The Jersey Benchwarmer's Guide to Sports

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has been, by all accounts, a smashing success here in the United States, Canada and Mexico.  Despite a chaotic lead up to the event, the tournament has smashed everyone’s expectations and then some. For foreigners, they have experienced a culture shock for the ages. On the other side, casual American viewers have been amazed by the likes of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland.  Just looking at the television ratings from FOX and Telemundo, the numbers have been huge. The final combined viewing number for the United States men’s national team’s (USMNT) Round of 16 match vs Belgium ended up being 50.1 million viewers . Truly, an insane number to imagine.  Unfortunately, the USMNT lost 4-1 and the aftermath has been rough. One thing that has been talked about since last Monday’s defeat were the words uttered by FOX Sports’ play-by-play announcer, John Strong, near the end of the match. “If you’ve enjoyed what you’re seeing, well, support your local team,...

During my sophomore year of college, I took a course on the history of television and radio. As someone who adores media, this was an amazing class and it was one of my favorites during my time at Seton Hall.  As long as I can remember, I was someone who loved to memorize dates of movie releases and network TV schedules. I was the kid who would go on Wikipedia everyday and read about anything related to film, music and of course, sports.  Literally, if you put me in a normal history class and made me learn about something like the Vietnam War for the hundredth time, I would go to sleep. Now, if you put me in a class like the one I mentioned earlier, I’m going to be locked in.  There’s another type of history I adore greatly and that’s the history of college football. Whether it’s on the history of a program or an offensive scheme, I’m devouring that content. As a result, that information is now ingrained into my brain forever. Naturally, with my curiosity of TV and colleg...