“We were like 10 minutes into the first walk-through and I texted my assistant director, who played college football, and I was like, ‘You’re going to make fun of me, but my very ridiculously early prediction is that this kid’s going to be good,’” Furman told Tiki & Tierney, laughing. “He’s like, ‘What are you basing this off of after 10 minutes?’ It was really his demeanor, the way he talks to his teammates, talks to the other coaches, just the way he’s carried himself since we met him.”
“He told us that he never had HBO growing up,” Furman said. “He’s seen clips from the show, but he hasn’t seen a whole show at one time. So it was just literally in those first couple of minutes, just seeing how he spoke to his coaches and how he interacted with his teammates that I was like, ‘I just like him. I feel like he’s a quarterback.’”
While Herbert won’t have to worry about the Chargers cutting him, many players have seen their dreams dashed while the cameras were rolling.
“It’s awful,” Furman said. “We do not enjoy it. It’s a 24-hour period in a normal year where you’re going from the highest of highs for these guys because you’re in the fourth preseason game where a lot of them are getting playing time and doing well. The year we did Cleveland, the roller coaster of emotion from all of our long-shot characters scoring touchdowns, playing well and then getting cut within an hour was awful.”