Being in-studio is a different ballgame, and NBC Sports’ Lawrence Jackson Jr. would be the first to tell you.
During his first show for Fantasy Football Happy Hour, Jackson revealed to host Jessica Kleinschmidt on the latest episode of the Short and to the Point podcast that Matthew Berry was not present on that particular episode. Instead, Connor Rogers and his former colleague, Pat Kerrane, joined Jackson. It was also Jackson’s first time on the show.
“Prior to that, I talked to the producer, and she told me like an hour before, she was like, ‘Hey man, just pretty much do what you’ve been doing on your social media videos because that’s you,'” Jackson said. “And I was like, ‘Say no more.’ Honestly, I looked around, and I was like, well, you’re either going to get a bunch of opportunities after this, or they’ll never tell you to come back again. So, you better not mess this up.”
So, for Jackson’s first time in the studio, he acted like the cameras weren’t even there.
And it seemingly paid off for him.
“I just paid attention to the two dudes I was talking to,” he added. “I would quickly look back at the camera facing us because you want some eye contact with the viewers. But, I straight up acted like I was talking about football in the bar that we was at while giving out the statistics.”
But getting in-studio wouldn’t have been possible without Berry.
“He actually hit me up one time in 2021,” said Jackson. “He was still at ESPN at the time, and he sent me one of the social videos I had done as a freelancer. I had just started at NBC Sports as a freelancer. He sent me in the DMs. He probably couldn’t retweet it because he was still at ESPN.”
Essentially, Jackson was praised for his actions and was encouraged to continue by Berry.
“When you get that from somebody who’s in it, that’s like alright, maybe, you know, keep going, keep going,” he said. “You just need that little boost. So again, I would like to do that for other people…I think a month later or something, Peyton Manning had said his name on TV, and I thought that was funny, so I sent him a DM…five minutes later, he was like let’s hop on a call because he has the Fantasy Life company.”
Berry wanted to see if the two could work together, with Jackson doing some Fantasy Life as a freelancer. While Jackson said he was “very fortunate,” he said he was working his regular job. He used to drive trucks but also had a couple of freelance gigs.
“It’s cool, you know? You make your content, and Matthew Berry retweets it,” added Jackson. “You know what I’m saying?”
There came a point in time when NBC wanted to give Jackson a full-time gig as a fantasy football analyst, so in doing that, he had to give up the Fantasy Life. Before he could even find the words to tell Berry, he was told to accept that job without a shadow of a doubt.
Sometime later, Jackson came across a tweet from Berry announcing his departure from the Worldwide Leader. Although Jackson suspected Berry might be leaving, their relationship was not as close as it is now. About 10 minutes later, Jackson received a message from sources close to him informing him that Berry was coming to NBC.
“Even when I got those messages, I didn’t tell nobody, and I didn’t even tell him that I knew that,” Jackson said. “I already know this dude…but I didn’t get on TV immediately. It took a while. And they almost didn’t plan to have any of us on there. But I said, you know what? I said I’m going to use my resources…I say, ‘Hey Matthew, one day after you’re doing the show, let’s do a social media video about [Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts]…I made a 15-minute video with him that come out to be one minute.
Jackson’s video was a success, which helped him get on the show. The video demonstrated his ability to work with Berry and showed that they had good chemistry. This impressed those in power at NBC Sports and played a role in Jackson’s selection for the show.
“The reason he is where he is is because he did different things in fantasy to get to this point,” Jackson said of Berry. “He used to use a puppet at ESPN. Like, I’m probably the last dude you would’ve thought, [that[ would be on a fantasy show with Matthew Berry, but Matthew’s thinking outside the box already…He’s like, well, let me get this dude, who’s giving us a whole different vibe but still talking about fantasy football and betting.
“Now we here. It’s definitely fun, and he be cracking on me, and I do the same to him. We can both take it from each other, so that’s good.”
Short and to the Point with Jessica Kleinschmidt is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.
