Connecting with your Roots: How "failed" athletes stay connected to the games they love?

For many kids, you dream of being a professional athlete. However, that’s not the easiest thing to come accomplish.
 
In fact, fewer than 2% of all college student-athletes end up playing professional sports. So for the few who make it, they get to live out their dreams… but for the rest of us, what’s the next best thing?

At Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, the nation’s top sports communications college, the answer would be broadcasting.
 
Why do “failed” athletes turn to broadcasting?
 
“The truth is I’m not good enough to play professionally. If I could, I would,” said Andrew Forster, a junior studying to be a Soccer play-by-play broadcaster.
 
“I feel like (broadcasting) is the next best, closest thing to just spreading my love of the game. Anything soccer related for me, whether it’s broadcasting, writing, playing – it’s not work for me. It’s always enjoyment, it’s what I love doing.”
 
When he’s not calling soccer games, Andrew plays on the Syracuse University club soccer team and for CitrusTV Deportes – an intramural soccer team of student broadcasters from the campus’s student-run TV station, CitrusTV, who have joined forces to live out their dreams of being professional athletes.

​Milo Hoffman, another Syracuse junior on the CitrusTV Deportes team, said what it means to play with other broadcasters. “Well, I think it’s really cool because we come together for this one common goal. In our everyday lives, all we do is talk about sports, whether that’s for fun, on TV, or on the radio. But for all of us that played this sport growing up and dreamed of being pro-soccer players, being able to do this together and have fun at this point in our lives when we’re heading towards our new goal of calling these pro-games, is a great thing.”
 
Forster echoed his comments saying, “I’ve been playing since I was 4. Biggest passion of my entire life and here, you have a group of people who might be connected outside of this, but can be connected through soccer.”
 
“The reason I love soccer is anyone can play. It’s the reason I’ve met my best friends, and it’s why I’m the person that I am. If I have the opportunity to be around it for the rest of my life, up in the booth, why wouldn’t I take that?”
 
Famous Sports Media Personalities
 
If you look at the landscape of sports media right now, a lot of the personalities that you might’ve heard of, got into broadcasting for the same reasons Andrew laid out.
 
Here are a few you might’ve heard of:
 
1.Jim Nantz (CBS Sports):
-Co-captain of his high school basketball and golf teams
-Went to play golf in college, but said when a tournament “fell apart on the back 9,” he realized that was the start of the push to go on the broadcasting path
 
2.Skip Bayless (Fmr. ESPN/FS1):
-Averaged 1.4 ppg on his high school basketball team… went into broadcasting and became one of the most accomplished sports writers and personalities ever
 
3.Ian Eagle (CBS Sports)
-Publicly documented his failure in sports as a kid, hence the reason why broadcasting was the thing for him

​Ultimately, the sports broadcasting path allows those who can’t play professionally to stay connected to the sports they love.
 
“I think one of the biggest joys in life is giving other people the joy that I experience, so if I can bring fans to the game of soccer and give them the same love I have for the game, that’s my only goal in life,” said Forster.