Network morning news co-anchor.
Sunday NFL Football analyst.
Nickelodeon kids’ series host.
Primetime game show emcee.
And currently, filling in as anchor and zookeeper for NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament coverage.
Dang, Nate Burleson, can another brutha get a TV job in America?
You may have recognized him as No. 13 at Ford Field, when he was snagging passes for the Detroit Lions from 2010-2014, but these days Burleson is virtually impossible to overlook. Few pro athletes have made the transition from playing career to media omnipresence as successfully as Burleson, who apparently has survived the current cuts at CBS News to return for a fifth year as cohost of CBS Mornings.
And to that long list of achievements, you can now add: Detroit signature vodka co-creator and endorser.
After nearly two years of testing and tasting, Burleson and Rifino Valentine, founder and president of Ferndale-based Valentine Distilling Co. LLC, have released the new, small-batch LionBlood Orange Vodka.
Burleson, 44, says he flew into Detroit at least six times over those years. “Not to do autograph signings, make money, or keep up with my boys,” he explained last week in a phone conversation. “I would just meet with [Valentine], test the product, and figure out what flavor profiles we needed.”
“Partnering with Nate was a natural fit because he shares our obsession with Detroit manufacturing,” says Valentine, who founded his distillery in 2007. “We wanted LionBlood to be elegant, all natural and additive free, and Nate was hands on throughout this journey.”
Burleson says he has been intrigued by a signature liquor brand since his days growing up in Seattle. “Seattle’s always home,” says the native Canadian, “and they had this Jimi Hendrix vodka. Jimi had roots in Seattle, and this brand came in a beautiful bottle with Jimi on the front. I bought it because it looked cool, and turned out it was very smooth.
“I was fascinated, because it was super successful in the Pacific Northwest, but when I traveled around the country, I didn’t see it. That’s when I realized, ‘Oh! Regional vodka!’ Just like regional beers and whiskeys, they can be very successful.”
Burleson wanted to make his spirits soar in Detroit. “But I was initially turned off due to some guys trying to rip me off,” he recalls. “But it always bugged me that I never took a swing at it. Then a few years ago I decided, ‘I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it in Detroit.’ So I reached out to distilleries, and some of them were like, ‘We don’t see the vision.’ Others said, ‘Yeah, maybe we can do something, but it’s going to cost you.’
“But then I met Valentine, and he was like, ‘Let me hear more about why you want to do this.’ He was checking my temperature. ‘Are you doing this because you just want to have a liquor brand, or because you love it?’ Once we started talking, he realized how much research I had done, how I owned a restaurant when I was playing for the Seahawks and understood the liquor space.
“So he said, ‘OK, the next question I have for you is: can you be involved?’ I’m like, ‘Listen: I’ll be there for the marketing. I’ll be the voice. I’ll show up. I’ll fly in.’”
Apparently, Nathaniel Burleson still holds a soft spot for the Motor City. “Man, when I was there, people were living under so many different circumstances,” he remembers. “And the common theme between all of the folks I met, whether they were living in the lap of luxury or they were struggling, they just cared that the football players cared about being Lions. And when you gave that energy, they reciprocated it. That’s why I love Detroit.”
Burleson says LionBlood Orange Vodka is currently available in select metro Detroit grocery and liquor stores, and will soon be accessible outstate and in Illinois. “We’re trying to grow from the inside out,” he says.
“People ask me to pick a favorite between our Mayor Pingree bourbon, Liberator gin, and our vodkas,” Valentine reflects. “Usually I say that’s like picking a favorite child. But right now, LionBlood is making quite an argument for the top spot!“
However, it’s hard to figure out when Burleson will find the time to get back here and help promote his brand.
A typical workday at CBS Mornings has him up at 4 a.m., at the studio by 5, in makeup by 5:15 and on camera by 7 for two hours of live television every weekday, then constantly checking news headlines and social media so he won’t be surprised the next morning. And while he’s known as a “football guy,” he says CBS Sports execs came to him to fill one of the anchor chairs for their coverage of March Madness.
“It’s the first sport I fell in love with,” he says. “So I love hoops. It’s near and dear to not just my family, but also to me being a point guard in high school.” Burleson’s brother, Kevin, is an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons.
When he first retired from football and began his media career, Burleson says he was so terrible at time management that stress led to him developing alopecia, losing his facial hair. “I was saying yes to everything, and the reality was it was a desperate attempt for people to see me as other than a football player,” he relates. “In football they say the more you can do, the harder is to get rid of you. I tried to use that same philosophy, and it wore me out.”
He does gain some spare time as host of CBS’s relaunched version of Hollywood Squares: all 21 prime-time episodes (8 p.m. Wednesdays, Channel 62) were filmed over seven days in Los Angeles last summer.
“It allows me to get into, I think, the most free spirited version of myself,” he says. “In news it’s hardcore coverage, but in hosting a game show I get to show all the levels.
“The writers help some of the celebrities with their jokes, but the first season they just had me reading the script straight up,” says Burleson. “No jokes. No comebacks. So I put in a few funny lines of my own, and afterward one of the writers came to me and said, ‘Don’t be offended we didn’t write jokes for you. We were told to focus on the celebrities. Second, you were really funny today, so we’re gonna take credit for everything you said.’ I can really be the fullest version of me on Hollywood Squares.”
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