After the Ravens battled the 49ers in the rain on Sunday, Fox play-by-play man KEVIN BURKHARDT took the six-hour flight from Baltimore back to L.A. to get home before getting back up and at it for another week of game prep. Burkhardt woke up early Monday morning to chat with THE DAILY about what his week looks like preparing to call NFL games, which usually includes at least one bike ride outing with his family, a flight back out on Thursday to that weekend's game location and a lot of studying in between.
6:30am: I get up and it's straight to prep work for a few hours to start the day. I like to get out of bed and get stuff done, workwise. I actually have a gluten allergy so for breakfast I'll do something like a gluten-free bagel, eggs, coffee -- nothing too crazy.
7:00am: I have a database that I keep on each team. I take notes -- anything I read online or any note or nugget -- clip it and put it in this database. We also have a service that sends us newspaper clippings of coverage of both the teams we're covering that week. It's all like a study guide. It just helps going through the process. You get to this point of the year and you really have to know everything that happened with the team from OTAs until now.
9:00am: Mondays are more of my reading day and Tuesdays are when I watch previous games. I'll take notes for our meetings with the teams later in the week, questions I want to ask. Before this past Sunday, I had never had the Ravens on Fox ever. This week is a little easier. We've got the 49ers again, and then we have the Saints, who we had three weeks ago.
11:00am: I break off from the prep and go workout or go play golf if I have the time, just do something for myself, maybe some errands. I've been really into golf the last couple years, so I try to do that in my free time. I'm not a workout nut but I do it because I have to. I do like going to the gym, I like jogging, although I'll never be a marathoner. I like to paddleboard, which is a great stress reliever.
Burkhardt (r) and analyst Charles Davis have been paired together at Fox since the start of the '17 seasonFOX SPORTS
12:00pm: During the late morning or early afternoon on Friday we go to the home team's practice for an hour and a half. The media see the first five minutes but we get to see the whole practice, which is a big deal because we see exactly what they're doing, how they're using certain guys. Then afterwards we usually meet with four guys: the head coach, quarterback, and then we pick two other guys. We meet with the away team on Saturday, but a lot of times we'll do conference calls before they get on their flight.
3:00pm: During the afternoons in L.A., I'll spend some time with my son after he rides his bike home from school. I'm gone essentially for four nights out of the week, so it's just about spending quality time together. We'll sometimes go to the beach or hit golf balls. I also coach his basketball team, which is just starting up.
4:00pm: When my son gets back into his homework then I'll jump back into prep. The beauty of this is that as long as you get it done, you can do it whenever you want. Generally, by the end of the day Tuesday, I have a point where I feel comfortable where I'm at or I know I'm behind.
6:00pm: My wife is a good cook and she'll make some homemade dinners. I'm not around on weekends so I miss what's going on then. We're in South Bay in L.A. so the family will just hop on our bikes and go ride and get a low key dinner and have fun. Tuesday night is kind of our weekend.
8:00pm: We're midway through the second season of "Jack Ryan" on Amazon. I love that show, but I don't have too much time this time of year. At night, my wife will ask me if I want to watch a show but there's a couple games I really have to watch, so it's tricky.
10:00pm: There are some weeks that I'll do as much work as I can during the day, but sometimes after dinner I'll go down to my office and just crank away until midnight. With prepping, you have so many things to get done, it's endless.
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