Episode 3: Brad Melland and the Hidden World of an NFL Equipment Manager

“Our goal is to get the player feeling the best that he can. If they don’t feel good, if they don’t feel like they look good, it has an effect on them on game day. And I don’t want that.”

The Browns facility in Berea has a pretty open feel. The offices are all glass, the locker room is right in the middle of things, everyone eats in the same cafeteria. But down at the end of a hallway on the first floor, there's a door that is almost always closed. It has no sign. Just a doorbell. 

For this week's episode, Max rang the doorbell. And what he found was Brad Melland, the Browns equipment manager, and his byzantine world of helmets, shoulder pads, jerseys, and everything else it takes to outfit an NFL team every week.

Listen to learn about how Brad and his crew get 17,000 pounds of gear to road games, the special requests players make about their uniforms, and what an equipment manager thought of Deflategate.