Goodman ’90 key to NBC’s coverage

Goodman, Gesue and Chatman are all employed by NBC and have substantial responsibilities for Olympic coverage.

Goodman, the senior vice president of strategic partnerships and business affairs for NBC Sports and Olympics, is responsible for handling the legal issues concerning the Olympics.

“The business affairs part of my job is code for ‘I’m a lawyer,’ ” Goodman said. “I deal with the legal aspects of NBC’s Olympic coverage.”

For the Beijing Olympics, this involves preparing contracts with vendors as well as working with the Chinese government on subjects like immigration and taxes.

The other element of Goodman’s job, the strategic affairs component, involves working with groups beyond NBC. This includes collaborating with sponsors such as Nike and Coca-Cola on promotional efforts leading up to the Games as well as maintaining communication with governing bodies like the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

“The interesting part of my job is that I’m involved in much of the day-to-day work,” Goodman said. “It encompasses a lot of different aspects of what we do.”

For Goodman, Beijing will be his sixth Olympics since joining NBC prior to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Since then, he has worked in numerous capacities, many of which came after a sabbatical from NBC during which he earned a law degree. Nonetheless, Goodman is adamant that the best aspect of his job is interacting with Olympic athletes.

“Olympic athletes are a special breed,” Goodman said. “They’re an incredibly admirable group of people. … They’re bright, talented and toil for years for the proverbial 15 minutes of fame.”

In fact, much of his interview was conducted at a rapid pace because he was expected to attend a meeting with members of the U.S. Olympic team later that day. But, as Goodman insisted, the pace is something you get used to in the months leading up to the Opening Ceremonies.

Chatman, who could not be reached for comment on this story, is responsible for producing many of the actual programs that viewers see while watching NBC’s Olympic coverage. As a senior producer for NBC Olympics, she will be coordinating many of the programs during NBC’s 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage. Her programs will rely on the behind-the-scenes work of another Princeton graduate, Joe Gesue.

According to a recent statement, Gesue, the editorial director for NBC Sports and Olympics, coordinates “the research, writing and editorial content for all Sports & Olympics programs.” Having won five Emmy Awards since joining NBC in 1996, he has proven himself a leader in the coverage of events ranging from Wimbledon to the Olympics to Sunday Night Football.

“Basically I’m in charge of information and storylines — making sure we are telling the most compelling stories to the best of our ability and with the highest standard of accuracy and quality,” Gesue said in an e-mail. “With the Olympics specifically, I manage the team of staff researchers and writers … who put together approximately 8,000 pages of background material for the team of announcers and producers who will cover the Games for NBC. I also work with our features department to help determine which athletes and storylines we will plan our coverage around.”

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Gesue, who is a former sports editor for The Daily Princetonian, was an Olympic researcher and served as the lead writer for NBC during coverage of the Torino Games. His position as an Olympic researcher was the same one that Goodman held during the 1992 Olympics.

Olympians train and toil for years out of the spotlight to have one brief moment of glory as the whole globe watches them. For Goodman, Gesue and Chatman, however, success lies in remaining backstage. Their job has gone right if you never have to think of them while watching the world’s best athletes strive for the medal podium.