The biggest creative challenge when writing Starting Line was my personal lack of understanding and experience with many of the strong themes in the script, such as sports, grief and tragedy. While I obviously have a sense of awareness on these topics, my understanding was not nearly detailed enough in order to write a full pilot episode. Therefore, in order to gain a better understanding of these important themes, I consulted podcasts on loss and grief such as All There Is With Anderson Cooper, specifically the episode with Stephen Colbert as he talks about the loss of his mother. Additionally, I also consulted sources such as the NFL Video Rule Book and the Youth and High School Tackle Football Glossary. doing my best to understand these topics allowed for the script to feel more realistic and in turn helped my writing to be more authentic.