Behind the Scenes with FOX's NFL crew: How Tom Brady, team tell stories with graphics

By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer

Editor's Note: Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his 23rd season as the lead producer. He has more than 40 years of experience covering the league and has produced seven Super Bowls. Throughout the 2024 NFL season, he is providing an inside look as FOX's new No. 1 NFL team, including NFL legend Tom Brady, makes its journey toward Super Bowl LIX. Read more behind-the-scenes stories from Richie Zyontz here .

My first boss in sports television once described a football broadcast as consisting of three primary elements.

He cited commentary from the announcers as the first category — painting a picture with words. Then came live coverage and replays — painting a picture with pictures.

It was the third component that took me by surprise — painting a picture and telling a story with words and numbers plastered on the screen.

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It was the world of graphics, and for more than 40 years, it has been the career starting point for many successful producers, directors and executives.

Once upon a time, graphics in a football game consisted of very little. Down and yardage, player names attached to rudimentary statistics, and the score only when going to commercial. By today’s standards, it was almost criminally uninformative.

So, when CBS Sports began a program in 1981 to upgrade the graphics on all their events, I was fortunate to be among the first group hired.

Although I’m not sure why. A love and pretty deep knowledge of sports, perhaps. But being a security guard in the CBS headquarters known as Blackrock hardly qualified me for this new adventure.

The first graphics truck I