The field-size American flag is being unfurled. A musician steps to the microphone. Football players, coaches and fans have quieted and are standing still.
A rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is moments from being performed. This is Darby Dunnagan’s favorite time of the week.
“The calm before the storm,” she said. “I use it to reflect on where I am and the people that got me here.”
“Here” could be any of the 30 National Football League stadiums. It’s dependent on the Chicago Bears’ schedule as to where Dunnagan, a 2005 University of Virginia graduate, claims her next office with a view.
Dunnagan is the Bears’ director of video operations, the first female with that title in the franchise’s 104-year history. She’s the highest-ranking woman in video across the NFL. Her duties include overseeing all aspects of shooting, editing and distributing game and practice film.
Dunnagan is in her second season as the Bears’ director of video operations. (Contributed photo)
On Thanksgiving Day, when her dream job continues at Detroit’s Ford Field, where the Bears take on the Lions, Dunnagan will renew her pregame tradition from her spot in the video booth. She never takes her status for granted.
“There are literally thousands of fans in the seats that would love to be experiencing what I get to experience with the team,” she said. “Grounding myself in that moment and being thankful for where I am … I look forward to that two-minute span every week.”
The path here began on a middle school field in Wythe County. Her mother once told Dunnagan to never let perceived hurdles get in the way of achieving a goal. “Never let anyone tell you you can’t do something because you’re a girl,” was the line echoing in her head as a sixth-grader when she signed up to play football.
“And she’ll tell you to this day,” Dunnagan said of her mom, “that she ate words the day I came home and told her what I was doing.”
In middle school, Dunnagan played offensive line for the Rural Retreat Indians before pivoting to an off-the-field role with the team in high school. (Contributed photo)
But that fear of her daughter playing with the boys eventually subsided once Dunnagan’s mother saw Darby’s pure enjoyment of the sport. Dunnagan excelled as a starting offensive lineman for the Rural Retreat Indians until eighth grade. In high school, she pivoted to a team manager role.
UVA was the only school she applied to for college. As a kid growing up in mainly Virginia Tech territory, Dunnagan rooted for the Cavaliers. She was at Tech’s Lane Stadium on Nov. 28, 1998, when the Wahoos famously roared back from a large deficit to beat the Hokies.
She began working for her favorite team as soon as she arrived on Grounds – first as a student manager and later in the video department under Luke Goldstein.
“She came in and she just took it on,” Goldstein said. “She just got it. She understood what was at hand, she understood what she needed to do. She understood that what we do is pretty important, and that the coaches rely on it and the players rely on it.”
Starting with Virginia’s 2001 season-opener at the University of Wisconsin, Dunnagan has now worked in football for 24 consecutive seasons. After graduating from UVA with anthropology and sociology degrees, she joined the football video staff at Marshall University (as a graduate assistant) and later the University of Memphis and Northwestern University.
Dunnagan graduated from UVA in 2005, earning anthropology and sociology degrees. (Contributed photo)
At both Memphis and Northwestern, she was named her conference’s video coordinator of the year. She earned a national video coordinator of the year honor in 2013.
When the Bears hired Dunnagan in April 2023, she was moved by the event’s significance. Making it to the top of the profession was a monumental step in her career. Even more so, it was a breakthrough for women.
“To be the first female video director for the Bears,” Dunnagan said, “to have this standing in the NFL, it’s a way for other women to look at and say, ‘Hey, I could do that.’ If you can see it, you can believe it, right? It’s about providing the opportunity and helping pave the path to make it a little bit easier for the next woman that comes along.”
In a male-dominated sport, female representation has gradually increased over the years. Dunnagan, who didn’t work alongside a fellow full-time female video staffer until 2017 at Northwestern, says now it’s common to see at least one with each NFL team.
She currently employs two female interns.
“I always told myself that if I ever made it into a leadership role,” Dunnagan said, “I would pay it forward.”
Dunnagan is responsible for assisting players and coaches in all aspects of video technology, a job that requires 12-hour days. Assisting her this season are interns Alexia Randolph and Julie Stevens.
