Luke Shaffer/ The Collegian
Sports medicine major Matt Brandt spent his summer as an intern for the Oakland Raiders.
How adrenaline-pumping and intimidating would it be to stand toe to toe with a professional football player who is six and a half feet tall and weighs more than 300 pounds?
Athletic trainer and Fresno State student Matt Brandt had the opportunity to intern for the Oakland Raiders this past summer.
Working primarily with the wide receivers and offensive units, Brandt’s main role was to assist the players with stretching, treatments and wrapping ligaments with tape.
In addition, he provided the players with heat packs and retrieved Gatorade whenever he was called to do so. While interning from the end of July to the end of August, Brandt not only worked with the individual players, but he also worked two of the Raiders first three preseason games.
He traveled with the team to Dallas for the game against the Cowboys on Aug. 13, and was on the sidelines for the San Francisco 49ers game in Oakland on Aug. 28. Living with the team and training staff, Brandt got to spend his month-long experience at the luxurious Marriott Hotel in Napa, Calif.
Each day he would walk out the back doors of the hotel, cross the fence that separated the hotel from the middle school and begin training with the players on the school’s football field.
At first, his relationships with the athletes were strictly business because he needed to make a strong impression. However, after a few weeks, the players finally warmed up to him and his relationships became more personable.
Brandt got to know a lot about the athletes and he remembered a specific time when he was making an ice pack and offensive guard Robert Gallery came up to him and ripped the bag open. Brandt knew what kind of guy Gallery was (being a big jokester) and he played along with him laughing it off.
Stories like this brief encounter with one of the Raiders’ gigantic offensive linemen are what intrigued Brandt as he continued his internship, and he will never forget his time spent and experiences gained as an athletic trainer for a pro football team.
Overall, Brandt enjoyed his experience and would do it all over again if given the chance. He plans on contacting the head staff trainer regarding a possible year-long internship. If that plan falls through, he’ll complete his classes toward a degree from Fresno State.
Brandt hopes that his past summer internship will provide a big “resume booster” and will allow him to enter graduate school to further his career in kinesiology.
“You just have to keep working hard and someone is going to notice,” Brandt said.
This was evident when Tony Hill, head football athletic trainer, came up to Brandt last February and approached him with the offer to do the internship in the summer. Brandt gladly accepted.
“You just got to keep working hard and prove that you want to be there, and this is what you want to do,” he said. “Someone will help you make it to the next step.”