Beyoncé, Bill Murray, American Idol contestants, football stars, military heroes, marching bands, rock stars, flyovers, super-flags, fireworks, Frisbee dogs and about 160 renditions of the Star Spangled Banner.
Pretty exciting stuff for a side job!
Matt Turner has been a County employee since 2008, working most recently as a Geographic Information Services Analyst, a mapping specialist, with the County Fire Authority.
But he’s also had a pretty incredible volunteer job for a lot longer than that. It’s one that’s allowed him to (occasionally) rub elbows with the rich, the famous and the hoping-to-be-rich-and-famous. It’s also given him better-than-front-row seats to San Diego Charger games for the last 15 seasons.
Better than front row? You bet. Try rightonthe field.
Since 2000, Turner has spent Sundays as a San Diego Chargers volunteer “assistant entertainment coordinator” — “I don’t really have an official title,” he says, “that’s just kind of what we call each other” — whose main job has been to shepherd the national anthem singer and help guide halftime entertainers on game days.
It carries a lot of responsibility. He has to guide singers like American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee, Colbie Caillat, and Chula Vista American Idol contestant Jessica Sanchez through pre-game rehearsals and the national anthem; stage military honorees and entertainers, from Frisbee dogs to marching bands, to be ready in the wings; and time their entrances and exits on and off the field without interfering with the players or the game. It also calls for someone who won’t be distracted or fazed by celebrities and sports heroes.
“You don’t want someone who’s star-struck and can’t do the job,” Turner said with a smile. “I’ve always been a pretty calm, cool, collected kind of guy.”
But even a calm, cool, collected kind of guy can get a little star-struck sometimes. One of Turner’s favorite moments was meeting Saturday Night Live alum and movie star Bill Murray. Turner was on the sideline and heard a familiar-sounding voice. He saw Murray, but didn’t recognize him immediately because he had just cut his hair for a movie role. Then Turner caught Murray’s eye and quickly recovered with a “Howya doing? I’m a real fan!”
“He was just cool,” Turner said, “I mean there was a bunch of reporters and cameramen around him. He may have tried to come incognito, but he was recognized very quickly.”
Turner’s work on the Chargers’ sideline has also gotten him invited to work in two Super Bowls — in 2002 at Qualcomm Stadium when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders, and last year in Phoenix when the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks. (Yes, football fans; Turner was standing behind the end zone and saw the crazy, game-ending, goal-line interception.)
In the 2002 championship, Turner worked the pre-game performances, which featured Beyoncé, who was just starting her solo recording career, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Carlos Santana.
“Big Raider fan,” Turner said of Santana with a smile. “He had his Raiders shirt underneath the rocker jacket he wore for his performance.”
At last year’s Super Bowl, Turner worked to keep people out of the way of a huge boom camera during pop star Katy Perry’s halftime show (he was NOT the “left shark”).
Turner got the Charger gig back in 2000 by being in the right place at the right time nearly 20 years earlier: playing trumpet in college in the San Diego State marching band in the late 1980s. One of Turner’s friends and band-mates was Brian Ransom, who has been the Chargers’ Stage Manager and On-Field Entertainment Coordinator for many years. When Ransom had an opening for someone to help with on-field entertainment 15 years ago, he called Turner, who wasn’t initially sure he wanted to work eight Sundays every fall (he generally arrives at the Q at 9 a.m. and stays through the end of the game).
But the chance to watch games from the sideline was impossible to resist. Turner has been a die-hard Charger fan since moving to San Diego as a boy in 1979.
There have been highs and lows (this year’s 3-8 team and talk of moving to L.A. would count as lows), but he relishes the highs. There was the 14-2 team in 2006 that came one step away from the Super Bowl with Phillip Rivers and Ladainian Tomlinson — who set the NFL records for most touchdowns and rushing touchdowns in single season that year. His favorite game? The 2009 playoff win over the favored Indianapolis Colts, when the Bolts came from behind in the fourth quarter to tie the game with 33 seconds left and beat Peyton Manning in overtime.
“The crowd was louder than I’ve ever heard it at that stadium in my life,” he said.
And he said he’s met some really cool players, including now-retired center Nick Hardwick, retired kicker Rolf Benirschke, former quarterback Drew Brees and retired quarterback, college legend and current TV analyst Doug Flutie.
Turner said he tries to keep his professional distance from the players, but Flutie would approach him every game to say “howya doin’?” Turner said he watched Flutie once before a game spot a couple of kids wearing his jersey number half a field away. He took a ball, ran over, signed it and spent 10 minutes with them and their dad.
Sunday is the last home game of the Charger season. Some say it could be the last Charger home game ever here as the team seems closer than ever to moving to L.A. For his part, Turner, like other Charger fans, hopes that doesn’t happen. But even if they decide to move, Turner doesn’t think 2015 is their last season in San Diego. It will take time to build or find a stadium-home in L.A. In the meantime, Turner’s drinking it all in.
“Seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff, it’s a different perspective than most people get,” he said. “It’s very cool and I love it.”
