Falcon's Madrid game requires 250 processed passports

As we get into Madrid week, is this something that you have been looking forward to or more anxiety kind of inducing at this point? It's funny. It's a little bit of both. You're really excited to do another international trip. This is our fourth one in the last six years, so there's a little bit of anxiety because I am a little bit of a perfectionist. You do want it to go extremely well, everything operationally, but there is so much excitement. Another new country, new city, a new experience for our team to have. So when you get that schedule, when it first comes out, is that kind of the first thing you look, okay, when is that Madrid game, when is that international game, is that the first thing you kind of look for? No, like, it completely is, like, because you really look to see, like, when that game is and then what's around it, like, are we at home, are we at road before? What's after that game? Do we have another home game? Do we get a bye week? So that really does shape everything else, not just for that game, but what happens before and after. So it is the first thing your eyes go toward. So when you see that you have an international game coming up, are you like, okay, I got to get to my contact at the passport office? Like what is the first kind of thing that you do? No, passport, you hit the nail on the head. Passport is really one of the first things because Regardless of anything else like we can't go over there unless everybody does have a passport so if that process starts early as soon as we start bringing our rookies in for rookie mini camp they're the first ones we start getting processed obviously we have a lot of new coaches on our staff this year so we do them during the springtime as well so we start that process early and luckily we have a great relationship with the passport agency and they've been phenomenal partners to us to help Get over 250 passports completed. We've all at home had like a UPS tracking number that we're like waiting for some package. Like, can't wait for this to get here. I'm sure that you have that on a bigger scale with like all the stuff you guys have going over there. When did that stuff leave? Like, what is the process of that? Does it go on a boat, on a plane, both, all of the above? Yes, no, we actually sent over almost 32 pallets of equipment. So probably over 32,000 pounds over at the beginning of August. So all that's going over on an ocean freight shipment. So that goes over, like, we don't even see it. It's on the boat now, probably about its way to dock and get delivered. So we send that, and then we also have an air freight shipment. We just went out last week just with some of our kind of more key items that we can't send that early. But, you know, between Gatorades and waters that we're sending over, obviously travel adapters that we send over, a lot of our athletic training equipment that we use on the field for practice, all those things. From all those various departments have to all go over. So we try to look at ourselves as kind of like a magnet. We get all the needs from everybody, bring it all into us, and then we'll work with you guys to get all that stuff over there. I know you have a couple of these under your belt at this point, but even from last year's Berlin game, what is something that you learned from that that you're like, oh, in Madrid, we're going to do that differently? Yeah, no, I think one of the things that we actually did really well in Madrid was, well, in Berlin was the meals, like how we kind of did our food, what offerings we had, when we saw guys going out. to eat on their own versus when they were staying in the hotel to eat in the meal room and what offerings they enjoyed. So we don't want it to be exactly how we do it in the U.S. Like if we were to go domestically to New Orleans or Tampa, like we do want them to still experience some of the local place that they're at. And so this year with Madrid, like we really focus on the menu that does have those local offerings, what the hotel does really well, what the chefs there do really well, but still incorporate some of the favorites because we do have guys that, hey, I love a cheeseburger. I love chicken wings. We still want to have those, but we also understand the importance of giving them a little bit of cultural variety. Yeah, yeah. You've got to have the tapas along with maybe the wings or whatever it is. Yes, especially with the tapas. You've got to have a little bit of that. When you've been over there, I mean, did you have a chance to sightsee or have any of those local flavors yourself? Because you might be a little busy this time around to not do as much of that. No, I will definitely be busy this time around. But the first time we went, I was able to kind of make some time for myself, go on a little run through the city. It's a beautiful city and I've been lucky enough to go over, see London, obviously Berlin a lot of times and Madrid is just, it's breathtaking. Just a different type of city, the culture there, the people, the way they kind of live life is just so different than what we do here in the U.S. So I'm really excited and I'm a huge history like Buff, like museums. The buildings, the churches, everything. I just love it over there. So I'm really excited to see it all again. Yeah, and Madrid is kind of like a D.C. here. It's the capital, so it's a lot of history and a lot of government kind of buildings and things like that. It really is. Right up your alley, it sounds like. Yeah, you'll walk down the street and you'll see a blockade and you're like, somebody important is here. I'm not supposed to go down this road. There's so many, obviously, challenges at the stadium as well once you get to game day. What are some things that going to a soccer stadium, And, you know, a European soccer stadium that are challenges for you. I mean, you think about both locker rooms or dressing rooms, I guess they call them, are made for such smaller amounts of people than a 53-man roster. The sidelines are different and there's there's so many logistical like what is the biggest challenge when you think of that? No, Kelly, I think you hit the nail on the head. Just, you know, you might as well just come work operations because your mind is in the right place. But no, it really is. You know, you think about the locker room size and, you know, we're used to these massive lockers. You know, we have 300 plus pound linemen and, you know, they have, you know, obviously they're more slender soccer players. And so you do have to get a lot more creative in terms of space, even with the training room, even with like the rest of the point. It's like You know, the toilets, how many showers you have. They're not used to hosting, you know, we're going to bring closer to 70 players on this trip. And, you know, they have a smaller soccer team. So the NFL does a great job of, you know, finding solutions for that. But even on our end, you still have to get a little creative. And it really does take buy-in from everybody to understand that, yes, this isn't the usual setup, but we're going to make it as good as possible so that way you guys have everything you need to go succeed on Sunday. Earlier this season, obviously, the Rams kind of, Took a lot of headlines about how they handled their Australia travel and I know this is a way different travel situation but how do you work with you know the other sides of the building and other departments in this building to you know how are guys going to sleep how are we going to uh get there and what are we going to do when we get there and all that kind of stuff on the sports science side. Yes you know so um it all starts with the head coach um so you know we did it you know we're going over and it starts with uh coach Stefanski and we say hey. Coach, how do you picture this? When do you want to go? And then he makes that decision. And then it's up to us to go to all the other departments and say, hey, what is the best way for us to structure this from when he wants to leave and get there to make sure that our operation is seamless as possible? And so we look at ourselves as the glue. We want to make sure that we keep everybody together so that way they can do their jobs as good as possible, from video equipment. Athletic training, nutrition, obviously coaching as well. So we take that, hit everybody, and then, hey, let's go win a football game. And when you look ahead to this Madrid game, obviously you're looking forward to the actual game kicking off. Are you kind of busier, more nervous, more anxious as you get to kickoff? And then kickoff happens, you're like, okay, I can breathe maybe just for a second before I have to take care of the next thing. Or what is the calm? After the storm or before the storm, maybe so kick off, it's like you get your first breath because it's like we made it to the game. Yeah, but it's a quick breath. We still have to get over to the airport. We still have to get everybody on the plane and back to Atlanta right after the game. So still a lot of logistical hurdles, but I think as many of our my friends who travel on the charter know is once we get on that plane and we're flying back, I think my body just taps out. And so I'm knocked out within about five minutes. And that's my deep, my deep breath moment. And so once we are on that plane going back to Atlanta, I'm kind of like, okay, we made it. We did what we had to do. Hopefully we ended it with with a victory. But knowing that we had a smooth logistical trip still brings a lot of joy and pride to not only myself, but to everybody in our operation. A transatlantic flight back after a win, much better. Much better, much better. Well, thanks for joining me, Brandon. Appreciate it. Good luck in Madrid. Yes, appreciate it.