During the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday fans will have the opportunity to cast their ballots via NFL.com for the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Local fans who choose to do so will come in contact with a former Goshen resident, probably without ever realizing it.

Casey Cook, a 1995 Goshen High School graduate, lives in Culver City, Calif., and works for the NFL’s official Web site.

“My responsibility on Sunday will be the Super Bowl MVP Ballot,” he said. “It’s my job to monitor the fan votes and forward the totals on to Miami so they can combine them with the votes from the media.”

Fans can also vote at Superbowl.com and on their wireless devices. The fan vote counts for roughly 20 percent of the voting result with on-site media members representing the other 80 percent.

Special events like the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, NFL Combine and NFL Draft get Cook out of the office some times.

“We have two teams,” he said. “I got to go to the Pro Bowl last Sunday in Miami so this week I’ll be in the office. One of my big projects at the Pro Bowl was the Fan Ballot. Another was updating the Web site since the game was moved from Hawaii to Miami this year. We had to make sure things were changed and that things were up and running for the game.”

According to Cook, most of his work during the season is done from the California office.

“We work on the Game Center portion of the site making updates while the games are going on,” he said. “People can see what is going on in a game without being in front a television.”



Dot.com boom

Cook has worked for NFL.com since May of 2007. His title is product manager and many of the new features on the Web site run through his department.

“It’s quite a process from the time an idea starts around the table until it works its way through the development and creative departments,” Cook said. “CBS Sportsline ran the NFL’s Web site before they brought it in house in 2007. We started from ground zero and have come a long way to where we are today.”

Cook graduated from Indiana University in 1999 with a degree in sports communication and broadcasting.

His first job out of college was at an Internet setup company developing Web sites for professional athletes. He said it was his stepping stone into the dot.com boom of the mid- to late 1990s.

Cook also worked for NASCAR.com before joining NFL.com.

“I got to attend a couple of Daytona 500s while working for NASCAR.com,” he said. “I loved working for NASCAR.com, but it’s not quite the same as NFL.com. When people find out I work for the NFL they don’t have to ask what the NFL is.”

NFL.com has offices in both New York and Los Angeles. Cook’s office is in the same building as the NFL Network. He said he spends a lot of time working with marketing and advertising groups located in New York.

“We get to travel to a lot of different events,” Cook said. “It’s pretty cool. I can’t believe people pay me to do this job.”

He believes the Internet will be the driving force in the sports world in years to come.

“I can’t believe how much technology has changed just since 1999,” Cook said. “I’m anxious to see where it is going in the future. Television is the driving force when it comes to making money, but the dot.com world is slowly catching up. The way people can access the Internet on iPhones, Blackberries and laptop computers has really changed things.”

Casey is the son of Greg and Charlene Cook of Goshen.

Greg Cook played basketball at GHS for Indiana Hall of Fame coach Art Cosgrove. He was a reserve during the 1968-69 season when the Redskins captured Goshen’s last regional championship.

Casey took his father to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., when the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots, 17-14, on Eli Manning’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 second left to play.

“I was up in the press box when Burress made the catch and couldn’t believe the noise in the stadium,” Cook said. “The press box was shaking.”



Familiar face

The Cooks attended the Commissioner’s party and ran into another former Goshen resident.

“It was funny, we were at the party and in walked Rick Mirer,” Cook said.

Mirer quarterbacked the Goshen Redskins to the Class 4A state championship in 1988 before going to play at Notre Dame and then for 12 seasons in the NFL.

“Rick recognized my dad and came over to talk to us.” Cook said. “He said, ‘I’ve been in the NFL for years and this is the first time I’ve been to the Commissioner’s party. How did you guys get here?’”

At GHS, Cook was a three-year member of the Redskin basketball team, playing for Coach Mike Sorrell. Cook scored 99 points for a 7-17 team as a sophomore, 199 for a 14-7 team as a junior and 24 for a 14-7 team as a senior.