​

We were thrilled to welcome Scott Hanson, the host of NFL RedZone, onto “The Sports Gossip Show” for our Thursday episode.

On the first NFL weekend of the year, we posted a video of Madeline watching RedZone for the first time. For those who aren’t familiar, RedZone is the NFL broadcast that whisks viewers around the league to the best moments of every game on Sundays.

The video of Madeline’s pure joy went viral, and Hanson, who has evolved into a cult hero for Sunday NFL viewers, saw it and agreed to an interview. We had a wide-ranging conversation with him, which you can watch on YouTube or listen to on your preferred podcast platform.

Here are three things we learned:

He was built for his job

When Hanson was 5 years old, he would drag the big TV from his dad’s office into the living room, turn it on, turn on the radio and read a magazine all at the same time.

Somehow, even though RedZone didn’t exist when Hanson was a kid, he was already training for his current job. He was preparing to focus on multiple screens at once, hear many voices and take in all kinds of information simultaneously.

He brought his mom to work, and she wasn’t surprised at all. Parents can be wise like that, can’t they?

Rejection doesn’t have to mean much

Here’s a good bit of news for high school students stressing out about getting into college: Hanson didn’t get into Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications the first time he applied. He even applied again and got rejected again.

However, he was accepted into the school’s liberal arts program. He worked hard and was accepted into the Newhouse program after his freshman year, becoming very competitive with everyone in the program (nicely, he promises).

So it’s evident that instead of stressing about your SAT score, you should be watching more football (just kidding!). Work hard, but don’t let anything be the end of the world, except for the end of the world itself.

He understands the importance of sports gossip

Each week, Hanson looks for off-the-field stories he could potentially include in the RedZone broadcast. He can’t always use the information he collects because plays don’t always occur that involve the relevant people.

However, sometimes, the right play happens for the correlating gossip. Hanson’s favorite example took place more than 10 years ago, when the Dallas Cowboys played the Detroit Lions.

A player on the Lions, Bobby Carpenter, had been drafted by Dallas before he ended up in Detroit. Carpenter and Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo were very close — so close, in fact, that Carpenter was a groomsman in Romo’s wedding. However, during that game, Romo threw a pass, Carpenter intercepted it and returned it for a touchdown.

Can you imagine getting a pick six on someone whose wedding you were in? Or getting picked off and scored on by a former groomsmen? We often say it on the show, but sports are the original reality show.

Madeline Hill and Charlotte Wilder have partnered with The Athletic and are taking their game to the next level. You can find “The Sports Gossip Show” every Tuesday and Thursday on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

(Photo: Ben Liebenberg / Associated Press)