Grady talent represented in Super Bowl XLIX media presence

Three sports journalists with strong ties to Grady College will work with various media to cover the biggest game of the year—Super Bowl XLIX— this Sunday.

Working the game Sunday are Grady adjunct professor Darryl Orlando Ledbetter, alumna Nicole Peterson (ABJ ‘13) and current student Anne Noland.

For Noland, a third year public relations and sports communications student, the game will be her largest and most exciting experience yet, serving as one of just two college interns with the National Football League’s public relations staff of more than 80 people. She is working with the NFL for just over a week surrounding the event.

“I applied and was selected,” said Noland in appreciation of the opportunity. “Everyone else is either a team intern or full-time staff.”

Noland is responsible for a variety of communications logistics on Sunday, ranging from assisting with media organization to manning the help desk for the 5,500 credentialed media members, which houses over 150 radio and television stations and broadcasts live all over the world.

“It’s a big confidence booster,” said Noland. “I’m holding my own and I’m working hard, so this experience is giving me the confidence to know that I can “make it” wherever I land after graduation. It’s allowing me to grow and develop my public relations skill set and have a better understanding of how public relations works in the NFL.”

The week-long internship will serve as a capstone and final piece in Noland’s Sports Media Certificate program, recently added to Grady’s offerings and the first of its kind in the Southeastern Conference.

Ledbetter, who teaches one of this semester’s Introduction to Sports classes at Grady College as well as writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the Atlanta Falcons and serving as president of the Professional Football Writers of America, will also be covering the Super Bowl. He and Peterson, a mass media arts graduate and a sports reporter for ESPN2, will work Sunday in other media capacities.