“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Those 37 words changed the course of United States history, providing more equitable opportunities for women like Bonnie Bernstein to immerse themselves in activities some entities previously prohibited.
Today, women comprise approximately 45% of all college athletes, and many are profiting off of their name, image and likeness through professional careers and endorsement deals. Bonnie Bernstein was one of the many beneficiaries of the decision, and it influenced her career both as an athlete and sports media professional.
Bernstein is starting a new podcast series with Audible this week called She Got Game, in which she seeks to shed light on successful women and the influence sports had on their careers.
Some of the interviewees in the 10-episode project include XFL Chairwoman and Owner Dany Garcia; NFL on CBS analyst Amy Trask; and founder and CEO of Salamander Resorts and co-founder of BET Sheila Johnson. Through conducting casual interviews, Bernstein looks to promulgate the fundamental skills women can gain from playing sports and becoming invested in them.
“For as many doors as Title IX has opened, what we also know is that girls are still exiting sports at a younger age and at a higher frequency than boys,” Bernstein said. “….Whatever the challenge may be that may have a girl or young woman thinking about leaving sports: stay. If you stay, you will continue to hone those life skills that will tee you up for success in life.”
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As a student at the University of Maryland, Bernstein was an All-American gymnast, but her love of sports was fostered at home by her parents. When the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants left New York City to move to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Calif., respectively, after the 1957 season, Bernstein’s parents quipped that they refused to watch New York Yankees baseball. Fortunately for them, “The Big Apple” received a new National League baseball team with the founding of the New York Mets in 1962 – but for Bernstein, her parents’ interest in sports subsequently helped fuel her passion. From an early age, she possessed a penchant for creative writing and tried to amalgamate it with sports, dreaming of one day writing for Sports Illustrated.
Early in her tenure as an undergraduate student, Bernstein queried other students regarding which professors they recommended studying under. Through these conversations, she found that Prof. Chet Rhodes continued to be mentioned, the instructor of an introduction to broadcasting class. By her junior year, she found herself in the classroom mesmerized by the possibilities this facet of the industry had to offer, including anchoring, producing, engineering and filming. Because of the class, she decided to focus on cultivating a career in broadcast journalism and remained eager for chances to hone her craft.
During her formative years in the industry, which began in Lewes, Delaware at WXJN-FM, a station broadcasting in the country format, Bernstein was operating without a bonafide playbook. As the news and sports director of the station, she was responsible for finding and reporting on stories around the community.
On most days, she would be at the station by 4:30 a.m. to write top of the hour updates, load carts and slice tape. Then she would spend the next several hours driving around in a white van with the station’s call letters prominently on display acting as a field reporter. By the time she returned to the station, she would refine her stories and prepare them for the afternoon news. These arduous tasks would consume her days, but gave her valuable repetitions and shaped her work ethic.
Although there were not many women in the industry, Bernstein looked up to Lesley Visser, an accomplished sports media personality and journalist who reported on many seminal events. Visser was the first woman to appear on Monday Night Football, the first woman inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the first woman to earn the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award given at the Sports Emmys.
Aside from Visser, Bernstein also watched Gayle Gardner and Jayne Kennedy enter the field; however, it was hardly facile to ascertain an effective direction for her career based on looking at others. Instead, Bernstein had to forge her own path and is thankful she can pay it forward to the next generation.
“One of the nice things about being where I am in my career is that I now get to serve as the mentor for young people that I didn’t have,” Bernstein said. “I was just really flailing blindly for a long time trying to do the best I could with the hope that my desire and passion and commitment to being the very best sports journalist I could be would somehow propel me through my career.”
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Beginning in any new industry is hardly an easy task, making the probability of failing much more likely. Even though Bernstein began working with ESPN as a Chicago bureau reporter just two years after leaving WXJN-FM, she always continued to learn and find ways to improve her craft. In having the chance to cover Chicago Bulls superstar and Basketball Hall of Fame member Michael Jordan, along with contributing to shows such as NFL Countdown and SportsCenter, she further augmented her versatility.
Sticking to the status quo remains something she tries to avoid, instead maintaining an alacrity for progression and innovation.
“When I was younger, I would use failure as a personal indictment on me. You are less than; you are not worthy; you are not capable. What I’ve learned through lots of conversations with entrepreneurs and strong leaders is that failure is a critical part of success. If we can shift the mindset about failure, then entrepreneurship is a much easier road to travel because there will be failures and there will be a lot of them.”
Even though she did not create her first company until 2016, one could argue that Bernstein has been an entrepreneur throughout her entire broadcast career. In essence, being a personality means establishing a brand that stands out from others, conducive to professional success and sustained growth.
On television, she was doing it from the moment she joined WMDT, a local ABC affiliate in Salisbury, Md. anchoring news on the weekends. Shortly thereafter, Bernstein made the move to KRNV, a local NBC affiliate, in Reno, Nv. where she became the first woman in the locale to serve as a weekday sports anchor.
Working as a woman in sports media, Bernstein has been the subject of criticism and misogyny and has had to find ways to cope with antagonism. She affirms that women are held to a higher standard and that it is impossible to satisfy everyone all the time. The negative commentary from others surely hurts but does not hinder. As her career has progressed, she has been able to contextualize these situations to realize that the commenters are likely afflicted or disarmed by other scenarios, wherefore they choose to take out their frustration on others.
“At the end of the day, I know who my inner circle is,” Bernstein expressed. “I know if I’m meeting my own expectations, then hopefully the other meaningful expectations will follow suit. The reality is women in sports broadcasting are not for everybody, and that’s okay…. More important for me is not so much the public opinion as much as the joy I get from doing what I do.”
In 1998, Bernstein joined CBS Sports where she was quickly named as a sideline reporter for live broadcasts of NFL games and the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Some of the colleagues she collaborated with for NFL games included Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Dan Dierdorf, Verne Lundquist and Dick Enberg.
Bernstein was the sideline reporter for the television broadcast on CBS and the radio broadcast on Westwood One for Super Bowl XXXVII. Additionally, she compiled and produced features for The NFL Today as its lead reporter and anchored studio coverage for CBS programming of sports updates and college basketball coverage.
“If you’re doing the sideline the right way, you’re doing as much preparation as anyone else on the team, but you are only utilizing very specific instances,” Bernstein said. “There is nothing that will ever replace the thrill of being on the sideline and having a vantage point that nobody else has except you and the photographers who are allowed on the field.”
Bernstein departed from CBS in 2006 and ultimately signed with ESPN where she began reporting on Sunday Night Baseball and ESPN College Football on ABC, allowing her to continue telling stories and providing information to enhance the broadcast. A few months into the job though, Bernstein endured a life-threatening health scare when she began to feel pain in her leg.
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She recognized this leg pain, along with accompanying shortness of breath, in the midst of running to her car following coverage of the Red River Showdown between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and University of Texas at Austin Longhorns. Following a flight back to New York, she immediately went to see a chiropractor who referred her to the emergency room to be checked for blood clots. It was a directive that may have ultimately saved her life.
“Never in a million years did I think I would be in the hospital and have a doctor come in and throw the films up and say, ‘See all these black dots in your lungs? Those are blood clots. I have no idea how you’re still alive, and the only thing I can think of is that you’re in fantastic shape,’” Bernstein recalled. “That’s what saved me. The only reason I’m still alive is because health and wellness is really important to me.”
Bernstein’s official diagnosis was bilateral pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis, the result of a blood clot that was the full length of her leg, broke off, and spread into both of her lungs. She was rapidly treated with blood thinners.
According to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 900,000 people annually can be affected by deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, and the first symptom experienced by 1 in 4 is sudden death. Moreover, one-third of those affected will have a recurrence within 10 years, making monitoring symptoms and receiving medical checkups pivotal.
March is deep vein thrombosis awareness month, and Bernstein has tried to utilize her platform to spread the message about the severity of this treatable, yet life-threatening disease. She urges people to take a risk assessment test while monitoring potential symptoms, and has been a spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis for many years.
“When I come across somebody who’s suffered a blood clot or when we’re in the month of March,” Bernstein said, “I always try to find a way to share that messaging with folks who are kind enough to follow on social [media].”
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Aside from reporting and hosting television shows such as Outside the Lines and First Take, Bernstein contributed to programming on espnW, meant to disseminate stories and interviews with women in sports. Several broadcast networks are holding events for International Women’s Day, including an all-women broadcast and production team for the NBA on ESPN broadcast of the Dallas Mavericks’ matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans.
While working for ESPN, Bernstein executive produced and hosted a six-part interview show titled Winner’s Circle where she welcomed influential women in the world of sports to discuss their stories.
The show aligns with her new Audible podcast; however, it did not have the ability to go into profound detail because of time constraints. Nonetheless, the experience further sparked her interest in interviewing and telling these stories to viewers around the world – she was just simply waiting for the right opportunity to revitalize the effort.
Bernstein was the creator and co-host of NY Football Live, a program that aired on ESPN Radio in New York with former New York Jets linebacker Greg Buttle. She had previously had the chance to work with Michael Kay and Don La Greca on The Michael Kay Show beginning in September 2009 where she learned how to appeal to local listeners and expanded her storytelling in the audio space. It is usually difficult to create and transition to a brand new show, evinced by a dearth of callers; yet the phone lines began to light up regularly as their program became more established.
“There’s some incredible, award-winning storytelling in linear and digital,” Bernstein elucidated, “but there’s just something special about the audio space because all of your senses are completely locked on one thing: audio. There are no pictures; there are no graphics – you’re just listening. I think the ability to really have an impact on a listener is powerful when doing audio.”
Being able to effectively create a new show of her own required Bernstein learn more about management, leading her to join Campus Insiders, a new, digital college sports network owned and operated by Silver Chalice Ventures. Bernstein was initially approached to serve as a host, and she responded to the company’s initial offer with gratitude.
Knowing that she wanted to start her own production company in the future, she negotiated the role into a hybrid between hosting and serving as the company’s vice president of content and brand development. Digital media was fairly new at the time with an ambiguous outlook, but Bernstein recognized the concept as anything but transitory in nature. Adaptation is oftentimes the key to survival in a dynamic marketplace, and Bernstein has been ready and willing to explore new ideas amid other prosaic instantiations.
“When you have an entrepreneurial spirit and you’re doing it the right way, part of that is trying to stay on top of emerging trends – and in this case, technology,” Bernstein said. “When digital media was initially emerging and we were calling it ‘new media,’ I had the sense that it was not something that was just some sort of fad or trend that would fade.”
Bernstein achieved her entrepreneurial goals when she founded two companies – Velvet Hammer Media Consulting and Walk Swiftly Productions. Moving in this direction for her career aligned with the goals of continued flourishment and evolution in mind as an on-air talent and a manager. Through these endeavors, she has worked on programs both linear and digital with the XFL, College Football Playoff and ESPN.
“I have so much admiration for people who have on-air careers for 30-40 years,” Bernstein said. “I still love that aspect of it too; I love telling stories [and] I love doing interviews. The business piece of what you have the ability to do as an entrepreneur is where I really experienced the most growth. Yes, it’s hard; and yes, it requires an inordinate amount of intestinal fortitude.”
With this new podcast, which becomes available for Audible subscribers tomorrow, the company has pledged $25,000 to organizations based in Newark, N.J. working to provide opportunities for women to participate in sports. The company’s commitment to its surrounding community further underscores the mission of the podcast itself in engendering inspiration for women to play the games. A study by Ernst and Young as part of the EY Women Athletes Business Network found that 94% of C-suite women have played sports, an activity that has helped facilitate success.
“It’s storytelling with real impact, and I’m not sure that I would have ever been able to get a concept like this across the finish line if I were talent working for a network,” Bernstein articulated. “I needed to be able to take this from concept to market myself.”
In interviewing these successful women with a background in sports, Bernstein knows it is her job to listen and help create an on-air product that attracts and retains listeners. These are lessons that she learned from her time working in news and has since refined at a national scale. She continues to modify her parlance to fit the marketplace, always ensuring that she is able to elicit insightful and comprehensive answers from her guests.
“If you’re interviewing [in] the right way, you don’t drive conversation; your guest does,” Bernstein said. “A lot of times, these interviews wound up going in different directions that I didn’t expect. That’s not only okay – it’s awesome. That’s what I hope will enable listeners to feel like they’re really glad they took the time to listen.”
As her career in sports media moves forward, Bernstein aims to receive the green light regarding some other projects she has been working on, along with thinking about authoring a book. In addition, she immensely values philanthropy and volunteer work and serves as the advisory board co-chair for Every Kid Sports. The organization provides funding for families who are unable to pay league entry fees to ensure everyone who wishes to participate and make sports a part of their lives has the chance to do so.
During the pandemic, Bernstein took a board certification course so she has the ability to lend her expertise and passion to other organizations and try to actualize change in the world. She remains ready for new challenges and instances where she can grow both personally and professionally, keeping her energized and perceptive on a regular basis.
“Daily growth and evaluation is really at the core of my being,” Bernstein expressed. “That’s not to say that there’s always room to continue growing as on-air talent…. The opportunity to start at the bottom of the learning curve and work my way up has always been so extraordinarily enticing and exciting to me.”
As more people pursue careers in sports media with a concomitant rise in the demand for compelling and engaging content, the industry remains competitive. Bernstein affirms that the sheer demand outpaces supply; however, those who try to enter the industry are sometimes precluded by those performing multiple jobs.
Ultimately, the craft comes down to timing, sustainability and networking. Those who are able to sustain a career in sports media usually take chances and adapt, and also have additional experiences that enhance their portfolio or add to their personality – including playing sports themselves.
With the array of people broadcasting their opinion en masse through a wide variety of traditional and digital platforms, it is crucial to stand out. Much like an entrepreneur, one must build their own brand and, according to Bernstein, should start doing so from the moment they determine in what industry they want to work. Employing a stellar work ethic and a willingness to go the “extra mile” helps set people apart, combining talent with hard work, humility and erudition.
“That’s the amazing thing about 2023,” Bernstein said. “You don’t need a platform; you don’t need a job. All you need to do is start creating content; start a YouTube channel [and] start networking.”
She Got Game is a 10-part Audible Originals series to be released Thursday, March 9 amid the celebration of Women’s History Month and 50th anniversary of Title IX. Bernstein will sit down with guests Laila Ali; Bianca Belair; Chelsea Clinton; Dany Garcia; Shawn Johnson; Sheila Johnson; Folake Olowofoyeku; Amy Trask; Aisha Tyler; and Julie Uhrman – interviewing them about how sports has helped them facilitate successful and enduring careers. In the process, she hopes the project serves as another avenue to compel young people to explore and leverage the advantages and lessons learned through sports for future growth.
Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
