Most kids grow up watching cartoons. Not Ollie Auerbach ’16. He grew up watching ESPN SportsCenter. He wanted to be an encyclopedia of sports knowledge, statistics, and trivia.
That passion makes sense for a guy who now serves as senior manager of game statistics operations at the National Football League. His team sits in stadiums around the world and at the league’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, watching every play and making sure all are captured accurately. In total, Auerbach oversees an operation of roughly 250 people spanning every club and the league office.
The team is not calculating probabilities, analyzing analytical trends, nor crunching numbers. It is pure record keeping and judgment. And those stats have big downstream impacts on player contracts, fantasy football aficionados, and how fans follow the game in real time.
Imagine that team’s pace with a no-huddle offense during a two-minute drill on the final drive of a game.
The stakes are high, but Auerbach’s confidence is higher. He trusts his team is ready for kickoff — well-trained to know the game and capture consistent and accurate statistics.
Sports Kid
He didn’t just watch sports as a kid. He competed, playing golf, basketball, and baseball. His crowning achievement was winning a Connecticut state championship in baseball.
When he came to Lehigh, he loved athletics. Whether it was going to Goodman for football games or cheering on CJ McCollum ’13 during his senior year, Auerbach and his Alpha Tau Omega brothers were in the stands. He has attended more wrestling as an alumnus than he did as a student. That’s in part to his father-in-law.
Auerbach’s family has Lehigh history, as does his wife, Hope Watkins ’16. When they married, there were probably 100 Lehigh people in attendance.
She clearly loves him, since he’s not like the typical NFL husband who spends time on the couch watching one game. His work runs year-round, but the real chaos kicks off in preseason and runs through the Super Bowl. He’s at the office Thursday night, all day Sunday, and Monday night. Add Saturday to the mix when college football wraps up.
Work in Sports
As a student, he knew he wanted a career in sports, but that broad statement could have taken him in many different directions. He had a couple of internships that were sports related: Traveler’s Insurance in marketing its PGA tournament events and another at NBC Sports in marketing its golf, NFL, and NASCAR productions.
When he graduated, he took a leap of faith, moving to midtown Manhattan for a seven-month position with the NFL. He started on the team he now leads. Team members attend every live game and operate from league headquarters, astutely watching every play. They have to understand NFL scoring and playing rules at an extremely high level and make objective and subjective determinations during each play to assign statistics.
From that July to January, he was part of the amazing excitement of the NFL season. When that gig ended, he jumped into an agency position, advising Fortune 500 brands on their partnerships with sports. Think of all the companies that are the official car, beer, soda, pizza, or home improvement store of a major league.
While working as a relationship manager, Auerbach earned a master’s degree in sports industry management at Georgetown University.
That’s when his former supervisor at the NFL called him. Auerbach interviewed for and landed the role he now holds.
In Awe of the NFL
Getting ready for game day requires focus. Auerbach makes certain that the team is prepared — that people are in place literally and figuratively for kickoff. The environment is pressure packed, but over his last seven years of running this team, he trusts them and their judgment.
“I have a Rolodex of plays in my head,” he says. “There are approximately 50,000 individual plays in an NFL season. If there is a tough call, my team and I dig into it together in real time. I can usually think back to a similar play from a prior game or season and use it to make sure we’re scoring this one accurately and consistently.”
The team has the knowledge and confidence to make decisions. Of course, when up to 10 games are being played simultaneously, it all happens fast, and headquarters feels it. Preseason adds much bigger rosters to track, and overseas games can mess with time clocks.
But Auerbach loves it. Which makes it more forgivable when he misses Thanksgiving dinner or other holidays with the family. Lehigh prepared him for the business world by instilling a dedicated work ethic.
“I enjoy what I do and try not to lose sight of that joy,” he says. “It makes the sacrifices worth it. I am often in moments where I have to pinch myself.”
No one feels badly for him.
Sure, he was jealous of his friends who studied accounting, engineering, and finance and seemed to have clearer pathways and pipelines, but those same buddies sure appreciate Auerbach’s Super Bowl tickets. He locks in two seats each year and shares them with family and friends.
During the biggest game on the planet, he can’t cheer on a team or take in the halftime show or gawk at the star power because, you know, he’s at work and has a job to do.
