Author Kevin Bryant Shares Stories About Spying in the NFL

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EPISODE SUMMARY

While the phrase “three-letter agency” is a euphemism for American spook organizations such as the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the NSA (National Security Agency), the NFL is a three-letter agency in its own right. Behind the game-day action of the NFL is a world much

like the cloak-and-dagger realm of American intelligence agencies. The NFL has its own history filled with espionage-related stories that sound like something right out of the Cold War: spies disguised as reporters, military officers, and priests, and even a dwarf playing the role of a baby being pushed in a stroller; covert surveillance of targets’ movements; hiding draft prospects by shuffling them in and out of hotels in aliases; tapped telephones, signals interception, decoy signals, encryption, code-breaking, and radio frequency jamming; false flag operations; monitoring air traffic and airline passengers; spies scaling rooftops and telephone poles and clandestine photography undertaken from high-rise

hotels with long-lensed cameras; peepholes, secret listening devices, surveillance photos relayed by zip line and whispered conversations masked by running water; stolen documents and trash cans sifted for secrets; subversion of individuals mired in debt; and a hilltop secured by Navy SEALs.

AUTHOR BIO

Kevin Bryant is an Army veteran with over twenty years of experience safeguarding and gathering information for the Department of Defense, including thirteen years as a Special Agent during which he conducted national security investigations and instructed federal agents in training.

Kevin graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) with a B.A. in History and graduated with top honors from American Military University with an M.A. in Intelligence Studies and an M.S. in Sports Management.

During his senior year of high school, he was selected onto the East-West Ambassadors National Select soccer team, composed of elite high school players from across the United States, and in college, he played NCAA soccer for UCSC.

THE FOOTBALL HISTORY DUDE BACKGROUND

The Football History Dude is a show dedicated to teaching NFL fans about the rich history of the game we all know and love. I’m your host, Arnie Chapman, and I’m just a regular dude that loves football and is a nerd when it comes to learning about history. I created this show to share the gridiron knowledge nuggets I gain from researching various topics about the history of the National Football League. Each episode I welcome you to climb aboard my DeLorean to travel back in time to explore the yesteryear of the gridiron, and yes, that’s a reference to the Back to the Future Movies.

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