GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In 2022, the Detroit Lions video team tried out a new idea. They paired highlights from a game’s TV broadcast with the radio call by the hometown team: Dan Miller, Lomas Brown and T.J. Lang.

The Detroit Lions Radio Network team adds the hometown flavor that the national broadcasts lack. If you’re looking for broadcasters that are cheering for your team as much as you are, you need the radio crew.

But they don’t just use the audio from Miller’s infectious calls. The video producers stash a camera in the corner of the booth to show the crew at work and give a behind-the-scenes look of how the broadcast team works together.

The videos are called the “Calls of the Game,” and they have given birth to a new figure of Lions lore: Sticky Note Guy.

Ever since the first video dropped following the Lions’ Week 2 win over the Washington Commanders, fans have held “Sticky Note Guy” in high regard.

One commenter said, “I need a full-blown biography on homie in the blue shirt and glasses.” Another said, “My man with the sticky notes is killing it.” A third said, “Dan is amazing at what he does but can we show some love for my man in the blue shirt running all the numbers … and keeping Dan up to the second with stats. Who is that guy? Dude is a machine going non-stop.”

That guy is Mike Bratta. He has been a key behind-the-scenes piece for the Detroit Lions Radio Network for decades and he has quite the story.

A CAREER FULL OF STORIES

Bratta’s time in radio started in 1981. He was hired on as a fill-in producer at WJR for Frank Beckmann’s talk show “Sportswrap.” That same year, he started working as a producer on Detroit Lions radio broadcasts with Dale Conquest.

Bratta followed Conquest to WWJ in 1986 to serve as a statistician for Michigan football and basketball broadcasts, keeping his radio gig all while working full-time as a teacher.

The following year, WWJ got the broadcast rights to Lions games, and Bratta has been with the team ever since.

“What people don’t realize is you don’t go looking for a job in my hobby profession. They find you,” Bratta told News 8. “Mark (Champion) didn’t have a (statistician) in town. Dale said, this guy’s good. So, I worked with Mark for 15 years. And then when Dan got hired, Dan hired me.”

Bratta’s fingerprints are all over the Michigan sports scene. He has worked broadcasts for ESPN, CBS, the Big Ten Network and Westwood One. He kept stats for Michigan’s high school football state finals for 30 years. He covered University of Michigan football through the Lloyd Carr era. He teamed up with Mark Champion again on Detroit Pistons radio broadcasts and was even caught in the middle of the infamous “Malice at the Palace” melee.

“There was a picture in Sports Illustrated of me trying to stop Rasheed Wallace (from entering the stands). My hand is on his shorts and he’s just flying by me,” he recalled.

Bratta was courted by other sportscasters to come work for them. But for him, it has always been about the Lions and about his co-workers like Miller.

In fact, Miller is the primary reason Bratta is still a part of the Detroit Lions Radio Network. The two have worked side-by-side since Miller took over as the play-by-play broadcaster in 2005. The 67-year-old has been retired from teaching since 2008. He has given up his other hobbies of coaching middle school and high school basketball, and even pared down his other radio work, focusing solely on the Lions.

“I can’t give up the Lions because Dan Miller is my guy,” Bratta said. “I would do anything for the man.”

So now, even in retirement, even though he lives in Florida, Bratta is in the radio booth every Sunday.

“I fly up on Saturday, do the game on Sunday, fly back Monday,” he explained simply.

STATS, STORIES AND STICKY NOTES

Bratta is finally getting the recognition for his behind-the-scenes work, but he’s more than just the “Sticky Note Guy.” For him, game prep starts on Tuesday, putting together depth charts for Miller and Brown.

Each depth chart has a player’s name and number, how many years they have played in the NFL, and other basics like their height, weight and where they played in college. Then he combs through some of the finer details to look for things that may be worth mentioning in the broadcast.

“On Tuesdays, you get a weekly release packet from each team, and that’s where you get a lot of your statistics. The thing is, Dan’s not real huge into statistics. I pick and choose very carefully because I know what he wants, and the game is the most important thing,” he said.

In all, Bratta said he usually ends up with seven or eight pages of notes and uses his time on his flights to pore over them.

“I start scouring through those with a yellow highlighter and say, OK, this looks like this is important, we could use this,” he said. “And again, sometimes, you just sit and go, this is too much, this isn’t really important, we’re not going to use that. And when in doubt, I’ll ask Dan before the game. I’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this and this, what do you think?’”

All that work translates to the broadcast and how well Bratta, Miller and the team are prepared. Plenty of Bratta’s sticky notes are quick scribbles, giving yardage or a statistical update from the previous play, but lots of others are prepared in advance.

“I have a wall with sticky notes, usually to my left or behind,” Bratta said. “I may have 25 notes on my wall, and I might use eight, I might use 10.”

It may be tedious work, and it may burn through plenty of paper — Bratta says he typically uses 1.5 to two packs of sticky notes each game — but it also adds up to a deeper, more informative broadcast for the fans.

Miller credits Bratta and the entire team for doing their part for the broadcast, including his fellow commentators, engineers and Carl Moll, the broadcast’s producer and spotter.

“We are all better because we have Mike and those guys. You lean on those guys hard. Trust me, you do,” Miller told News 8. “Every Sunday, I walk in there confident that I’m not missing anything because Mike’s going to put it out there. … He’s got an incredible understanding of what a broadcast should sound like, and how numbers should fit into that broadcast.”

There’s also no one happier to see Bratta get the appreciation he deserves.

“I think it’s awesome because everybody knows what I’m doing in those videos, jumping up and down, acting like whatever. But the really cool thing is people get to see Mike and how hard he works. Believe me, if he could hide from that camera, he would,” Miller said with a laugh. “But I’m so happy that’s he’s getting recognition for what he does because, quite frankly, it’s pretty rare that anybody gets a glimpse into what happens in a broadcast booth.”

Bratta’s not big on his newfound celebrity, but he’s taking it all in stride and appreciates the passion of the Lions fan base.

“I try to be a little more anonymous. I like to be in the background of things in life. I’ve never wanted to be in the forefront,” Bratta said. “After the Tennessee game, I got stopped at the airport while I was in the TSA line. Somebody said, ‘You’re the Sticky Note Guy, aren’t you?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m Dan’s statistician.’ And he asked for a picture. He said, ‘Because my wife isn’t going to believe it.’”

So when will Bratta put his pen and sticky pad down for good? Who knows. But whenever that day comes, it will be a sad one for Miller and Lions fans.

“I can’t say enough about the work that he puts in before game day and the work that does on game day,” Miller said. “I don’t think there’s anybody better in the country. I’m lucky to have him. I have had him for 20 years. I don’t know where I’d be without him. I’m sure Mike would probably like to retire in Florida, but I haven’t let him yet, and I don’t plan on letting him any time soon.”