Episode 9 In this episode, we’re thrilled to sit down with Jim Nagy, Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, to discuss Mobile’s iconic game and its pivotal role in the NFL draft process. For 76 years, the Senior Bowl has been a cornerstone of Mobile’s identity, drawing top-tier talent and NFL scouts to our city. Jim shares insights into the game’s evolution, the impressive players to watch, and what it means for Mobile to be the “33rd NFL city.” Join us as we explore how the Senior Bowl brings excitement, opportunities, and unmatched visibility to our region, cementing Mobile as a hub for sports excellence and community pride. Don’t miss this in-depth conversation about one of Mobile’s most celebrated traditions!

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Transcription

 Hello and welcome to the Mobile Matters Podcast, powered by the Mobile Chamber, where we’re diving deeper into important topics that make a significant impact on Mobile’s thriving business community. I’m your host, the President and CEO of the Mobile Chamber, Bradley Byrne. On today’s episode, we have the privilege of having Jim Nagy, the Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, with us to talk about Mobile’s big game.

Jim, thanks for joining us. Bradley, great to be here. Uh, this is fun. Many people consider the Senior Bowl as the preeminent college football all star game. We’ve had the privilege of hosting the game here in Mobile for 76 years. Wow, that’s amazing. Mm hmm. As you like to say, the draft starts here in Mobile because the Reese’s Senior Bowl plays such a critical role in the draft process.

For anyone who may be unfamiliar with the Senior Bowl, Jim, tell us about the game and who will be in town. Okay. Well, uh, yeah, like you said, it’s the year 76. We celebrated our 75th anniversary last year. It’s, uh, been here a long time. Um, I say this to people all around the country when I, whenever I travel.

We’ve got two things in mobile. We got Mardi Gras and we got the senior bowl and they’re, they’re part of the fabric of our community. Um, so the senior bowl is the biggest college football all star game. What we’ve done is kind of pivot that. And we’ve, we’ve tried to frame our game over the last six or seven years, more of a pre NFL draft event rather than a final college football all star game, because the NFL draft has become so big.

Um, and so many millions of eyeballs. I think the NFL draft this past year had 55 million eyeballs on it. Um, and so it’s become this monster. So when I, when I interviewed for the job with, uh, Mr. Angus Cooper, our chairman and the board, that’s, I said, that was my vision for it. Like we need to start hitching our wagons to the draft process.

This isn’t about their last college game. This is about their, really their first pro game. So that’s what we’ve done. Um, You know, we were going to the last five years, we’ve had over 100 draft picks in the game, which is significantly more than, than what it was six, seven years ago. We were about the 74, 75 last year, we had 110, um, that was 43 percent of the entire draft.

We had 10 first round picks and it’s all about. It’s one thing to have draft picks, you have to have star power, you have to have first round picks it to move the needle, especially on television. So, you know, we have our practices are on NFL network all three days, they’re on ESPN all three days. So, um, in order for them to keep coming back and televising us and justifying putting us on the air, we have to have good players.

We have to have great players. So, um, yeah, that’s, that’s what’s about to happen. And, and outside of the field and the players, this is like the unofficial NFL convention every year. Everyone’s here. All the coaches, all the scouts. You know, some owners, um, they all descend on our, on our city and, um, it’s really a cool thing.

I mean, there’s 32 communities in the country that have an NFL property and those are the teams with teams, you know, this is the cities with teams and we’re, we’re the 33rd. We’re the only other, we’re the only other city in America, community in America that has an NFL property to it. So, um, 76 years, um, I’ve been going for At least 60 of those, more than 60 of those, I guess I should say.

And I can remember as a kid how exciting it was to have Senior Bowl week because you had not just the players, but the coaches, etc. Uh, and it is, you said it right, it’s a big part of the fabric of this community. So, so the big game’s coming up on February the 1st. Um, who can we expect to see on the field this year?

Well, I don’t expect, uh, everyone in the community to know all these players. You’d really have to be kind of a draft sicko to know all these people that we’re bringing. There’s some great players, but you always want some quarterback star power, and we have that this year with two local guys. I mean, you’ve got Riley Leonard, a Fairhope product, um, And we’d Riley just made a really historic run through the college football playoff, really historic year for Notre Dame football.

Um, so that’s a big one for us. Fairhope really supports their, their athletes over there and, and then having Jalen Milrow, the Alabama quarterback, anytime you can have the Alabama quarterback in the senior bowl, that’s a big deal. Um, and especially one that’s. You know, graded as highly as Jalen Milrow.

Right now, he’s got a chance to be a first round pick. He’s, uh, he’s not there yet. He has to have a good process. Um, but he’s certainly graded higher right now than Jalen Hurts was four years ago when he was in Mobile. And we’ve seen what Jalen’s done. He’s been to a Superbowl and he’s on the cusp of going to another one.

So, um, just those two guys alone, that’s a lot of star power. You know, um, uh, Raleigh broke my heart. He, I’m, I’m a Duke alum. And he was a quarterback at Duke before Notre Dame stole him away. But I have a lot of friends that say that, uh, their heart was broken that they didn’t get him at Alabama or Auburn.

So he’s quite a star. And of course, Jalen having played for Alabama, he’s going to be a star for local people. But you’re saying he’s not just a star for being local guys. They’re stars, period. They’re stars, period. You know, and we’ve got other local guys in the game. Shamar James was a kid that played at Florida, was a, played at Faith Academy.

Um, but we do, we’ve got, last year we had the 10 first round picks. All those guys were seniors. You know, it’s something new last year. The NFL started to let us bring underclassmen to the game. Those are usually the higher drafted guys anyway. People that, so we can bring juniors. We are not becoming the junior and senior bowl.

It’s just going to stay senior bowl. Um, the brand is strong enough. We’re not going to mess with the brand name, but, uh, no, we, you know, all 10 first round picks last year were seniors. And this year we got way, way better buy in from the junior class. So right now I think there’s 25, 2025 guys that could be first round picks.

They all won’t be, um, cause the draft never settles that way, but we’re going to have a lot of first round picks in this game, the question is the hard part of selling it is. to the fans that, you know, I wish you, you wish you could fast forward a year and just tell them, look, now that they’re in the NFL, look who’s going to be in mobile, but we don’t have that luxury.

I can remember going to a game with my dad and there was a guy playing there that nobody had ever heard of. And dad watched him pass a couple of times and said, that guy’s going somewhere. His name was Terry Bradshaw. So we have been the springboard for a lot of players who were unknown to get into the NFL and be stars.

So we think about it from a fan’s perspective, but for some of these players, it’s make or break for them. It’s a huge week. And that’s what, that’s what sometimes gets lost. This is a big job interview. It’s a stressful week. Um, not only they, are they on the field with new coaches, new teammates, new playbook, um, at night, they have interviews all night with it, with the NFL team.

So it’s a pressure packed week and you bring up Terry Bradshaw, one of the great. Things we have every year is our Senior Bowl Hall of Fame. We started that in 1988. So to get those great players back here and hear their stories, you know, from 25 years ago when they played in the game and for them to reflect back on what this week meant to them and meant to their careers and really, you know, the launching pad.

And that’s why I say the draft starts in Mobile, the career started in Mobile and in this city, this, this. This city holds a special place in a lot of these players hearts. That’s great. So you and your team have to figure out, all right, who are we trying to bring here this year? What’s your process? Well, we, you know, we actually started our own football department when I got here.

Um, I don’t know how they really did things in the past, but we’ve got a team of former NFL scouts right now. This year we had 11. Um, we get a new group of guys every year that get let go in the hiring, firing cycle, um, that happens in the NFL after the draft, it happens every year. My, my dad always said when he knew I wanted to get into football, he’s like, Jim, that ball shaped a certain way and it’s not going to bounce your way all the time.

You’re, you’re going to have to be ready to move around if you’re going to work in football. So we do, we get a group of guys that, uh, you know, so they have credibility. They have a network of people they can call at the, you know, colleges, other scouts. We don’t have a budget for these guys to be in a school every day and, you know, flying on planes.

So we have a restrictive budget, but there are games every Saturday. They’re at home with the technology we have. Now they’re watching all the same tape as, as NFL guys. And that’s how we do it. Those guys are out. They report back to me. We have zoom calls. Um, You know, I’ve got a big network of guys in the NFL.

We include them in our process as well because the game is for them. We’re, we’re bringing this game isn’t for us. I always tell people we’re not playing another football game in a mobile after February 1st. So we’re bringing the players that the NFL wants to see. Wow. So I don’t know that everybody in mobile understands how critical we are to the whole draft process from the team’s point of view, from the player’s point of view.

We’re just thinking about it from a fan point of view. Of course, the Senior Bowl is much more than just a game for Mobile, because we have so many things that y’all and other people have built up around it that are also a part of the fabric of our life here in this community. So, I hope everybody will stay tuned.

We’re going to go to a break now. When we come back, I want to talk about those other things that we do that are so important to the Mobile area. So we’re going to take a little break. Stay tuned. The many events at the chamber, the coffees, the executive roundtables, and especially the Young Professionals Program, which helps us develop our staff, have done a lot.

To grow personal edge fitness, the partnerships that we make, the networking that we do not only help us increase our clientele and expand our footprint, but more importantly, give us more opportunities to give back to the community, which has a lasting impact for us all. For more information about joining the chamber, visit mobile chamber.

com.

We’re back on the mobile matters podcast here with Jim Nagy, the executive director. for the Reese’s Senior Bowl. And so Jim, before the break, we talked a good bit about the game itself, but Mobile has embraced this event throughout the community. Each year, Mobile hosts more than 900 NFL personnel and hundreds of media members.

How does the city’s hospitality and culture play into creating a memorable experience for them. Well, if you ask anyone in the NFL, they love coming here. They do. They love coming to Mobile. Scouts are a little bit of creatures of habit. I was one myself for all those years. You, you’re, you got your, you got your hotel.

You stay at in every college town. You got your restaurant you go to in every college town. So they love coming here. They, they get treated well. The Southern hospitality aspect of it. Um, we, we. We credentialed over 1200 media members last year, and that’s up over 300 just in the last three years. So this thing’s really growing.

So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s, I mean, I, I do, I think people love coming here. There’s other, there’s other NFL events. The biggest, the other one being the, uh, NFL combine in Indianapolis. And, uh, I go to that every year. I’ve been going to it for 25 years. It feels a lot more corporate. Um, this really feels like just, uh, you know, more of a down home grassroots type of event.

I think the guys love that. Well, we love being, uh, hospitable to people. Uh, we’re good at it. And one of the things I think that, uh, we’ve been smart about is to have a Mardi Gras parade for them. And I think they sort of enjoy that. Don’t they? They, they do. They love it. Um, the players especially love it.

So when I, when I, you know, took the job, you know, that was another one of the goals was like, we need to build out. Game week. It can’t just be practices in the game. We got to do more than this. And our team president from the Seattle Seahawks, a brilliant guy, Harvard undergrad, Harvard, Harvard MBA. I reached out to him and he ran all Paul Allen’s business ventures.

So it was the Seattle Seahawks, the Portland Trailblazers, the Seattle Sounders, their soccer team. So just to. He’s been a great mentor to me, like in this role, you know, coming from a business aspect, he’s like, well, what’s Mobile known for? I’m like, well, we’re the home of Mardi Gras. He’s like, well, why aren’t you having a Mardi Gras parade?

So we’ve, we’ve been doing, this is, this is the sixth year that we’ll have the Mardi Gras parade. And it’s great. Our players love it. Um, they’ll be throwing a couple thousand autographed footballs. Um, you know, on a really short parade route, we’re talking Royal street down to Dolphin and up about three or four blocks.

So that’s a lot of autographs flying. Um, our players will be in their college uniforms, not the Reese’s uniform. So they’re easily identifiable. You’ll, you’ll see the Alabama Jersey and know that’s Jalen Milrow. Um, and we, we, we marched them by position group. So the quarterbacks will all go behind a banner that says quarterbacks and the running backs will all go behind a banner that says running back.

So the crowd will know who the guys are. Um, and then we ended in cathedral square. Um, with a concert, we’ve, we’ve paired it with a concert. I kind of stole that idea from Nashville. I was up in Nashville for the NFL draft, doing some work, uh, for ESPN about five years ago, and I thought to myself, wow, they’ve all they’re doing here is putting on these free concerts and a lot of adult beverages flowing.

This is a pretty good formula. We can, we can do this in mobile. Um, so, you know, the last couple of years we had counting crows in Mardi Gras park. We had Nelly the year before that. So, uh, we’re going country this year. We’re going to move the parade, um, or the concert back to. Cathedral Square right there on Dolphin Street.

And again, a part of the reason we want to do that too, is to help the downtown businesses. Um, you know, and, and you would think that Mardi Gras park’s close enough to Dolphin and all, but we want to be right there in the heart of it again this year. So, uh, we do, we, we, we know how much this, this game and this week fuels the economy.

We haven’t done any economic impact study since 2015. So now we’re going on year 10. We probably need to do one again. Um, but the, uh, Uh, professor out at South Alabama did the last one and it was 32 million that the game brought to mobile in that one week and the game has grown exponentially in the last 10 years.

So I don’t know what that number is. I know it’s a lot more than 32 million. So, so there’s a big responsibility there. That’s why, you know, when the NFL came to us. Not to dive too far in the weeds with you, but you know, I was on the job for three, you know, three weeks back in the summer of 2018 and our chairman, Mr.

Mr. Cooper and I went up to park Avenue and they approached us about moving the game to Orlando. Um, and he was my new boss. I didn’t really know the look, but he gave me a certain look and I. Said to the guys, I’m like, fellas, we’re, we’re never moving this game from Mobile. Um, and since then, you know, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve known we’ve had a target on our back a little bit.

We knew the NFL wanted this in a bigger market and they, and they wanted to replace the Pro Bowl with it. You know, they don’t play the Pro Bowl game anymore. They do like flag football and all these other events. They wanted the senior bowl. Um, and so when we kept it here, that’s where the draft starts in Mobile came from.

And we were trying to make the game synonymous. with the city of Mobile. So when you thought senior bowl, you thought Mobile. Um, so it, it all goes hand. There’s been a lot of strategy about the growth of this game. Um, I think we’re in a really good spot right now, Bradley. Um, I think the NFL has seen us, um, in what we’ve done.

And that was the goal. My guys, we have to do this better than it’s ever been done. We have to crush this. So when they’re up there on Park Avenue having conversations about what we do here, they have to be like, you know what, let’s leave those people in Mobile alone. They’re doing, they’re doing a good job.

And I think we’re at that point. Well, I don’t think people realize how big the NFL is. It’s not just within America. It’s worldwide. Globally. Yeah. And so we’re getting, uh, we, Mobile, are getting Recognition, internationally, nationally, with one of the most important things there is out there. It’s, it’s the 400 pound gorilla.

I mean, the National Football League, what’s bigger than the NFL in our society right now? You can’t turn on a TV without seeing an NFL player in an ad. You know, you can’t turn on the radio. I mean, it’s, the NFL is everywhere. And, uh, and again, we have a, we have a piece of that. So again, like last year at the, at the NFL draft, 55 million viewers, the first night, the first round, there was 33 million viewers.

And again, the whole draft starts in mobile thing. They said the word mobile 14 times in the first round of the draft, which was incredible. Um, which was, it was so rewarding to sit back and, and hear that they weren’t just saying Senior Bowl, they were saying, we saw this guy in Mobile, he did great in Mobile.

Um, so that’s, you’re, to, to start seeing kind of the fruits of your labor, it was, it was last April was really rewarding to see that. Well, that’s, you know, that’s really good for our area because, you know, it’s, it’s hard to put a dollar sign on that with all the people that are listening. Um, and we get the benefit of being right here physically local with this game.

And of course we have the parade, and that’s on Thursday night? Friday night. Friday night. Friday night, the parade and concert are Friday night. And so everybody needs to come downtown for the parade Friday night. I know people from OBO love parades. But you also have FanFest. Tell us about FanFest. Well, it’s, it’s uh, That’s another thing that makes the Senior Bowl different, Bradley, is that that’s a real deal college football Saturday environment.

You’ve been out there. I mean, some of these other all star games, not taking shots at them, but you turn on the TV, the parents are in the stands, and that’s about it. Um, Mobile supports this game. We’ve just hit our sellout for the second straight year at Hancock Whitney, so, you know, the fans that were at Ladd, I think we’re slowly getting some fans that really wanted the game at Ladd Stadium, and we don’t need to go down that road.

So that was, uh That was a, that was, that was a tough decision, but it was a decision that had to be made for the good of the game and to keep the game here in Mobile. Um, but FanFest is out right outside the stadium, really, really driven more for the kids. Um, really like this. So there’s all sorts of different obstacle courses and games and autograph things.

And it’s just, it’s, it’s a really interactive space for kids on game day. And then we’ve got, iHeart’s got a music stage where they’re going to have a free concert. There’s tailgates everywhere. And I say this, I’m, I’m from Michigan. Um, I, I still can’t believe they hired a Yankee to run the senior bowl seven years later.

I still can’t believe they hired me. Um, but one thing you do down here better than we do up north is tailgate. And this is your last of this. I tell fans, this is your last opportunity to tailgate until next August or September. So, um, it is, you go, I think that’s what catches our players off guard when they drive the buses up and they see what it looks like it out at Hancock Whitney.

They’re like, wow, this is, this is going to be a real football game today. Um, so it’s exciting. It’s a really exciting time. So what’s your favorite part of Senior Bowl week? I would say getting the players here and meeting the players. We put so much into the process. I mean, as soon as we get done with this year’s game, we’ll start watching the guys for next year.

So there’s that. And then the community service day. Just getting the players here on Sunday. Player arrival day’s big. We moved community service day to Monday this year. It’s usually on Friday. I just want to get these guys out in the community earlier in the week. So when they’re at schools and they’re at That children’s hospitals, you know, a kid will come home from school on Monday and be like, mom, we, we got to go to the senior bowl.

So and so is just at school and we met him and he was great to us. So, so that’s why we moved. So community service days is great as well. You know, uh, you said it’s a sellout this year. It is a sellout. Um, I’ll say this from my perspective, we need to make sure bodies get into the stadium. That’s right.

It’s one thing to sell the tickets. It’s the other thing to, to physically be there. And we do, we, we want to show the national football league and the people at the offices there on park Avenue that, that this game matters to mobile. And there’s the only, the only, we have one day where we can show up and show them that.

And that’s on game day. So, uh, this is sort of a political advertisement to everybody, don’t just buy a ticket, please show up. Absolutely. Get in the, and there’s every reason to get in the stands, my gosh. You’re seeing people, you’re going to be watching on television next fall, and we should take advantage of that.

Okay. If, if, if I were one of those people out there that, yeah, I’m thinking I’ll go, maybe I’ll go, maybe I won’t go. What would you say to them to say, here’s why you should go? One, you’re, you’re supporting your city. Um, not that, not that you have a civic duty, but you’re doing something really good for the community by showing up to the game and supporting the game and keeping it strong.

And again, I think we’re past the NFL stuff. I don’t think they’re, they’re, they’re here to tear us down, um, but be supportive of the game. Um, we try to do a lot year round to pump back into the community. We, we really use the sport of football. Um, this is a really diverse city, as we all know. There’s a lot of diversity in our community.

And to reach that diversity, all you have to do is use football. Everyone in our community plays football. So if we’re using the sport we do, and we do that year round high schools, youth park leagues, flag leagues, uh, we, we try our best. We, we want to be present year round. We want to be a good steward of the community.

We like we’ve given, uh. Gosh, what is it now? 65, 60. I’m doing, I’m doing quick math. Uh, we’ve given 230, 000 back in the high school football programs just over the last three years. Um, so yeah, we, we try to support you. We’re looking for one day to support us. And if we’re really getting into the nitty gritty, Bradley, we have a 15 ticket.

Um, these schools, the Alabamas, the Auburns, big time college football is, is outpriced. Uh, you know, the average family of four, they really have, you know, in, in hotel rooms are expensive. So for 15, you can get into the stadium. We’re having 5, 000 first 5, 000 through the gates is free bobble heads. And uh, we did that.

So we got Jalen Hurts and Najee Harris, all these Alabama guys, great NFL players. Um, and if you go online last year, we did it last year for the first time. Those things are selling right now for like 60, 70. So if you’re really entrepreneurial, you’ll buy your 15 ticket, you’ll get your bobblehead and then you’ll flip it on eBay next year and make money by coming to this.

So why wouldn’t you come? You make, you make money by coming to the game, Bradley. There you go. Well, Hey, Jim’s just given everybody a whole bunch of reasons. So the senior bowl is at one 30. on Saturday, February the 1st, but come a lot earlier than that to enjoy all the stuff that’s happened beforehand.

It’s at the University of South Alabama’s Hancock Whitney Stadium, which if you’ve not been there, the game day experience at Hancock Whitney is first rate. Unbelievable. Not a bad seat in the house. So how can listeners get tickets if there are any tickets available? For twin now and well, I don’t know when you’re posting the podcast.

So I’ll say we, we are coming up on the, we were, we’re really, really close to the sellout. Okay. Um, so I don’t know when we’re going to be posting this. So you can try senior bull. com for tickets. Um, and they, they, we still might have some, but we were last I checked, I mean, the capacity out there, is it right at 25, 000 and we were in the 24 somewhere.

Well, if you haven’t gotten your tickets, go try to get them. If you can’t get them, go find a friend that’s got them and go to the game. That’s right. So Jim, thanks so much for being here. Thanks by the way, for serving on the board of directors for the mobile chamber. We’re glad to have you on that. I look forward to the game.

I’ve been going there. I think I just fessed up over 60 years. So I look forward to the game and I look forward to all the. Things that happened during senior bowl week. It’s so cool. So from the heart of the mobile business community, this is the mobile matters podcast powered by the mobile.