On a sofa in the corner of a Winnebago motorhome in the TV compound at Old Trafford, Rebecca Lowe is flicking through pages and pages of hand-written notes.
“Normally, I don’t do all of this prep on a Friday morning,” says Lowe, who has been the face of U.S. broadcaster NBC’s Premier League coverage for the past 11 years and has just finished working at the Olympics in Paris.
“Normally, I do Friday for Saturday, Saturday for Sunday, but because we’re leaving Manchester about 11pm tonight and I’ve got to be in hair and make-up at half-past seven tomorrow in east London, when am I going to do it? So I’ve done Sunday’s already and then I’ll just tweak it as… Tim, why are you looking at me?!”
Tim Howard, the former Manchester United and USMNT goalkeeper who now works for NBC as a pundit, wants to know what all the fuss is about.
“What is going on here?,” he asks.
“Stuart is interested in my notes. Is that a problem for you?” Lowe says.
“He’s the only one interested!,” Howard replies.
“Well, at least I’ve got some notes!,” Lowe shoots back.
Welcome to NBC’s “Minnie Winnie”, a motorhome where there is nowhere to sleep — what should be the double bedroom is full of a thousand switches that control the broadcaster’s technical operation — and absolutely nowhere to hide.
It’s a place for off-the-record punditry — “That’s an insult to the full-back position” — for eating bangers and mash one minute and sushi the next (where on earth does Robbie Mustoe put all that food?), and for keeping your head down when the flak is flying.
“It’s our ‘dressing room’,” Robbie Earle, the NBC pundit and former Wimbledon and Jamaica national team midfielder, says.
It’s also where The Athletic spent much of last weekend, after being given access to all areas with NBC, on location in Manchester and then at two games in London, for the start of the new Premier League season.
Howard requests some Red Bull and a pack of Fruit Pastilles. Mustoe, the former Middlesbrough midfielder and a pundit alongside Earle since day one at NBC, goes for a bag of Minstrels chocolates. Earle would like a couple of bananas.
There are a little under three hours to kick-off between Manchester United and Fulham at Old Trafford and Milo Aylward, one of the NBC runners, is taking a food order for the game.
As for Lowe, she has things to do and places to be. A 10-minute slot has been booked for her to do a walk-and-talk piece on the pitch at 5.40pm, using the Spidercam, as part of the opening sequence to their Premier League Live show.
Does she still have nerves after 11 years?
“Yes, absolutely,” Lowe replies. “Tonight, I’ll be nervous because I haven’t watched the Premier League in three months and it’s a big weekend with a big audience — we’ve got a lot of new viewers because of the Olympics. And it’s Old Trafford and we’re not always on-site. But I think if you don’t get nervous there’s something wrong because it’s live TV.
“The first 10 years of my career, the nerves were debilitating to the point that I didn’t eat. I remember doing games, often here with Sir Alex (Ferguson, United’s legendary manager), and I wouldn’t eat for at least a day and a half. I was absolutely terrified, especially back then because it was hard being female in this industry. But I manage all of that now.”
Old Trafford is empty and bathed in sunshine as Lowe runs through her lines. Aged 43, she has been the star of the show for NBC since they acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast the Premier League in the United States in 2013 and is popular with anyone and everyone who crosses her path.
Lowe conducts her walk-and-talk on the Old Trafford turf (Stuart James/The Athletic)
“She makes all of us better,” Pierre Moossa, NBC’s coordinating producer, says. “She is, by far and away, the captain of the ship.”
On the edge of the pitch, where a long line of television crews are setting up their equipment, Mustoe and Earle are deep in conversation with Gary Neville, the Sky Sports pundit and ex-Manchester United defender who is going to be part of NBC’s coverage this season. A few yards away, Howard is talking to his former United team-mate Roy Keane.
Pre-match and the NBC pundits mingle with Neville and Keane (Stuart James/The Athletic)
The mood is light-hearted and relaxed but excitement starts to build over the next hour as the clock edges closer to 7pm, when live coverage begins. Lowe, Mustoe, Earle and Howard go through their notes on a pitch-side desk, rehearsing lines as Greg Williams, the sound engineer, adjusts cables and Julie Matthews, the make-up artist, applies her finishing touches.
“Season 12, baby!,” Lowe, her face beaming, says to Mustoe, Earle and Howard. “We’re so old!”
Mustoe adjusts his tie, and everyone is ready to roll.
‘Season 12, baby!’ (Stuart James/The Athletic)
“It’s been a long summer without your weekly dose of Premier League football but do not worry because normal service is about to be resumed,” Lowe says over footage of the United players arriving at the stadium. “As always, we’ve come to England to be on the ground for opening weekend — an opening weekend which starts at the home of the most successful club in the history of English football.”
Lowe’s walk-and-talk piece follows and ends with her looking around the pitch and asking, “So, where’s my team?”
A pre-recorded feature from the home dressing room, where Earle, Mustoe and Howard wonder what sort of Manchester United we will see this season, provides the answer.
Neville is well-equipped to address that question when he joins them a quarter of an hour later.
“We’ve got four minutes with Gary,” Lowe tells everyone off-air.
After being wired up, Neville walks on during an ad break.
“Phil said to tell you that you’ve got a brother in Portland!” Lowe says, chuckling.
Neville laughs at the reference to his sibling and former United team-mate Phil, now managing Portland Timbers in MLS.
The team sheets are out now and Neville gives some insight, off-air, as to how he expects United to set up.
Neville joins the NBC team pre-match (Stuart James/The Athletic)
Once he’s on-air, Neville is excellent. He talks about feeling more optimistic about United this season but makes it clear, in response to a question from Howard, that they are still a long way away from being title challengers. As for the United manager, Neville pulls no punches.
“We want to be really clear, if Erik ten Hag starts this season in the same way as he did last season, he’ll be under pressure in October, and he could lose his job, and I think he knows that,” he says. “He’s fortunate still to be here.”
“Hashtag starving,” Lowe says as they go off the air briefly.
It sounds like Mustoe’s Minstrels can’t come quickly enough.
United’s players and staff make their way back down the tunnel, emerging directly behind where the NBC team are set up.
“Ruuuuuuuud!” shout the fans on the Stretford End, prompting Mustoe to make an interesting point off-air. “The love for Ruud could be a problem for Ten Hag,” he says.
Lowe flags that Van Nistelrooy’s role, with the former striker back at one of his old clubs as assistant manager this season, is a good subject to discuss later on as they all turn around to take a look at the players.
“By the way, (Matthijs) de Ligt is a unit,” Howard says as United’s new centre-back strolls past.
Di Ligt ends up making a late appearance off the bench against Fulham but it’s another United substitute who saves the day for Ten Hag — and also for NBC to an extent, bearing in mind the last thing they wanted was a goalless draw in the opening game of the season. Joshua Zirkzee, a €40million (£34.1m; $44.5m) signing from Italy’s Bologna, is the hero, prodding home for a 1-0 win with three minutes remaining.
As the final whistle blows, the team’s pitch-side table is quickly brought back out — picture that scene in Goodfellas when Henry and Karen turn up at the Copacabana Club in New York — and Lowe, Mustoe, Earle and Howard dash down from their seats behind the Fulham dugout to give their post-match thoughts.
Player interviews had to be requested five minutes before the end of the game — Lisa McLeod, NBC’s senior operations and production director, asked for Harry Maguire initially but pivoted to Zirkzee after his goal.
In the end, it was Lisandro Martinez from United and Antonee Robinson from Fulham who came out to talk. Robinson is ideal as Lowe and the team can also ask the USMNT international about the prospect of Mauricio Pochettino being their new coach.
A few yards away, Ten Hag is talking to Sky Sports, the UK’s host broadcaster, which suggests the United manager will be over shortly.
Earle glances across during an ad break and looks confused. “The Manchester United manager has to have socks,” Earle says, looking at Ten Hag’s bare ankles. “Can we buy him some socks?”.
As it happens, it’s a fresh-faced Martinez, and not Ten Hag, who walks up to the NBC desk first.
“You look like you haven’t even played!,” Lowe says to the Argentinian defender, smiling.
Just as everyone is ready to go live as the commercial break comes to an end, Ten Hag strolls over. Not only that but the United manager picks up a pen and scribbles something on Lowe’s notes.
“We’re joined by Erik ten Hag, the Manchester United manager,” Lowe says, chuckling at what’s just happened. “I know that’s how you spell Zirkzee!” she adds, looking at Ten Hag’s correction and laughing.
Smiling and relaxed, Ten Hag’s demeanour seems totally different to last season — something everyone later comments on off-air.
Martinez and Ten Hag conduct their post-match interview (Stuart James/The Athletic)
As for the United manager’s red pen, Lowe handles that moment nicely at the end of the interview.
“Erik, do you want to check anything else on my notes before you go?,” she asks.
“No, no. I’ll leave it… for today!,” he replies.
It’s the morning after the night before. A 3am arrival at a hotel in London is followed by a 10am start.
The London Stadium is the destination for the Saturday evening kick-off between West Ham United and Aston Villa, but Premier League coverage starts at midday via cable TV’s NBC-owned USA Network.
On the way to West Ham’s ground, I mention to Moossa, who is the brains behind NBC’s Premier League coverage, that Neville spoke well last night and didn’t sugarcoat anything around United or Ten Hag.
“Gary knows, and the two Robbies and Tim know, that they have a responsibility to the viewer, not to their former colleagues and club,” Moossa says. “And their responsibility to the viewer is to tell it how it is — even if it’s not what clubs, the Premier League, their former team-mates, want to hear; they have to be honest.”
The sun is beating down at the stadium which was at the heart of the 2012 Olympic Games, so much so that jackets are off and Howard is trying to cool himself with a hand-held fan.
Howard seeks a breeze at West Ham (Stuart James/The Athletic)
Earle seems more comfortable. “I’ve got Jamaican blood,” he says, gesturing to start running. “I feel like Usain Bolt coming down that home straight (at London 2012).”
The team news from Portman Road, where promoted Ipswich Town are taking on Liverpool in the early game, is the first topic of conversation.
“How many goals did (new Ipswich signing Sammie) Szmodics get for Blackburn last season?” Earle asks during an ad break.
“Twenty-seven,” Joe Catapano, the researcher, replies instantly.
An Ed Sheeran feature is coming up soon, prompting Mustoe to tell a story that involves his brother-in-law and the Ipswich-supporting singer. Or is it his brother-in-law’s sister? It all gets very confusing.
“Musty, can you be quiet — we’re about to go on air!” Lowe says.
Lowe quickly checks Sheeran’s age with Catapano, who has the answer at the ready, before doing the calculation for what she is about to say when they are back on-air.
“He (Sheeran) was 11 years old when he last saw Ipswich dining at English football’s top table,” Lowe tells viewers.
As soon as they are off air again, Mustoe is back at it, only this time in jest. “So my brother-in-law was talking to Ed…”
A collective groan follows amid the laughter.
Back in the Minnie Winnie, it’s bangers (sausage) and mash with mushy peas for lunch. Or was that just a starter?
An hour or so later, after finishing the half-time analysis on Ipswich-Liverpool, Mustoe is eating sushi while making a tactical point with one of his chopsticks.
Tactics and sushi (Stuart James/The Athletic)
“Jesus. What’s that, a second lunch?” Lowe asks.
“Mustoe eats for the two Robbies,” Earle says.
Football and food seem to dominate the conversation in the Minnie Winnie, where it is standing-room-only later in the afternoon. Graeme Le Saux, the former Chelsea left-back, and Lee Dixon, the ex-Arsenal defender, have arrived ahead of their co-commentary duties, alongside Peter Drury.
Everyone is busy making pre-match notes while also keeping tabs on the four Premier League matches that kicked off at 3pm and are being shown on separate monitors.
Earle expresses his dismay at the defending after Bukayo Saka scores a trademark goal to give Arsenal a 2-0 lead against Wolves.
“Show him outside!” Earle says.
“That’s an insult to the full-back position!,” adds Le Saux, slightly tongue-in-cheek, from the make-up chair.
Mike Carey, the producer, steps inside and decides to leave the door open.
“Too much hot air in here,” he says.
“I see what you did there, Mikey,” adds Earle, smiling.
It’s hard to keep up with the banter, never mind the football.
Earle, Mustoe and commentator Drury make notes (Stuart James/The Athletic)
Dixon gets up to make himself a coffee.
“Sorry,” says Le Saux as he takes a sip from his own cup. “I didn’t ask if anyone else wanted one.”
“That’s you in a nutshell,” Dixon says, deadpan.
An unlikely duo given the enmity they had for one another during their playing days, Le Saux and Dixon have worked together at NBC for more than a decade and are good friends these days.
It’s an interesting dynamic, given that most broadcasters would have just one ex-player, rather than two, on co-commentary, and makes you wonder how, together with Drury, they don’t end up talking over one another and competing for air time.
“I was the new boy in this three-way partnership two seasons ago and, honestly, that sort of thing depends on the generosity of the established broadcasters — these two,” Drury says, as they all take their seats in the gantry. “Because it does depend on a willingness to understand that you stay in your lane, really.
“And, for me, it’s quite straightforward: these two will speak for themselves. I’m in charge of who, when and where. In other words, the (game’s) indisputable facts. All I’m doing is telling the story, which you can see anyway. And they’re in charge of how and why.”
“That’s a good description,” Dixon says.
“I always see it as being like a dance,” Le Saux adds.
“I’ve seen you dancing,” Dixon says. “Don’t go on Strictly (Come Dancing — the UK’s version of Dancing With The Stars), will you.”
Although Dixon and Le Saux enjoy a joke at one another’s expense on- and off-air, they complement each other well in the commentary box.
For example, when Fulham failed to make the most of a two-versus-one attack the night before, Le Saux identified how Maguire held his position well and got his timing right to block the pass, while Dixon watched another angle and highlighted that Fulham attacker Alex Iwobi made a run which was too narrow. “That’s not repeating what I’ve said,” Le Saux says. “It’s giving even more context.”
Le Saux, Dixon and Drury on the gantry (Stuart James/The Athletic)
The fact that Drury, Dixon and Le Saux are all English and working for an American broadcaster says a lot about NBC’s approach to its Premier League coverage.
“When I joined NBC two seasons ago, the message that was absolutely rammed home to me was that America wants the authentic Premier League and that’s why they employ English voices,” Drury says. “They want it as the English get it. So if you start patronising, if you start explaining the offside rule… they get irritated, I gather, if you start saying, ‘Well, Liverpool are like the LA Rams’. They want the English version of the English Premier League. And so, in that regard, to be any different would be to sell it short, I think.”
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“Pierre said that from day one,” Dixon adds.
Le Saux nods. “It’s 11 years we’ve been working on this and it’s been incredible. But it all goes back to that foundation of what Pierre said at the beginning; about the way you deliver things, the way you don’t speculate. If you’ve got insight, give it. If you haven’t, don’t speak. They say, ‘Let it breathe’. And I think anyone coming in feels empowered by that rather than limited because you go, ‘Well, these are the standards that we all meet, and this is what we’re trying to do and why we’re trying to do it’.”
“My brother summed it up and he’s said this more than once,” Dixon says.
“‘Le Saux’s a w****r?’,” asks Le Saux. Cue laughter all around.
“You can’t put that in!” Dixon tells The Athletic. “Oh, you can — it’s a factual piece!’
“No, I was on the phone to my brother, going to a game, and I said, ‘Is it (the reason for the call) important?’. He said, ‘Why, are you in a rush?’. I said, ‘I’ve got to go to work’. He said, ‘All right, I’ll speak to you later. But just on that, you’re going to watch football with your mates… and you’re getting paid for it’. And I thought, ‘Yeah, he’s kind of got a point’. And that summed up what we do. It’s brilliant.”
A moment in the first half of the West Ham-Villa game captures the chemistry between the three of them.
As the camera pans to managers Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui on the touchline, Drury mentions Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola too, and says how curious it is that “there are four managers in the Premier League not just Spanish but born within a 20-mile or so radius of one another”.
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“I’ve got a theory on that,” Le Saux adds, before falling quiet as Villa go on the attack and Drury continues his commentary.
A stoppage in play eventually provides some breathing space.
“Free kick. Let’s have it, Graeme,” Drury says.
“Here’s your chance. Come on,” adds Dixon, encouraging his colleague.
“The way they play football in the Basque country (on Spain’s north coast) is very northern European — the weather out there, the physicality and the aggression, it’s much more akin to English football,” Le Saux says. “So I think the style of play from those coaches is complementary to the Premier League style.”
There’s a long silence.
“I’ve not been challenged,” Le Saux says. “So I’ll take that as you both agreeing with me.”
“Please don’t do that,” adds Dixon, prompting laughter from Drury.
It’s Sunday, just gone midday, nearly four and a half hours before the Chelsea and Manchester City game kicks off at Stamford Bridge in west London, but NBC’s coverage, via USA Network, is already up and running with their Premier League Morning show for the early risers across the Atlantic (it’s 7am on the East Coast).
The sun is shining again — NBC struck gold with the English weather last weekend — and Lowe is wearing a sleeveless dress that (we’re in danger of straying into fashion-correspondent territory here) appears to be made from some sort of woven fabric similar to hessian. Either way, Mustoe wonders out loud off-air whether her outfit belongs in the sack race at a school sports day. Howard motions what someone’s running action in a sack might look like.
“Have you noted this?,” Lowe asks, looking across at The Athletic.
Sunday at Stamford Bridge (Stuart James/The Athletic)
It’s all good fun and the shoe is on the other foot moments later when the Premier League trophy is placed on a plinth next to NBC’s pitch-side desk and Mustoe makes the dubious claim he was once close to winning it.
Catapano is on hand as usual to answer any questions, but nobody asks him to fact-check this one.
“You’re closer to winning it now than you were back then!,” Lowe says.
As it approaches 1pm, Dixon and Le Saux make their way down the tunnel with Jon Champion, who will be commentating on the Chelsea-City match. They have a short time-slot to film a piece to camera in the home dressing room.
The Chelsea players’ shirts are hanging up with the names and numbers showing but those jerseys are not allowed to be in shot even if turned around to hide that information, which makes little sense on the face of it. Now is not the time to argue about the backdrop, though. The clock is ticking and there’s only one microphone between the three of them.
“You’re not going to give him that (microphone), are you?” Dixon says to Champion, looking in the direction of Le Saux.
“No,” replies Champion. “Because I’ll never get it back.”
“Mobile phones on silent please,” Brett Smart, the floor manager, says. “OK, in your own time, Jon.”
Dixon, Champion and Le Saux in the Chelsea dressing room (Stuart James/The Athletic)
There are about 15 of us in the dressing room watching, including a few Chelsea staff, as Champion nails his part in one take. His link from Le Saux to Dixon is brilliant.
“From the smooth metropolitan to the rough northerner,” Champion says, as he turns on his heel to face Dixon.
As someone who needed a dozen takes to do the most routine piece to camera at university, it’s impossible not to marvel at how effortless Champion makes everything look. There is not a script in sight.
“You can pre-plan as much as you want but I find the best lines, both in commentary and in terms of pieces to camera, come to you a millisecond before you’re required to say it,” Champion explains as we head back up the tunnel.
Back outside, the NBC team are waiting to bring on their super-sub, or “special contributor” as he’s described on air. Gary Neville arrives during an ad break, wearing black trousers and a black polo shirt.
“What happened to the white shirt?” Lowe asks.
“It didn’t fit!,” Neville replies, laughing. “And if a white shirt doesn’t fit me, it really doesn’t fit me.”
Still off-air, he talks about how City manager Pep Guardiola only brought the England players back to training on Wednesday after the national team got to the European Championship final on July 14.
“Didn’t Fergie (Ferguson) used to give you…”
“We always got four weeks,” Neville says, finishing Earle’s sentence for him.
Once the on-air segment has finished, Earle, Howard and Mustoe take a seat in the adjacent stand to talk about the weekend so far. It doesn’t take long to realise that they attach great value to being on location now and again, rather than always working from a studio in the States.
“For me, it wasn’t that long ago after I played but it’s still amazing to be on the touchline and see the power, the pace, the size of these players,” Howard says. “It’s like, ‘Wow’. You’re blown away. So you almost need that refresher.”
Mustoe nods. “Also, you can see the whole pitch and you can look where you want to look. I don’t want to always look at the cameras. I want to see what’s happening tactically, I want to look at one player: what does he do when he hasn’t got possession? So it’s so beneficial.”
“We have a beautiful studio (at NBC’s base in Stamford, Connecticut, a short drive north of New York City) and we can get all the angles,” Earle adds. “But, actually sitting there watching it, seeing Ten Hag’s relationship with Ruud van Nistelrooy, seeing Zirkzee’s goal — that’s the bit that’s real. And our job is to portray that to the American audience so they feel that they’re getting a bit of Old Trafford and Manchester and what the crowd’s feeling. We’re the distributors to them.”
“We want them to come!,” Mustoe says. “I remember saying, I think last year, into the camera, ‘Fans in America, you’ve got to come and experience what we’re experiencing now’.”
“Which is starting to happen, by the way,” Earle says.
“Which is totally starting to happen,” adds Mustoe.
Back in the Minnie Winnie, the tension builds as Lowe watches her beloved Crystal Palace in between eating a yoghurt, reading her notes and keeping herself cool with a fan.
Lowe attempts to keep cool as Palace, her team, play Brentford (Stuart James/The Athletic)
She knows how to celebrate, too.
“Get in there!” Lowe shouts when Palace equalise away to Brentford.
“No bias in here,” quips Dixon, with a wry smile.
Lowe shows a photo of her eight-year-old son watching the game at home in the U.S., wearing his Palace shirt.
Unfortunately for them, the afternoon ends in a 2-1 defeat for their side, and the same is also true for Chelsea, who are outplayed and outclassed by City, the 2-0 winners.
“Stellar” is the word that Guardiola uses to describe City’s performance to Lowe afterwards.
It’s been a long weekend in front of the camera for the NBC team, but a rewarding one too. They averaged 820,000 viewers across their six live Premier League matches, which makes it the most-watched opening weekend on record in the U.S.
As Earle and Mustoe finish the evening with The 2 Robbies Podcast, Lowe breathes a sigh of relief that everything has gone to plan. “No matter how tired, how many hours and how many days and all that, I didn’t mess up. That’s the most important thing,“ she says.
And what about the bigger picture? The fact that this is, to quote her line at Old Trafford just before they went on air, “Season 12, baby”. Could she ever have imagined how the Premier League audience in the States would grow so much over that time?
“It’s surreal,” she says. “When I took the job, I wasn’t sure whether America was ready for the Premier League and ready for every single game — which we show. And so I was slightly like, ‘OK, let’s see how this goes’. Well, it’s exceeded every expectation.
“I just feel really proud to represent the States, because there’s such a misconception about the knowledge of American football fans, and I probably fed into it 20 years ago when I lived in England: ‘Oh, it’s all NFL’.
“I hope our coverage is changing that misconception and people are starting to realise that, actually, America does know what it’s talking about when it comes to football.”
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(Photos: Stuart James/The Athletic; design: Dan Goldfarb)
