Calling a college football game is a difficult task, all the more so without visuals to help show the action. ESPN Radio’s BILL ROSINSKI knows this all too well, after having called football games on radio for over 25 years. “When you’re doing radio as opposed to television, especially with the uptempo that we have with college football now, it’s really hard to get into any kind of conversation about it," Rosinski said. "Maybe some guy just made a huge catch, and you have a note about something interesting with this kid and you want to throw it in. Well all of a sudden you look down at the field and they’re snapping the ball again! Radio is much different than television in that regard.” In the midst of his busy bowl-season schedule, Rosinski spoke with THE DAILY about what a typical day looks like.
8:00-10:00am: I typically getting a cup of coffee and go through the news. I used to go to the newspaper first, but I find myself going to Twitter, because when you’re doing college football, or you’re a sports fan in general, there’s just so much information out there. It’s interesting to read breaking stories, or I’ll follow writers that cover the teams I’ll be calling. So I’ll spend two hours going through the latest news. Then I’ll move to the newspaper. On game days, if it’s a night game pretty much first thing I’ll do is watch “College GameDay” on ESPN and see what the buzz is around the country and listen closely to what they’re saying about our game.
10:30-12:00pm: I try to work out three to four times a week, most of the time going to the YMCA. We live in a condo in uptown Charlotte that has a workout room there, so one or the other. And of course while I’m working out, I’ve got STEPHEN A. SMITH and MAX KELLERMAN or SKIP BAYLESS and SHANNON SHARPE on, just more constant “What’s going on, what are people talking about?” I’m just trying to keep in the loop on what are the big sports stories. I can’t imagine now trying to work out just listening to music.
Rosinski's wife Jane often travels with him to games and provides stats and other informationBILL ROSINSKI
12:30-4:30pm: It really depends on the game or games that I have going on that weekend. Usually I’ll be in contact with my producer for that week’s games and he’ll have been in contact with the SIDs. I’m constantly getting emails from him of team releases, clips. It’s a good three to four hours of research. You Google a lot of things because a lot of times, teams aren’t going to send you the bad stuff when they send you clips. It also really depends on the course of the day if we’re involved in conference calls with the team coordinators and coaches, because with ESPN Radio, we’re basically one crew. Ours is the main crew for college football on the radio, and it just depends on the game. If we’re doing a game that CBS is doing, then we really have no access to coaches meetings. If it’s ESPN, then of course we can get involved in conference calls. Sometimes I’ll also go back on the WatchESPN app and watch old games. On an actual gameday I spend a lot of time brushing up on that research from throughout the week and going over the spotting boards they make for us.
5:00-7:00pm: I’m not a great cook but I like to cook dinner, so that’s my next thing. My wife JANE and I will plan out what it is we’d like for dinner. We do eat out a lot too because we travel so much, but during the week it’s usually spaghetti or meatloaf or some other tasty, simple meal I can make. It's nice to cook with a little glass of wine with some time to kill. The only frustrating part is it might take you an hour and a half to cook the meal, and only 10 minutes to eat it!
7:15-9:30pm: On a non-gamedays, I’ll try to relax a little bit. We don't watch a lot of live TV, but we record a lot of shows. It’s funny because some of the ones we like are on CBS, like “BLUE BLOODS,” “BULL,” “NCIS.” I also think ESPN’s "30 for 30" shows are just incredible. I’ll record those because that’s the best we have as far as sports on TV. If ESPN is going to start a new channel, it should just be "30 for 30s." I also really enjoy the American Heroes Channel. I’ve always been fascinated with World War II, and they do a lot of stuff on that time period, “WORLD WAR II IN COLOR,” stuff like that. My wife and I actually got a chance to visit the American cemetery in Normandy, and it was a chilling experience to go over there.
10:00-11:00pm: As far as bed time, my wife usually goes before I do. She likes to read in bed. When I go to bed I want the lights out. So I always get the all-clear from her before I cut the lights out. But I’ll sit there with her and chill, if I can find “SEINFELD” on, I will sit there and watch a few episodes. I can’t think of a better way to top your evening to get yourself in a good mood to go to bed than watching a few episodes of “Seinfeld.”
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