Kyle Brandt has a much different background than every other analyst/host who appears on NFL Network. So naturally his main goal in developing his new show is that it had to be different.
Really different.
"I tell people it's really going to be different than every other show (NFL Network airs)," Brandt said. "The second you turn it on, you will see how different it is."
The Kyle Brandt Football Experience makes its debut Friday on NFL Network at 6 p.m. ET. The show is an extension of Brandt's duties as a Monday through Friday regular on Good Morning Football, which airs at 7 a.m. ET.
It hardly is a surprise that Brandt wants an unconventional show. Prior to arriving at NFL Network in 2016, his diverse resume included stints as being a reality TV star on The Real World: Chicago; a three-year role as a character on the soap opera Days of Our Lives; and a long run as producer of the nationally syndicated Jim Rome Radio Show.
"A lot of people have better resumes, but nobody has a weirder one," Brandt said.
Brandt also was a three-year starting running back at Princeton, but he knows his football experience pales in comparison to the NFL Network's analyst roster that includes several Hall of Famers. He says he was brought in to Good Morning Football to serve in the wildcard role on the panel.
"The reason why I am here is because I come at football from a different angle," Brandt said. "I bring a lot of energy and creativity."
That will be seen in the Kyle Brandt Football Experience. Instead of sitting behind a desk in a studio, Brandt will be positioned in an active control room with "50 monitors and 5,000 buttons," he says.
Brandt says the set-up is "a homage" to the classic George Michael Sports Machine, the Sunday night sports wrap-up show in which Michael pushed buttons to play highlights. Brandt's buttons on the show will enable him to access any play from any player in NFL history.
Brandt's aim is to tie the past with the present.
"A river of nostalgia runs through this show," Brandt said. "We will have the biggest play from Week 6, but also the biggest from when you were 6-years old."
For instance, Brandt says, if the Los Angeles Rams' Todd Gurley hurdles a defensive back in making a spectacular run, he will punch up a highlight of Tampa Bay's Warrick Dunn doing something similar in 1997.
"We'll put them side-by-side and ask 'Who did it better?'" Brandt said.
Brandt thinks the old clips will hit a nerve with NFL fans, showing how they relate to today's game.
"Nobody tunes out a retro highlight from a player they watched in high school," Brandt said. "It stops you dead in your tracks."
The show will feature a variety of guests both in and out of football. Brandt says his first question always will be who was your first favorite player? For Brandt, who grew up in Chicago, it was the Bears' William Perry. It is the reason why the first clip in the show's opening features "The Fridge" busting through to score a touchdown in Super Bowl XX.
Brandt says the 30-minute show will be fast-paced and always unpredictable. He feels the control-room look will be the TV equivalent of eating in a Benihana restaurant where the meal is made right in front of you.
"One of the executives said, 'The control room is Kyle's crazy brain, and you get to play in it for 30 minutes,'" Brandt said. "It's going to be really fun, really wild."
Carson Palmer's life: The season premier of A Football Life looks at the career of Carson Palmer Friday at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network. The one-hour film details the considerable ups and downs of Palmer's years with Cincinnati, Oakland and Arizona.
"Not everybody gets to win the Super Bowl. The adversity I went through I wouldn't change because it's made me who I am," Palmer said in the film.
