Byline: Kevin Goheen Post staff reporter
GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- When the Bengals first arrived at Georgetown College a little more than four weeks ago, Lisa Mollman wasn't sure what to expect. All she knew is that for her to complete her summer internship, she was going to have to survive working around people she had previously known only through TV.
What the Batavia, Ohio, native and Georgetown College senior soccer player came to know is that professional football players are human, and they aren't bigger-than-life.
''I wasn't expecting them to be so nice,'' Mollman said. ''It's not that I expected them to be mean, it's that I didn't expect them to be so friendly. I just thought they'd keep more to themselves. I was surprised how talkative and nice they are.''
Mollman was one of 10 summer interns the college hired to help handle the Bengals' sixth training camp in Central Kentucky, which ended with Thursday night's practice. The interns, who weren't paid but received free housing and meals, did everything from helping set up the players' dorms to checking them in to providing security and working the sideline chains.
''I learned the NFL is a business,'' said Matt McHale, a La Salle High School graduate who played four years on Georgetown's football team, including the Tigers' NAIA national championship teams the past two years. ''They play as a business, too. They're out here doing their job all day. They get paid for it, but it's a lot less sports than what I'm used to. It is strictly a business. If you don't do your job, you're gone.''
McHale said that he thought there would be more hands-on learning about the business side of the game. But he did come to realize how many different parts it takes to make an NFL organization run.
''The big thing is the experience, the working with a real sports business,'' said Scott Takacs, an assistant professor of marketing and Mollman's advisor. ''The big challenge is in the details and for the kids one of the main goals was the appreciation of the details.''
Details such as getting players from one part of their day to the next on time. An NFL training camp has a tight schedule consisting of meetings, practice, more meetings and more workouts. The players get a little bit of down time to themselves, but usually are on the move from one spot to another. They also have to make time for fans who want an autograph, or two, or three.
''Our job is to be the bad guys here,'' said Traci Combs, a senior softball player from Amelia, Ohio. ''They can sign as many as they want, but you're always there to where all they have to do is look at you and be like, 'I've got to go.' You do it so they don't have to say it.''
Combs, a psychology major who did the internship as part of her kinesiology minor, said players such as running back Corey Dillon were the toughest because they were the ones most in demand by fans. She would remind Dillon to go over and sign autographs after practice because fans had been waiting a long time for him, then have to get him out of the situation after a few minutes.
''He called me his agent one time, but I've been fired about five times,'' Combs joked. ''It's opened my eyes to a lot of things. Now, I look at things more from the players' perspective and seeing what they see all of the time, how the fans get so crazy. It's helped me understand them and realize why they don't sign every time.''
Geri Ann Redmon, Georgetown's assistant athletic director, said this year's camp was the smoothest of the six. The college began planning for the Bengals' arrival in January with an administrative staff of 12 and eventually employed about 120 people, including the interns, to make the camp run on a daily basis. The interns had become adept enough at their jobs that for the last couple of weeks both Redmon and sports information director Holly Ratliff were able to concentrate on getting ready for the upcoming fall sports season.
The original contract between the Bengals and the college has one more year left but Redmon said the two sides will be negotiating to extend that agreement.
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Melvin Grier/The Post - No, he's not a Bengal, but Reese Hicks was a security guard at Bengals training camp. It was the Lebanon native and Georgetown College offensive lineman's summer internship.
