From the onset of his career in sports media, Tom Rinaldi has been one of the preeminent storytellers in the industry. As someone who started working as a high school teacher and coach, he takes great pride in teaching and the accrual of knowledge. Applying that skillset to the sports media business, Rinaldi frequently embarks on creating enterprise features, interviews, video essays and other longform content at FOX Sports. Despite alterations in distribution and engagement, Rinaldi is engrossed in the creative process and understands the importance of captivating the consumer from the onset and retaining their engagement throughout a given venture.
Most recently, Rinaldi has spearheaded a six-episode slate centering around the life, death and legacy of high school football coach Ed Thomas. This project, titled Sacred Acre, is the latest iteration of his acclaimed Tom Rinaldi Presents series and explores the intricate story through an audio documentary format. Thomas was a coach in Parkersburg, Iowa and built a juggernaut high school football team, resulting in his being named the High School Coach of the Year by the NFL in 2005. Three years later after a devastating tornado demolished the town, he coached his players through a difficult season and assisted in rebuilding efforts.
Thomas was a lauded, venerated member of the community; however, he was murdered on school grounds by a former player during a morning workout amid the athletes and students. It was an unforeseen development of events that caused people to question why this happened and how violence has affected the family again 15 years later.
“We know that there are people certainly familiar with Ed Thomas’ story, his career, the tragedy of his death and the initial stages of his legacy, but a lot’s changed in 15 years, and I think what we also realize is there’s a lot of people that don’t know the story at all,” Rinaldi said. “…I think sometimes we overestimate what people know, were exposed to or remember, and I think in this case, we hope that Ed’s story will reach a fresh and new audience, as well as advancing the story for those already familiar with it in ways that only time can reveal.”
Prior to this podcast series, Rinaldi profiled the story of Lyman Wesley Bostock Jr., an activist and athlete who became one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball but was suddenly murdered during the season. The eight-part series took approximately one year to produce and accumulated significant interest and engagement from the audience upon its release. Although the second story of the podcast is two episodes shorter, Rinaldi is optimistic that new details and extensive inquiry will enthrall the listening public and capture their attention span.
“One of the hopes is that listeners find this to be an immersive experience,” Rinaldi explained, “that their imaginations are engaged and sparked by the great work of our sound designer Steve Porter, and by mixing the various audio assets that create a theater-like engagement for a listener, those being the narration, the original interviews, the archival sound, the score, the sound effects – the blend of those things to create what can feel like a more theater-like experience for a viewer.”
Over the last four years with FOX Sports, Rinaldi has authored longform pieces while also serving as a reporter across its portfolio of events, including its broadcasts of NFL football. In combining all of his work and projects, he is cognizant of the unique position he occupies and is gracious for the facets associated with his job.
“I have a lottery-winning gig and have for a long time,” Rinaldi said. “In fact, I’m able to tell stories at greater lengths than many other outlets will afford, and with that, you’re able to explore in these amazing teams of photographers and editors – you’re able to present these stories at a little bit of a greater length and depth.”
Part of Rinaldi’s expertise in storytelling comes from independent stories during a stint working in local news, initiating his path in South Bend, Ind. on WNDU-TV. This occurred upon obtaining a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, a career change after time teaching English at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, Pa. In addition to filing the reports, Rinaldi would shoot and edit the footage, narrate the story and present it on the air, seamlessly executing a preponderance of responsibilities within each compilation.
“I did all those things, and in that, I’d like to think I developed an appreciation for the different aspects of how you convey the information, accuracy being most important always,” Rinaldi said, “and then focusing on how you deliver a story with clarity, accuracy, empathy, all as mirrors of your own genuine curiosity.”
Rinaldi moved to the national level when he started reporting for CNN/SI before joining ESPN four years later where he quickly rose up the ranks and exhibited his vast skillset. Rinaldi departed ESPN in 2020 to join FOX Sports, contributing across live events and other broadcasts. He officially joined the company’s lead NFL broadcast team for Sunday games in 2021 and is in his fourth season in the role. On the preceding day, he contributes to college football coverage through Big Noon Kickoff where he conducts interviews and constructs feature stories for the show.
“Here’s one of the many reasons why I have a lottery-winning gig,” Rinaldi explained. “On the one side of the coin, I get to do the stories of the journeys of the players or the coaches of the teams that can explore, oftentimes, a human element off the field. On the other side of the coin, I get to stand in one of the great positions you ever could on a sideline of an NFL game and feel and report on the immediacy of the event itself.”
Rinaldi is enamored with the rush on Sunday afternoons and values the ability to report on site from the games. FOX Sports is the only broadcast network that primarily implements two sideline reporters on its lead NFL broadcast team. Erin Andrews, who joined the company in 2012, is an award-winning reporter and longest-tenured on-air member of the broadcast team.
“To me, she’s the standard,” Rinaldi said of Andrews. “She’s been doing it a long time at the highest level. Her connections in the league, her ability to convey information with clarity, accuracy and in a dynamic, engaging way is second to none. I just think she’s been fantastic to learn from, and I’m so grateful to share the sideline duties with her, and she’s been beyond gracious.”
The broadcast team has a new addition this season in seven-time Super Bowl champion and former NFL quarterback Tom Brady. Over his first three regular-season telecasts, Brady has received mixed reviews from fans and critics as he assimilates into the weekly schedule concurrent with reported broadcast restrictions related to his pending ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders.
“Tom has been fantastic as a teammate,” Rinaldi said of Brady. “He has been humble, he has been eager. He’s been incredibly hard-working in his preparation, and he has wanted to take in the guidance and the help from the precincts that are giving it to him at FOX. And listen, that lens to have the greatest player in the history of the sport as part of our team is beyond, I think, what anybody would have imagined, and I think Tom is going to continue to grow in his joy of doing this.”
Rinaldi added that he believes Brady loves what he is doing already and that there is excitement as the team approaches the Super Bowl. The season culminates with the historic game from New Orleans, and it is squarely rooted in the mindset of Rinaldi while he also tries to balance his other work. John McEnroe, who won seven major singles titles throughout his esteemed athletic career in tennis, once told Rinaldi a story of speaking with 20-time Grammy award-winning musician Bruce Springsteen as to how he approached his schedule.
“He asked Springsteen, ‘How do you do this? How do you go out and play in front of a stadium?’ and I’ll never forget this,” Rinaldi explained. “What McEnroe shared with me that Springsteen said is, ‘Well, you have to keep two things in your mind at the same time. One – that this is the most important night of your life; and the other – that it’s just rock and roll.’”
Leading up to the Super Bowl, Rinaldi has adopted a similar mindset to contextualize his tasks and responsibilities. Whenever he is delivering his reports, he hopes to convey his genuine interest in the subject matter and impart an understanding of what the audience desires. Successfully discovering the balance and attaining an equilibrium between the paradox of the Super Bowl being another football game yet a consequential event is something Rinaldi attributes to time and experience. Nonetheless, he provides information for the viewers through reporting evident both on and off camera, and he always tries to present an inquisitive demeanor at the forefront.
“I want to have earnest curiosity for what’s happening and to try to sort of serve three fundamentals that are really non-negotiable,” Rinaldi said. “One is accuracy, another is empathy, and another is curiosity. I think if you can work to serve those three fundamentals as best you can, you’re starting in a good place, and I try to be mindful of those in each assignment I have.”
No matter the assignment, Rinaldi seeks to bring the fundamentals of accuracy, empathy and curiosity to whatever he is doing. Garnering and maintaining the trust of the audience is a pillar he does not intend to forsake, and he greatly values his own versatility to be able to satisfy the needs of the company and communicate with the audience.
“I love the opportunity to do the features that we do for Big Noon Kickoff or for FOX’s NFL Sunday pregame show,” Rinaldi said. “They have a wonderful audience and they’re amazing opportunities, but logically and practically, they have time limitations, and here we have fewer limitations and we’re able to go deeper. We hope and we believe we do so in an efficient and worthwhile experience for the listener.”
Making the most of every opportunity he takes the air, regardless of if it is live on the sidelines or rooted in a podcast, Rinaldi cherishes the trust implicitly conferred to him by the audience. Furthermore, he aims to perform his role with aplomb while upholding journalistic ethics and standards as he delves into new curiosities and traverses the labyrinth of the narrative. Rinaldi probes beyond the superficial where he guides the audience through the deduction and research to build to a climax and draw conclusions. Although his projects have a set run time, the duration of his career and desire to partake in the storytelling mechanism have no timestamp in sight.
“We get to do this,” Rinaldi said. “‘How great is that? How grateful should we be for that?’ I try to keep that in the forefront all the time because it is without question a ‘get-to gig,’ and I hope I get to do it for as long as I can.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
