Power Players: Meet Amy Trask
Power Players is a content series by The Relish profiling the #girlbosses of the sports world.
In our first official Power Players profile, we introduced you to Fantasy Football expert and Yahoo Sports analyst Liz Loza. With every Power Player, we ask them to shout out another woman in the world of sports who inspires and motivates them (shine theory in action!) and Liz gave props to one of our favorite game-changers, Amy Trask.
Amy has one of those career stories that you’ll want to find a graduation speech to include it in after you hear it. In 1983 she cold-called the Oakland Raiders office and got a job as an intern, eventually working her way up. All the way up. She spent 16 years as CEO of the franchise and is currently a football studio analyst for CBS Sports. Today, she gives us the scoop on what a weekend of football looks like for her (sorry, there’s no 7-layer dip here, folks) and why her Super Bowl is better than yours. Even though, again, no 7-year dip there either.
Take us through a football weekend for you…
Saturday
5:00 a.m. (or so…): No alarm needed, I’m up and head straight to the elliptical (I have to go straight to it — immediately after brushing my teeth) and while on it (which ain’t for long) I catch up on what happened in the world while I was sleeping.
Immediately upon finishing, I feed our four-legged family members.
My husband and I then walk along the beach to get coffee. When we get home (with our coffee), we sit outside so I can enjoy the daylight, soak in the sunshine and breathe fresh air before beginning my weekly 6,000-mile field trip to New York and back to California.
10:00 a.m.: I leave for the airport.
I start eating snacks when I get to the airport.
I eat snacks throughout the entire flight.
It’s a problem.
I also look over notes, etc., for our weekly CBS Sports Network pregame show — while I’m eating snacks, of course.
Around 8:00pm: We land in New York and head from the airport to Manhattan. People who live or work in Manhattan should never, ever, ever speak to me about traffic in Los Angeles.
I get to the hotel and continue eating snacks—and I don’t sleep much or sleep well on Saturday night.
Sunday
6:00 a.m.: I leave the hotel for the CBS studio. Once there, I go to “hair and makeup,” where my sole responsibility is to “sit still.” That’s a good thing, because I have absolutely no skill whatsoever at such things. The whole hair and makeup process reminds me of the scene at the end of The Wizard of Oz, when the scarecrow and others go from station to station getting all fixed up. I am certain that CBS Sports Network hires the people who “fix us up” from Hogwarts, ’cause they’re wizards.
Once ready, we all meet in the “bullpen” and get ready for the show.
The show is four hours and when it’s done, I head back to the airport. Yup — there’s traffic (people who live or work in New York, see note above). I watch football in the car (on a handheld device), at the airport and on the plane. If all goes well, I walk in the door of the house about 11 hours after the show ends.
And I do it all again the next weekend.
What are your essential apps?
Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. I swore that I would never “go on” Twitter — I swore it to everyone — I was absolutely certain and resolute: I’m not “doing Twitter.” About fifteen months ago, I “joined” Twitter. I was convinced and I swore I would hate it. But it’s like I’ve found my mothership. I love Twitter. Oh — I also have some football viewing apps.
I’m having a Super Bowl party! What are you bringing?
I don’t go to Super Bowl parties.
For the almost 30 years I was in the league, I went to the game and now, having left the league and joined CBS Sports Network, I work on Super Bowl Sunday.
That said, if I did go to a party, I’d bring everything needed for an ice cream sundae bar: ice cream (dozens and dozens of flavors — if 20 people are at the party, I’m bringing 15 flavors, at least), whipped cream, oodles and oodles of toppings (every flavor imaginable), sprinkles (a truckload of sprinkles) and some cookies for those who want to build an ice cream/cookie sundae. And I’m making one of those sundaes and eating it the minute I arrive, no matter the time of day, no matter what’s going on at the party — ’cause then, I’m leaving.
To note, I wouldn’t want to watch the Super Bowl with anyone other than my husband (we understand when it’s appropriate to talk during a game and when it is not) and nobody else.
If you could brunch with people from the sports world, history or present day, who would be on your dream team:
Jesse Owens and Luz Long
Name someone who needs to be permanently benched:
“Grown-ups” who behave at youth sporting events in a manner we would not deem acceptable for children.
Name a time it wasn’t great to be one of the only women in the room:
I have never thought about or considered the fact that I am the only woman in any setting. If I don’t want others to consider or think about my gender, I shouldn’t consider or think about my gender. If I want to be treated without regard to gender, I should comport myself without regard to gender. I have never wasted my time or effort thinking about my gender; if others want to waste theirs, that’s fine, let them waste their time and effort.
What advice would you give to a young woman who wants to work in sports?
My advice would be twofold.
My first piece of advice to a young woman would be precisely the same as it would be to a young man: work hard, work really, really hard, work as hard as you can and when you don’t think you can work any harder, work harder.
My second piece of advice to a young woman would be to stop thinking about the fact that you’re a woman.
Shout-out a Fellow #Girlboss in the Sports World:
Sarah Thomas: The first female official in the National Football League. My guess — my hunch — my expectation — my hope — is that Sarah Thomas expects and wants to be booed for unpopular calls and non-calls as resoundingly as her male colleagues are booed and that’s just the way it should be.
Liz Loza: If ever I have to again play fantasy football, I will hunt Liz down and I will stage a sit-in on her doorstep until she agrees to run my team in its entirety for me. I know the way Liz prepares and I believe that if she ever chooses to move from fantasy and into “real” football, she’d be a heck of a scout.
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