If there’s one thing that you can say about Ross Tucker, it’s that he certainly doesn’t lack in the work ethic department. He’s as busy as anyone in sports media and this past week along with this coming week would be perfect examples.
This past Saturday, he called the Colts/Vikings game for Westwood One before hopping on a flight to Green Bay. From his hotel room, Tucker worked the Eagles pre-game show on WIP Radio Sunday morning and then on Monday night he’ll call the Rams/Packers game with Kevin Harlan on Westwood One.
And what about this coming week?
“I’ll drive on Christmas Eve morning from where I live in Central Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh so I can do the Eagles pre-game show for WIP Radio from a Pittsburgh hotel room,” said Tucker. “That night I’m doing the Raiders/Steelers game for Westwood One and then I’ll drive home and hopefully get home before 4am and maybe get two hours of sleep in before my daughters jump in bed and they want to see if Santa came.”
If you’re tired just reading this, think about how Tucker is going to feel on Christmas Day.
“Needless to say, I’ll probably be taking a nap on my in-laws couch Christmas afternoon,” said Tucker.
For the former Princeton and NFL offensive lineman, life is really good and busy as Tucker handles a plethora of responsibilities during the football season. Whether it’s doing analysis for college and NFL games or his podcasts, Tucker has built up quite a resume for himself.
There’s something to be said for having a full-time job, but there’s also something special after having a number of different jobs within the business.
“I’ve seen other people that might be full-time at NFL Network or ESPN and then they don’t have those jobs anymore, a lot of times they’re in a bad place,” said Tucker. “I joke that I have a diversified portfolio which I enjoy and I enjoy it not necessarily because of the income but I like the different things I do.”
That list of gigs includes doing college games for CBS Sports, NFL games on radio for Westwood One, the assortment of shows on his podcast network, and the radio hits that he does all over the country for Audacy.
From my own experience, having multiple jobs can be exhilarating but you also have to be organized. I like to joke with people that I have to check the calendar on the wall of my home office. Tucker prefers to use technology to keep his life in order.
“I don’t know how I would do it if we didn’t have a calendar on your cell phone,” said Tucker. “I don’t know how I would have done it before that.”
Being in the sports media is something that was on Tucker’s mind at a young age. There was the dream of becoming a professional football player, but reality hit him momentarily when he was in 7th grade. His father is 5’9 and 170 pounds and that was, for the moment, passed down to Tucker who really thought his life was going to go in a different direction.
“I kind of gave up on that dream of being a pro football player and I wanted to be a broadcaster,” said Tucker. “I used to read very Sports Illustrated cover to cover. The school library would get rid of their archived Sports Illustrated’s after ten years and they would give them to me.”
But then something happened…Tucker would find himself in a growth spurt.
In 9th grade, he was 5’9 and then grew to six feet in 10th grade, 6’3 in 11th grade and 6’5 and almost 250 pounds as a high school senior. That led to opportunities for him to play football in college and he chose to go to Princeton University.
There was a method to Tucker’s madness.
He loved the work of legendary sports writer and broadcaster Frank Deford who went to Princeton. Tucker knew he was going to get a great education and he was going to play college football. But, in the back of his mind, there was that other goal that he was looking to achieve.
“In my head I still thought of the idea of writing for Sports Illustrated or working for ESPN was exciting,” said Tucker.
Tucker continued to grow physically and he would be contacted by agent Joe Linta. The original dream of becoming a professional football player came to fruition when Tucker signed as an undrafted free agent with the Washington Redskins (now Commanders) in 2001. He had already accepted a job on Wall Street with Lehman Brothers during his senior year of college, but he would begin a seven-year career in the NFL.
While he was living out one dream, Tucker was also making plans for life after football.
“I always knew that football was a temp job and I took every year one at a time,” said Tucker. “I always did an internship in the off-season. With the Cowboys, I worked for Roger Staubach’s commercial real estate company. In Buffalo, I was working Kurt Schultz, the former NFL safety at Merrill Lynch.”
Then came an event that would really shape Tucker’s future and that’s when the NFL conducted their first over “Broadcast Boot Camp” for players who aspired to get into broadcasting. Tucker met broadcast executives like Steve Cohen from Sirius XM and Howard Deneroff from Westwood One.
Tucker would suffer a neck injury that would force him to retire from football and he would write about it for Peter King in Sports Illustrated. That, coupled with the media rolodex that he had been building up, led to a number of job offers, include one from his alma mater.
“Princeton had held the color analyst position on the radio in case I got cut so I got hurt and I was able to do that,” said Tucker. “Comcast in Philadelphia and DC reached out to me. I got offered like four jobs within the next week or two. Things started to go well. One job leads to another job. Next thing you know, I have a pretty good media career.”
That would be an understatement.
Tucker has been extremely successful in the sports media and he’s developed a very strong following. It’s easy to like him because he brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and enthusiasm to every single job that he has. If he takes on a gig, he’s going to give everything he has towards it and it shows when he’s on the air.
Tucker had two goals growing up…to play football and then to talk and write about it. His two worlds have come together to create a very successful career.
“A lot of feedback I get is people really enjoy my energy and they really enjoy my passion,” said Tucker. “That’s just me, man. I don’t know anybody that loves football more than I do and this is just how I’ve always been. I love football and I like talking. It’s perfect.”
Part of that “perfect” career is the Ross Tucker Podcast Network, a collection of podcasts that he hosts on a daily basis. His first experience with podcasts came right after ESPN hired him away from Sports Illustrated to write for the “worldwide leader”. ESPN asked him if he would also be interested in hosting their NFL podcast.
“I said sure I would love to but I literally didn’t know what a podcast was,” admitted Tucker. “I just knew they were going to pay me money to talk about football.”
Tucker built up a strong following and he took that audience with him when he decided to do the podcast on his own. That’s when the Ross Tucker Football Podcast was born and now his podcast empire also includes the Fantasy Feast Podcast and the Even Money Betting Podcast.
For Tucker, the podcasts represent a very important part of his portfolio.
“The podcast network has probably been the biggest blessing or good fortune for my media career,” said Tucker. “It’s like the only thing in media where you don’t really have a boss. I can record the podcasts when I want to. I can say what I want to. I can have the guests that I want to. I’ve built up a really nice community of people and that’s something I’m really proud of.”
Tucker brings the fire and determination that he had when he played football to his broadcasting career. Sometimes it can be hard for an athlete to deal with life after playing, but Tucker has found a way to stay involved in the game that he loves. It’s impossible to match the same emotions that he had as a player, but broadcasting does give him a taste of what it was like when he was on the field.
“It’s the closest I can get,” said Tucker. “It’s not the same. It will never be the same. I miss it every day. It’s hard to explain to people unless you’ve actually done it but whether you win or lose, you’ll never feel more alive in your whole life then when you’re out there in front of all those people competing. I’ve heard coaching is close, but still not the same.”
Still, Tucker has a pre-game ritual to get him ready for the broadcast to try and replicate the emotions he had as a player. Anyone who works with him at CBS Sports or Westwood One would attest to the fact that Tucker gets into a zone about a minute before he goes on the air.
“I just get this look on my face and I pound my fist into my hand like I’m ready to go like I’m ready to go out there and hit somebody,” said Tucker. “That rush and that excitement…you can’t replicate that anywhere else in life. It’s not the same as playing but it’s still better than anything else I can come up with.”
Tucker estimates that he’s broadcast at least 25 college and pro football games each season for at least 12 years in a row. He gets to rest a bit in the off-season, but once gets going to Eagles pre-season telecasts in August, he really doesn’t get a day off throughout the season. Between the games and the podcasts, Tucker doesn’t have much time to relax during the season, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
After all, he’s talking about football.
“I like the high volume because I love what I do,” said Tucker. “It’s a football life man. I’m 43 years old and I’ve never had to get a real job and I’ve loved every second of it.”
Life is good for Ross Tucker. He has built up a strong career in the sports media with a variety of jobs that allows him to take part in different aspects of the business. He’s a likeable personality and his passion comes through with everything that he’s doing. Now if he can just get a few minutes for a nap.
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
