Evan Washburn, was scheduled to become a father on Feb. 22, perfect timing between the Super Bowl and before March Madness.
In addition to being the host of "Ravens Unscripted" last year, Washburn is also an up-and-coming reporter for CBS. He's got the biggest assignment of his young career as he'll be on the Panthers' sideline for Super Bowl 50.
But, just like in the NFL games he covers, things don't always turn out as anticipated.
Washburn has a lot on his plate these days because his son, Hudson, came a month early. He was literally born while Washburn was interviewing Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick before the AFC championship game.
Washburn was in Denver on Friday, Jan. 22 when his wife, Kate, texted that he should give her a call. Her water had broken.
"My initial reaction was, 'What do you mean? We've still got a month here,'" Washburn said. "I had an initial freak-out session there."
Washburn was pretty helpless. He was all the way in Denver and the blizzard had begun in Baltimore. There was no way he was getting home in time.
Kate's parents aren't in the area, so Washburn called his father, who lives nearby, to see if he could drive Kate to the hospital. He didn't pick up, so Kate took an Uber to Mercy Medical Center. Yes, she was in labor, and due to previous medical issues, she was soon admitted for a C-section.
Meanwhile, Washburn was at the Patriots' team hotel as part of a pre-production meeting with Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. Just as the interview is wrapping up, Washburn's phone starts buzzing off the hook in his pocket.
"With any coach, you don't want to pick the phone up. I didn't want to be rude and take my phone out. I just knew something was going on," Washburn said.
"As he's wrapping up and Tom Brady is walking in, I look at my phone because everybody is just shaking hands. I see a text from my dad and he's texted pictures of my son."
Washburn started freaking out, but he didn't want to make a big thing of it. He hadn't told anyone on his broadcast crew about his son. Fortunately, he was able to sneak out into the hallway between interviews to call Kate.
"Thankfully she answered," Washburn said. "I told her how proud of her I am of her and how sorry I am that I missed it and checked to make sure she's OK. Then I'm like, 'Well, I've got to go because Tom Brady walked in and I've got to do this.'"
The call was about a minute long, maybe a minute and 15 seconds tops.
"She has been unbelievably supportive throughout this whole thing," Washburn said. "This job can be kind of wacky. But through this whole process and the last couple weeks, which have been an immense challenge for her, she's been so supportive and understanding of where I'm coming from, and told me to focus on doing the best I can on these games because she knows how big of an opportunity they are for me and for us."
Props to Kate. At no point did she give her husband any guilt for missing the birth – not that he could have been there anyway.
"That made it a lot easier because I did feel, at one point after it all settled, I was like, 'I can't believe I missed that because I was in a meeting,'" Washburn said. "As big a deal as these games are to us, it's still just football."
Finally, after the interviews were done, Washburn told his crew what had happened and shared that he felt bad about missing such a special event. It wasn't that crazy to them.
"Half the room raised their hand," he said. "They were like, 'Oh yeah, I was at the Masters when my daughter was born.' They all had their own story for it. It makes sense that when you do this for a living, you're going to get caught in this situation."
After some flight cancellations due to the blizzard, Washburn finally still got home on Monday to meet his son for the first time. He said he still had "that rush."
Four days later, Washburn had to get back on an airplane to San Francisco, site of Super Bowl 50.
"What I've told myself and told him is that this will be unique to us and unique to you," Washburn said. "I was like, 'All this stuff is for you, man.' While I'll miss out on this traditional stuff, he'll have a better life in the long run. It's a pretty good job to have, and these are some of the things you have to do to keep it."
Washburn will be working with Jim Nantz, Phil Simms and Tracy Wolfson at Levi's Stadium. He says he's nervously excited because it's his biggest assignment yet and he doesn't know exactly what to expect.
Kinda like being a new father, right? So which is more nerve-wracking?
"Easy," Washburn said. "New father."
