Transcript: Chris Rose on His US Days, Breaking into Sports Media, and Behind-the-Scenes Stories

Good morning and welcome back to the show. We are here with Mr. Chris Rose, NFL Network anchor, baseball commentator, and podcast host for John Boy Media. How are you, Mr.

Rose? Charlie and Jack, I'm doing great, man. It's good to be back with a couple of preppers. I'm actually going to be out there next week, which will be kind of cool.

So it's nice. It's nice. You know, I'm the old dude. It doesn't seem like all that long ago I was sitting in your seat.

So I'm looking forward to this. It's going to be a good time. Yeah, I'm excited to meet you next week as well. Yes.

So to get this started, Mr. Rose, before you were, you know, obviously a nationally recognized sportscaster, you were just a kid growing up in Cleveland. Can you take us back to your childhood? What were you like as a kid?

Were you always into sports? Yeah, well, first of all, Jack and Charlie, we're going to do this. I'm Chris. My dad was Mr.

Rose. So I appreciate the formal nature of this responsibility, loyalty, consideration. We'd appreciate it. But I'm just Chris.

I'm just another dude that went to U.S. a few years before you guys were born. So what was I? Wow. I think the people that know me best, and there's a bunch of guys I still are very close with from the class of 89.

I was a sports dork, man. I did my Sherman Prize speech on being a sportsaholic. And I actually won the thing my junior year. And although it was a comedic speech, it was very true at the time.

And I think probably to some degree, it hasn't left me. I was infatuated with sports. Now, I was a terrible athlete. I wasn't any good.

Yeah. And I ended up being the manager of the basketball team for a couple of years and the manager of the baseball team a couple of years because I always loved being around sports. And I think that if you were to ask all of the 87 other kids I graduated with in 1989, what would Chris Rose be doing years from now? This would probably be it.

Like, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to do something in sports. I didn't know what it was. But I just loved watching and talking about it.

And I think the line that probably won me my speech the junior year was, I had a teacher that, unfortunately, I think he just passed away last year, was Chuck Selbach. He was a great history teacher. He was our baseball coach. And most importantly, he pitched in the big leagues for about a half dozen years.

And he pitched for a guy named Billy Martin, who was a very famous player. He was a very famous manager up in Detroit. He was a relief pitcher and had a couple of really, really good years. Well, I would always try and get stories out of Mr.

Selbach, and he would never give them to me. But every class, I'd start off by saying something snarky about the baseball world, and he would just kind of chuckle and laugh it off. Well, I don't know if you guys still get interim report cards, but I got one from history, and I got a C+. And it said, Mr.

Selbach wrote, that he has sports on his mind much more than history when he enters the classroom. So I decided to get back at him on the speech. And I said, you know, sportsaholism has even affected the way that I perform here at university school. One unnamed teacher wrote on my interim report last fall that he has sports on his brain much more than history when he enters the classroom.

I said, that's a heck of a comment coming from a guy who's best major. And what you can find? That's great. That's great.

So, Chris, when did you get to U.S.? Were you a life hvor impacting high school? I have two board games. How many games?

I've been in golf all my life. Yeah. I was a lifer. I started in kindergarten.

I think there were 10 or 11 of us, and I still have the picture somewhere in one of my... My mom made me an album when I graduated high school, and there's a picture of all the lifers. We're all sitting together, and I knew nothing other than... Let's put it this way.

When I got to college, I was like, what are all these women doing in the classroom? I was like, this is great. This is awesome. But US was a great place to go to school.

Was there a particular moment when you realized you wanted to be involved in the sports world more than just watching from the couch? It's a good question, Charlie. I don't think there was one shining moment where I went, wow, this is it. I think probably I had to figure out which...

Genre I wanted to go in. Did I want to be in front of the camera? Did I want to work behind the camera? Did I want to do something for a team?

Did I want to do something for a network? I actually had several internships throughout college, and then I figured it out in between my junior and senior year at Miami University. I had a great nine-week internship at CNN in Atlanta where I worked for CNN Sports. I got to do a little bit of everything down there, but I really got to talk to people that were on air, find out what their journeys were like.

And I said, okay, this is the direction I want to go. I want to be in front of the camera. I want to be in studio instead of calling games, although I have had a chance to do that as well and love it. And that was my dream.

And it didn't happen immediately. It didn't happen immediately after college. I was behind the scenes for almost three years before I got my first full-time on-air job. But that was probably the point when I realized that, hey, this is the thing I want to give a shot to.

Going to your perspective as a fan, many of us have that first sports memory, the one that really ignites a lifelong passion or the game. Do you remember the first game or moment in sports that truly just captivated you as a fan? Well, I know there are other memories for me, certainly. But I talked about, in the Sherman Prize speech again, that it was a Brown-Steelers game in 1978, I want to say.

And this is when the Steelers were at the top of their game. And we had never won an old Three Rivers Stadium. In fact, we lost, I think, our first 17 games there before we finally beat them in the mid-80s. But this is the late 70s, and we had an overtime loss.

Where they beat us on a flea flicker from Terry Bradshaw to a tight end named Benny Cunningham. And I remember that. I said, boy, this just feels different. Like, I'm upset.

I'm pissed off. Why did that hurt so much? And unfortunately, it would be many decades of pain and anguish and a few really special moments as well, which kind of balance it out. It's almost like when you play golf and if you birdie the 18th, you're like, oh, I'm going to win.

And I'm like, oh, I'm going to win. And I'm like, oh, I'm going to win. And I'm like, oh, I'm going to win. You might have just shot 97 and lost four titleless balls along the way, but that birdie keeps you coming back.

So even though we've had some tough times as Cleveland sports fans, there is that glimmer of hope or that moment that you will cherish forever that makes you say, I want that feeling again, and it's worth whatever pain the sports gods will give me. That's so true. It is. Green.

And obviously, basically, one of the job requirements is to be extroverted. Are you like that in real life off the air? Yeah, I'm a nutcase in a good way. I bounce around the house.

I have fun, man. I just like my kid. I've got two sons that are 24 and 19. And when we go out in public there, they look at me and they're like, please just stop.

Don't embarrass us. And I'm going to tell you a few words of advice. When your parents hear from you guys, don't embarrass us. Guess what's going to happen?

Y'all are screwed because you just threw gasoline on that fire. And I will do it. I like to have fun. I think I was voted.

I have to go back and look, but I think I was voted like top three funniest kids and also number one for thought he was funniest, which is like a tough combination to pull off. It's really accurate. Like I do. Like I say some crazy stuff on air that I think is funny.

And I'm like, God dang, that was not funny. But I'm willing to try it because I want to hit a few home runs occasionally, too. Yeah. You know, the sports broadcasting world is just incredibly competitive.

When you were starting out, was there just a particular moment of rejection, doubt or failure that really challenged you? And how did you kind of push through? And what did you learn from that experience? Well, it's a great question.

As I mentioned, I knew I wanted to be in TV and I knew I wanted to be on air. But my first job right out of Miami a week later, I was running studio camera at the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati for $4.85 an hour. And it was part time work. It wasn't what I wanted to be doing.

But I was in the building and I was around television professionals. Eventually, I got to be the weekend sports producer. And I was in the building and I was around television professionals. And I was there for a little bit over two years.

And during that time, I was applying to jobs all around the country in these small television markets. So think of it a little bit like minor league baseball, right? People that are drafted, they don't go right to the big leagues. They go where we don't really see their mistakes.

So I wanted that opportunity. I think I got rejected from almost 20 different places while I was working in Cincinnati. And I was there for a and that's hard to hear because unlike there is no scoreboard in the business that I'm in. It's very subjective.

People think you are either good or not good. And some people who think you're good, they'll see it totally differently than somebody else who thinks you stink at what you do. And that's really challenging, particularly when you're in your formative years. I was in my early mid twenties, um, when you haven't had any success whatsoever.

And I remember calling a few of these places where I was applying to be, you know, the weekend sports anchor, and I'd get down to the top three or five said, well, I understand you're going with somebody else. That's okay. What can you tell me that maybe can help me out in the next time I'm applying for a job? And almost universally, the thing I heard was, I don't have anything to tell you.

You're good at what you do. I just went a different direction. And that's really hard to take because, you know, I cover people that get coached for a living. They get, they like to be told when they're screwing up so that they don't do it again.

Well, here I wanted to be coached and nobody was coaching me. So how, how was I ever going to get that, that break? I almost packed it in. My dad was a very successful business person in Cleveland.

I probably could have moved back to Cleveland. I probably could have moved back to Cleveland. I probably could have moved back to Cleveland. I probably could have moved back to Cleveland.

I probably could have moved Cleveland and gotten a decent job and watched my favorite sports teams and I am so thankful I didn't quit I mean so thankful so I ended up getting a gig in Reno Nevada I had no idea where the hell Reno even was I thought it was next door to Las Vegas I was like yeah and I get out there I was like what are we an hour from Vegas they're like no moron it's an eight hour drive I was like what so um it's it's a challenge it was a real challenge in the beginning no throughout your career you've covered everything from the NFL to baseball to even poker and battle bots how do you prepare yourself to transition between different sports and do you have a favorite one to cover I'll start with the second part first um are you guys do you have siblings Charlie have siblings no Jack you got siblings I have two brothers yeah okay don't ever ask your parents to pick their favorite kid because they might just say it so be careful if you do that um each job I take on it's really important for me to be passionate about what I do okay I do need to make a living I've got a family myself so I respect that part of it but there's never been a job that I have taken just because of a paycheck I am really passionate about what I do I'm passionate about what I do I'm passionate about what I do I'm passionate about what I do I'm passionate about what I do I'm passionate about what I do I'm passionate about everything I do I even hosted the hot dog eating contest this past labor day between Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi I've never been able to watch that before because I just don't have the stomach for it not that I don't respect it or the process or what these people do but I was like you know what I'm going to do this Netflix is offering it to me they want me to be a big part of this and I said you know what I'm going to go out there and nail this because it's something that even though it was never at the top of my sports broadcasting shopping list it's something I'm interested in I'll give it a shot and I did it and I loved it and I loved everything about it in the process and I've been very thankful there's probably been 20 days in my career that I haven't wanted to go to work and usually that has nothing to do with the work itself it probably has something to do with what's going on in my life or my kids or my wife or whatever it is um you know but as far as so that I don't really I'm not going to pick a favorite if you will as far as preparing for stuff that is the best challenge I've got I have had multiple jobs for the last 20 years in this business and even though it was like with Fox I was doing a show called the best damn sports show period and then I started hosting like college football at the same time and I was doing a show called the best damn sports show period and then I started hosting at the same time and started calling NFL games and doing some baseball and there was overlap there and now for the last almost 15 years I've worked at separate media entities whether it was the NFL network MLB network John Boy Media and then BattleBots seeps in that keeps me sharp uses different muscles in this industry and I love that about it you know this past year my primary job at NFL Network is to do our Sunday highlights and I love that about it and I love that about it and shows but twice this year I got to call NFL games I got to call one in London I got to call one of the Patriots Chargers up in Foxborough and that was great it's just totally different than anything else that I do I also do the Browns preseason package I love that they all have their different challenges keeps it fresh and exciting yeah well I'm a huge baseball guy so it's cool to hear you know that won't be networked the John Boy Media um how is you know that your podcast now the Rose Rotation that's with John Boy Media and how is that like you get to talk to all those MLB guys guys in the baseball world how is that job you know what's your favorite part of that just being able to introduce those guys to an audience that only sees them for two and a half or three hours a night playing baseball I'm about to record my own podcast in about an hour with Miguel Rojas of the Los Angeles Dodgers and he's an amazing guy like he has been a part of our family at John Boy Media going on our fifth season now and people didn't really know his story he he had never lived outside of his grandmother's home in Venezuela until the Reds signed him to a free agent deal when he was 17 years old he moved to Billings Montana without knowing any English he was put in the house of you know he had people that took care of him uh thankfully they were bilingual so there was that to help assist him through I mean just imagine this you guys are are what 16 or 17 16 okay I don't know if you know foreign language but hey you got one month we're going to take you to Venezuela and drop you off good luck it's the the thought is terrifying for anybody for a grown adult let alone somebody who's a teenager but the number one thing I love most about the feedback that I get from our followers at John Boy Media is when they leave on our YouTube channel they'll leave comments about well I'm a Giants fan and I hate the Dodgers but I love Miguel Rojas or I love Tyler Glass now that's the win for us is when we are able to break down these barriers that we've built up because you know as Guardians fans we're not going to be able to break down these barriers that we've built up fans we're taught to hate the Royals or the Tigers but you hear the guys when they don't have their uniforms on and all of a sudden you're like that dude seems cool like that's the win no so many people see just this polished final product on TV or online but I mean obviously from our experience podcasting I'm sure a lot happens behind the scenes that fans don't realize can you kind of share and go through what a day in the life of a sportscaster really looks like I mean there's that's the beauty of podcasting is kind of what you see is what it is you know we don't really edit things out we just we let the conversation flow and that's the beauty of what the podcasting world has become is that you don't feel like it's edited and chopped up and taken out of context you just feel like there is a free-flowing conversation and and that's what we do now I do several different podcasts I do a lot of podcasts I do a lot of podcasts I do a lot of podcasts for John Boy Media the Rose Rotation with the interview format being one but we have a daily podcast called Baseball Today which I do with a former major leaguer named Trevor Plouffe and so that's much more kind of nuts and bolts we take five topics that are hot in the baseball world we talk about them and we do that every day during the season it's twice a week in the off season and it's fun it's easy going we don't take ourselves seriously we make fun of each other we make fun kind of of the baseball world but we also give our opinions on what's going on in the in in the sport now that takes prep you know during the year I'm locked in I watch a ton of baseball so at 3 30 my time in Los Angeles I'll sit down on a Tuesday afternoon when there's 15 games that night and have my eight screen my octo screen working and I'll flip around from game to game depending on what I'm doing and I'll sit down and I'll sit down and I'll sit down and I'll sit down who's pitching and who's hitting so I can hear some stuff and then at about 9 30 at night I start to put together the show for the next day that we will record first thing in the morning and it is a wheel you're on a you're on this hamster wheel that's going going going so it's not just hey let's turn on a camera and start talking baseball that's that's not how it works there's a lot of prep that goes into it and when you don't know your stuff people can they can dial in on that and to watch that much baseball you must love it obviously what's your favorite part of the game uh I do love the matchups I love the just the individual matchups that we get when there's a great pitcher going and there's you know you hope that there's two to three hitters in every lineup that you feel like if you just were to watch one at bat that day that that would be it so I love that aspect of it I think that the I don't think we've ever had a more talented time in the game I don't think we've ever had a more talented time in the game I don't think we've ever had a more talented time in the game I don't think we've ever had a more talented time in baseball in terms of the number of guys that are probably 26 and younger who are outstanding outstanding athletes and players some people get all crabby and say oh well it's not the way it used to well who cares about that stuff these guys are great I love some of the rules changes that that the sport has made in recent years because I think it started to show off more of the athleticism and I feel like the sport when it comes to the ability on the field is in a pretty good spot you know you've done almost every sport activity event imaginable one of the ones that you haven't completely ventured into is the basket basketball in the NBA have you ever thought about going into the league and commentating or maybe doing a show about it so I I love the Cavs we watch every night that they're on um the rest of the league I'm not going to say I've lost interest but you know with as much work as I do in baseball in the NFL there's only so much space in this brain of mine and so I'm not going to sit down and watch you know the Suns and the Kings I just won't you know I like some of the players I like watching some of the guys on on those teams but I'm not going to sit down and make time for it I just there's enough of a sacrifice that my wife has made over the three decades we've been together where I don't need to be sitting there and watching it so I would say that that's probably not going to happen that hopefully I've built a decent enough name in both the baseball and football space that if there are opportunities there that I haven't ventured into that I could go that direction now do I feel like I could host shows on the NBA and get up to speed pretty quickly I do I do as someone who's covered so many um iconic shows in the NBA I'm not going to sit down and watch it I'm not going to sit down and like moments you know in sports whether that's through highlights or actually covering the game is there any particular game interview or broadcast that kind of stands out to you as particularly memorable well I there's been a couple of events that I've covered where I have said holy crap I can't believe I got paid to cover this event probably the first one was Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open by 15 shots in June of 2000 and that's when uh Tiger was at his apex and I covered it for Fox Sports Net which is essentially FS1 today so it was the cable side of Fox Sports at that time and I was on the golf beat and I nailed it like the timing could not have been better they asked me my boss said well what do you know about golf I said I used to watch it a lot as a kid with my dad he Tiger's like taken off we need somebody to follow him so I got to follow him around the world for a bit and it was really really cool but to watch pro golfers who are the best in the entire world walk off the 18th hole at the U.S. Open look at the scoreboard realize he's winning by 15 shots they were sitting they were like laughing they couldn't believe it it was like a it was like if a basketball team was kicking everybody's ass by 15 shots and they were like laughing they couldn't 70 points or football team was winning every game by 50 it just was unimaginable and he did it to the best of the world so that was pretty cool the second one was um the Fiesta Bowl I want to say it was probably played in January of 08 and it was the first time that Boise State was really on the football map and they were taking on um Adrian Peterson I believe was on that team Sam Bradford was this monster of a program and Boise State was like the cute little tryhard team that somehow squeaked into the Fiesta Bowl and they had a big lead the Broncos and then Oklahoma came storming back and then Boise State had a couple of trick plays to win the game winning on the Statue of Liberty play and right afterward they're running back proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend they're still married by the way that was awesome and then the last one was game six of the 2011 World Series it was in St. Louis and the Rangers were up three games to two and it was going to be the first year that we were going to do I was hosting Fox Saturday Baseball so it was my job to be the lead voice of the trophy presentation which was freaking awesome so even if Texas had won on the road in St.

Louis they were going to bring out the platform and have it out in front of everybody instead of years past where if the road team won they would only do it in the clubhouse so the Rangers are leading by a run or two in the ninth inning bottom of the ninth and I am behind the right field wall in Bush Stadium and it's myself and it's our camera crew and it's all the people that are going to push out the stage and it's like 30 cops back there to go protect the field well we've got a small TV up there where you really couldn't see what was going on so I decided to go up to the wall and I poked my eye through there's a crack in the wall it was like this big and David Freeze comes up and he hammers a ball right in our direction and I see Nelson Cruz is playing right field for the Rangers and if he makes the catch the World Series is over we're all going to come firing out of there the ball comes right at us you I could hear the thud it hits right off the wall he missed it David Freeze hits a game-tying triple well I got to run my butt back upstairs to our center field set to go host the postgame show because if the Cardinals win we're on TV in less than five minutes so here's chubby little Rose in a suit running upstairs weaving his way through traffic I get back up to the set I'm winded I'm sweating sit down and the Rangers take the lead in the top of the 10th so I got to run back downstairs same spot waiting for the Cardinals to come up for it to happen well Lance Berkman gets a base hit ties the game I got to run back upstairs I'm like enough thankfully the Rangers don't score in the 11th and then Freeze hits a home run I think it was off of uh low and Joe Bucks got the great line about I'll see you tomorrow night and it was crazy where I I had to go back and forth like three times running through the fans of St. Louis on just a crazy crazy evening yeah those are great great I'm curious for the golf did you have to practice your golf commentating voice you know the super low like not not too excited so we're here at the par 3 7. it'll be a 60 degree wedge no I mean fortunately I was not calling the event I was just covering the event so I would just get the post-match interviews and stuff like that you know reflecting back on your time at U.S do you have any favorite memories or just funny stories that really stand out um so as I mentioned I was uh the manager for the basketball and the baseball team and uh Mr. Selbach and Mr. Johnston who was a wonderful chemistry teacher had the thickest New York accent ever and uh he was the assistant baseball coach and I love that guy dearly he was one of my favorites and I remember in the beginning of the year this is probably my senior year they're asking everybody what uniform number they want and what their pants size was and he goes all the way around the team and finally I jokingly said Mr.

J why why didn't you uh ask me don't you want to know what number I want to wear in my pants size and he goes Rose they don't have pair uniform size because I am shaped if you saw me in person I have the dad bod of all dad bods but I've had it my entire life and I am shaped like that a pair and so he used to make fun of me during practice uh for the way I was shaped and he just nailed the timing he did it much better than I just did it but between Mr. Johnston's uh interesting vocabulary his um accent his New York City accent and the fact that he nailed me on the comedic timing with the they don't come in and pay uh my best friend Jay Novotny still utters that phrase every once in a while to me you know if you could go back and give advice to your high school self that Chris Rose walking these halls at university school what would you say what do you wish you had known back then about life career or just even during the journey um well there's one that's practical for my work purposes that would be take Spanish with senior plow um I took an accelerated French Latin course do either of you take that take Latin I take Latin what do you take Jack Chinese check wow that's awesome good for you um I was convinced I had an older brother that went to U.S. and was significantly smarter than yours truly ended up going to Yale he took an accelerated where if you took Latin in seventh and eighth grade uh in ninth grade I think you could be eligible for an accelerated French course well he did great because he's smart and I got in that and um I was horrible and um I just was it was tragic I was just not good at it but I wish I had taken Spanish because I think it would help me immensely I know of a few people who are bilingual covering baseball and it's it's a great way to communicate with players um you know who are who are from the Dominican or from Venezuela and it's awesome that's great and I don't have that ability and I wish I did um as far as the rest of it and I'm still trying to convince myself I told you earlier that about the thinks he's funniest and was kind of funny not everything has to be a joke I still have to kind of bite my tongue with that like there's times where I'm I'm in my 50s and I'm still doing it and just say it it's okay to just kind of let let life go the way it is not everything's got to be comedic um and I that's like I said that's something I got to work on still today so I don't know if saying it to 16 year old Chris Rose would have would have helped because 54 year old Chris Rose isn't necessarily adhering to that thought process yeah well I know we're wrapping up uh almost hitting the zoom time limit here so this will be the last one but I think it's might be the most important one that we ask all of our guests on the show and throughout your career you know you've covered some of the biggest moments in yet so thank you for being a part of the show and sports interviewed legendary athletes and had to adapt you know the ever-changing media landscape but at the core i think we want to know what drives you what is your why you know the reason that you wake up every day through those long nights watching baseball still waking up to do the shows in the morning um well what keeps you going mr rose or chris what keeps you going um i have i've got an amazing family i know it's gonna sound cheesy but i really do i've got uh a wife who has been with me since i started in reno nevada i mean that's a long time ago when we didn't know if i'd make it in this business and so we have a great partnership that has worked extremely well and we got two great boys who are they're they're great dudes they're just good people and you know they're both trying to find their way and i'm confident that they will um one is following in this business he's a director of sporting events and he's doing great he didn't even finish college um and that's okay there's nothing wrong with that um so that's really important but in this business we give so much time we we sacrifice a lot i've missed birthdays i've missed um anniversaries i have missed weddings of nephews and nieces and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs and that's a lot to give up it is a lot to give up um and it's just because i want to i want to be the best that i can in this it is my passion i was a terror i told you a terrible athlete but i sure as hell could debate sports with the best of them and i don't i don't ever want to lose that passion that zest for it um i'm really fortunate to do what i love because not everybody does i have friends that hate their job even if they don't like their job i don't want to if they're extremely successful at it and i don't ever want to be that guy i'm about to go cover my 19th super bowl i've covered more than 15 world series like if you would have just told me when i was at us that you would get to go to a super bowl as a fan or go to a world series as a fan i would have been like what i get to do this for a living that is i can't script that any better well chris it's been great having you on the show today thank you so much for taking the time to share like insights experiences stories with us and to our listeners thank you so much for tuning in and we'll hope you'll join us next wednesday for another episode of late start show thank you