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Weekend Plans With NFL VP Peter O’Reilly: Heading Up The Combine Fan Experience

NFL Senior VP/Events PETER O’REILLY is at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week overseeing the inaugural NFL Combine Experience, which fans can attend for free. The event marks one of the biggest weeks of the year for O’Reilly, who is excited to prove the Combine can be a significant fan draw. The Combine Experience features a fan festival at the Indiana Convention Center, where attendees can watch prospects' bench press or participate in interactive games, youth football clinics and more. O’Reilly: “What’s great about this week is the whole football community comes together. You’ve got coaches, GMs, in some cases owners, teams' PR people all here. Lots of business gets done because you’ve got the football world coming together in one place, but we also have to set the tone so that the Combine can continue to grow as a fan event.”

CALM BEFORE THE STORM: I flew in on Tuesday night from our Draft meeting in Philadelphia, which is the next thing on the horizon for us. The first few days, a lot of the GMs and coaches are doing their interview sessions with prospects, and then it moves to the on-field evaluations where the more TV aspects of the Combine come into play. Needless to say, we’ve been busy making sure everything’s set. On Wednesday, we tested everything with the fan experience before officially opening the doors Thursday at noon. Our goal is to make sure that the fan experience is great alongside the actual evaluation itself. The Combine is a perfect marriage for the average college football fan and the NFL fan to see these prospects go through the biggest job interview of their lives.

FEELING AT HOME: There’s a long history of the combine here in Indianapolis. Scouts and GMs love this downtown footprint with Lucas Oil Stadium as the centerpiece. Food-wise here, we all know you can’t go wrong with St. Elmo’s Steak House. You could singe your nose hairs with their spicy shrimp cocktail sauce, which is a must-have. You’ll find plenty of NFL folks there. I’ll be working late nights this weekend, but hopefully I can get over there one night.

FAMILY MAN: I’ve got two kids, a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old, so my typical weekends are spent with them at their sporting events. From Indy this weekend I’ll be following Facebook Live coverage of my daughter’s playoff basketball game. That gives you a sense of where my focus is! We also live just outside N.Y., and my favorite getaway is my parents’ house up in the northwest corner of Connecticut. I cherish the escape up there to watch a Notre Dame football game with my father, with both of us being alumni. My staff will laugh at this, but a guilty TV pleasure of both my wife and me would be “THE BACHELOR” and “THE BACHELORETTE."

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