It’s almost as if Bobby Carpenter’s father had a premonition of what his son’s life after football was going to look like. Granted, he was just trying to be a good father and bestow good advice to his child, but he probably had no idea the valuable lesson he was teaching his son. Yet, Carpenter took the advice to heart as he prepared for his football career at Ohio State. So much so, he remembers exactly what his father told him that had such a profound impact.
“My dad, he played for Ohio State and in the NFL,” Carpenter said. “He said, listen, they’re going to put you in front of the camera a lot if you play for Ohio State. Make sure you always represent yourself well, and if you do that, you may have an opportunity down the road.”
Did Rob Carpenter see something in his son at a young age that he thought would translate well to sports media? It’s tough to say. But even the most optimistic father couldn’t have imagined the career his son has been able to carve out for himself. For starters, Carpenter co-hosts the morning drive show, The Juice, at 97.1 The Fan in Columbus. He also does a college football show on Saturday mornings on SiriusXM’s ESPNU Radio as well as various ESPN gigs that include hosting radio shows, calling college football games on ESPN3 and even appearing Friday mornings on Get Up to talk football.
His dad’s shared wisdom pushed him to always accept any media opportunities and develop relationships with people in the business. It’s not the entire reason Carpenter has found both local and national success in sports media, or even the majority reason, but it has definitely contributed in its own way.
“If I was in the NFL, it meant hopping on ESPN whenever they needed people,” Carpenter said. ”When I came back to Columbus I started doing fill-in work for radio and local TV stuff. A lot of people see everyone on TV and radio, and they’re like, I want to get into that. You can do it, but when you first get into it, you’re going to get paid very little or nothing. For me it was just the opportunity to go in and get better. That’s how it’s all grown.”
If he’s not already thought of as such, it’s only a matter of time before Carpenter is considered as one of the best sports talk hosts in all of Ohio. Now that he’s sharpened his craft and has national relevance, his roots as a great at Ohio State play extremely well in a state that’s crazy about the Buckeyes. Luckily for him, he’s in a drivetime slot at one of the best managed medium market stations in the country.
“It’s great working at The Fan,” Carpenter said. “Ohio is a college football and NFL state. Columbus is the same way and you can really break down both whenever you want. We’ll talk about some hockey and baseball, and even basketball from time to time, but our GM Todd Markiewicz has been fantastic and one of the main reasons I’ve stayed in the state, because he’s a good friend and has a great vision for the station.”
It can be argued that, even for a football state like Ohio, the teams inside its borders are as collectively relevant as they’ve ever been. Ohio State just played for a national title and looks poised to threaten for more with Ryan Day. Baker Mayfield and the Browns just won a playoff game for the first time since 1994 and the Bengals are still Joe Burrow crazy, after his shortened rookie season was filled with tons of promise.
This is a great time to have a recognizable name like Carpenter, that’s directly associated with football anytime a fan hears it. But now that he’s become national and not just a former Buckeye doing radio in Columbus, who does he want to be? Does he want to be the next alum to climb up the ranks of college football analysts or does covering the NFL seem more appealing?
“With college football there’s a little more passion, just with the fan bases and regionality,” Carpenter said. “It’s one of the things I love talking to Chris Plank about on our Sirius XM show, seeing as he’s a Big 12 guy and I’m a Big 10 guy. Everyone believes their stuff is the best and that makes it fun. I would just consider myself just a football game. Whatever opportunity presents itself, I am in.”
Speaking of opportunities, the chance to be on ESPN’s Get Up has really ascended Carpenter’s national profile. His role as a guest is to simply give his opinion and insight into whatever the most relevant football story is that given day, which given the current pandemic and political climate, seems like a pretty easy thing to do. But if you look on Carpenter’s Twitter page, you’ll see a pinned tweet from March 27th of 2020. The tweet is a video of him giving his opinion on Get Up on Covid-19’s impact on college football.
That’s not an easy thing to do. Mostly because it doesn’t matter which side you take, half the viewers are going to adamantly disagree with you and let you know about it on social media. The topic isn’t one where people are casually interested, it’s one where every sports fan wants to dig in their heels and fight for which side they believe in. But Carpenter decided to handle his answer the best possible way: he’d consult medical experts he has a relationship with.
“I always tried to make sure that I made it known to play football safely,” Carpenter said. “I consulted a couple of heart surgeons that live by me and I talked to a bunch of doctors, just to try to make sure I got all the information about everything that was happening. I looked at it from a total societal impact, when you talk about these players and what they’re going through and how hard they’ve worked. Not saying you had to play a full 12-game schedule, just give them a chance.
“Then you have coaches, media, people who work in the stadium, people who have businesses surrounding all these things, what’s that going to do to their livelihoods? And then, not to mention, the most important part that I pushed out there, which is this isn’t just about football it was about all sports. As we know 95% of athletic departments, it’s a single income household and football is that income. I have friends who have daughters that are gymnasts or play softball, all these non-revenue sports, there wasn’t going to be any money for those people to be able to play. I didn’t wanna see their opportunities be lost, as well.”
No matter how much name notoriety you have coming into the business, there still has to be someone that’s willing to take a chance on you. Carpenter’s big break came a few years ago when Shaun Wyman, formerly of ESPN, now of MAXX Sports Entertainment, called him with an opportunity at ESPN to do a fantasy football show on Sunday mornings.
“I didn’t really play a ton of fantasy football at the time,” Carpenter said. “But I thought it was a great opportunity at the time and told him I would absolutely do it. With that came the opportunity to call some MAC games on ESPN3. I was able to do some other things with Ohio State, being an alum doesn’t hurt. All of that happened around 2017 and I think that was the turning point where things started to really pick up.”
A betting man would be smart to wager on Carpenter’s career only getting brighter. He’s certainly not going anywhere in the Columbus market and it’s not a crazy take to say ESPN will ramp up his duties in the very near future. For now, Carpenter is loving the role of talking about sports all day. Is it what he’ll do forever? Who knows. But as of now, his father’s advice on the media has helped him carve out an already successful career.
“It’s interesting because I still don’t know if I figured out if that’s what I wanna do,” Carpenter said. “I just enjoy doing it.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
