I forgot my spotting boards at home this weekend. Here's how I survived.

Also, more in our series on how to make the most out of a football call if you haven't had many reps before.

I was leaving the house in a bit of a scramble for the Washington-Northwestern game on Saturday. I had spent most of the morning playing with my 2-year-old, and by the time my wife tapped in for kid duty for the rest of the day (Selena is a supermom!), I was pretty eager to get to the stadium.

I got ready fairly quickly, grabbed my bag, grabbed a kiss from my two favorite people and headed out the door excited to call the first Big Ten conference game in Husky Stadium history.

There was only one problem: I left my spotting boards on my desk.

Never, in 23 years of calling various sports, have I ever, ever forgotten my spotting boards. In the past, doing so would be considered an abject catastrophe. In fact, I’m pretty sure most broadcasters have had nightmares at some point in life where they have forgotten their boards, only to spring out of bed in a cold sweat.

As play-by-play announcers, we take so much pride in our boards. It’s not just the artistry and creativity we put into them. They’re our crutch. For a long time, they were literally everything I planned on saying about the game.

By the time I noticed I had forgotten them, my parking pass at the stadium had already been scanned, and I live a good 30 minutes away. So going home to get them was pretty much out of the question.

After spending about 60 seconds truly mulling over what I should do, I decided I was going to go without them.

I’ve built a lot of safety nets into my process. I never have all my information in only one place for football. Having all of the following resources available actively working for me made me feel like I really didn’t even need my spotting boards. Here are the things that made me very confident in that decision and allowed me to laugh it off, move forward and call a totally normal broadcast.