Nnamdi Asomugha, the Oakland Raider, ex-Cal Bear, and current highest-paid player in the National Football League, probably doesn't need to worry about having a fallback job.
But Asomugha has an interest in television broadcasting, and ESPN The Magazine's June 29 issue did a feature prompting sports stars to spend one day working their "back-up plan", or job that they'd hold if they weren't still pro athletes. Nnamdi worked one day as an on-air analyst at ESPN's television studios.
It could have been a lot worse. Arizonoa Diamondback Conor Jackson's back-up plan job was to play a role on "General Hospital."
Asomugha blogged a little write-up of his one day working at ESPN, and it sounds he encountered information overload all day. The day led up to Nnamdi appearing in an on-air segment, and he admits, "I was overwhelmed by all the voices in my earpiece. Plus, I'm color-blind, which made it hard to see the red light that indicated which camera I should face. It was nerve-racking."
There's also an online video documenting Nnamdi's one day gig at the worldwide leader, and Asomugha shows himself to be pretty charismatic onscreen. He's a pretty funny and affable when he's got a camera on him. In footage from the ESPN cafeteria, Nnamdi looks over the cuisine while realizing he's being filmed and remarks, "Salad! That's good for the camera."
While Asomugha still has a long career defending passes ahead of him, you can still catch him showing off his TV sports broadcaster stylings. Nnamdi occasionally co-hosts NBC Bay Area's Sports Sunday with Raj Mathai, Sunday evenings at 11:30 immediately following the news.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer whose backup job would be a position in "sports riot looting".
