drastically changed the course of his career.

“Steve Bornstein called me and asked me to help start up the NFL Network, and I rolled the dice and said yes,” Adamo says. “I love startups, I love changing things. The challenge was they were building a network and were in a state of flux. I thought the opportunity was unbelievable; we basically had a blank sheet of paper and we filled it up, and we’re still filling it up.”

As VP of media operations, Adamo oversees the day-to-day operation of NFL Films, as well as NFL Sunday Ticket and the League’s relationship with DirecTV.

“I spend a ton of time worrying about whether we’re doing everything we can do at NFL Films to support the NFL network and get out our product,” Adamo says. “I spend a fair amount of time looking at master control, making sure that we’re executing on every level.”

Of everything he has worked on at the NFL, Adamo is most proud of the flexible scheduling deal that the League has devised. And beginning this month, the NFL Network will air eight live prime-time games for the first time in its three-year history. “With the eight game package starting in November, I think we’re going to prove to a lot of people that although we’re an upstart network,” Adamo explains. “We have a lot of years of experience doing live broadcasts, and the strength of the NFL films storytelling ability is going to be evidenced in our broadcast. Bryant Gumbel and Chris Collinsworth is an incredible coup for NFL films, and the broadcast is really edgy and really good looking.”

After three years at the young network, Adamo continues to be impressed by the League’s business model and how it translates into his work in media operations.

“I’m just really amazed at the quality of business people and decision making that the NFL has,” Adamo says. “They pay attention to every detail, they research things thoroughly, they do things the right way. They really think through how every decision is going to affect the teams, the fans, and the partners. They’re at a whole other level than everybody else, and I’m proud to be part of that. Being one of the decision makers makes me really proud.”

As for the future, Adamo is excited about the new gadgets that arrive on the market every day and further integrate the television, broadband and mobile platforms, allowing NFL fans to see they content they want to see when they want to see it.

“I see it all converging,” Adamo adds. “As there’s more and more penetration of the new technology, in everything from DirecTV to wireless to mass broadband adoption, events will probably be televised and covered differently. They will be supplemented so more than just the main driver of TV, Internet and wireless will also contribute and be supplements to what’s there. I think we’re going to see a real creative use of the new technology, some things we haven’t even thought of yet. That’s the fun part of our business; it’s like going to a toy store on Christmas. All this new stuff is great because we get a chance to play with toys for adults.”

Adamo does not need the toys to be happy in his daily routine at the NFL, but they certainly can’t hurt.



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