Fordham and the Super Bowl are eternally linked. When the Philadelphia Eagles won the NFL’s championship game Sunday night, they held up the Lombardi Trophy, named after Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, whose play and coaching at Fordham and in the NFL was enough to make him the namesake of the sport’s ultimate prize.
For Fordham’s public radio station, WFUV, Fordham’s ties to the big game don’t end there. For about 20 years, WFUV Sports has sent some of its student reporters to cover the game and the “Radio Row” media days leading up to it. This year, the station sent a six-man team to get the inside scoop on the highly-anticipated rematch between a two-time defending champion in the Kansas City Chiefs and the challenging Philadelphia Eagles.
After flying from New York to Louisiana, the team — consisting of Lou Orlando, FCRH ’25, Will Tallant, FCRH ’25, Evan Harkin, FGSAS ’25, James Birle, FCRH ’25, Nick Guzman, FCRH ’25 and Jack Warner, GSB ’25 — found themselves in what Guzman described as “the biggest convention center I’ve ever seen.”
“It was a ‘who’s who’ of the sports media world,” said Guzman, describing the surreal scene. WFUV’s booth was surrounded by the likes of “The Pat McAfee Show” and Sirius XM. Beyond the innumerable media enterprises were endless parades of celebrities, from NFL legends like Drew Brees to media superstars like Steven A. Smith.
Going from Wednesday, Feb. 5, to Friday, Feb. 7, the group worked 13-hour days, earning interviews with the Super Bowl’s biggest stars and sparking conversations with the many giants of the sports world.
“It was really hectic… It was such an enriching experience to be able to say I was part of it, and it really challenged ourselves to get out there,” posited Birle, citing the difficult, yet rewarding, process of securing interviews with players and celebrities.
Running off of beignets and complimentary wings, the reporters found a way to get to the front of often-packed podiums on which the game’s star players stood, asking well-researched questions to explore and expound upon the game’s many storylines.
Warner had a back-and-forth with Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, chatting about his familiarity with the Eagles and his pride for veteran teammates who were making their first Super Bowl appearance.
“Mahomes had the most swarmed table I’ve ever seen — he was untouchable. I was lucky that I even made it to the front,” said Warner. “Walking away from Mahomes’ podium, it just kind of hit me. I was like, ‘Wow, I think I just talked to the biggest athlete in America.’”
Orlando spoke with the Eagles RB Saquon Barkley about his former teammate Eli Manning’s potential to make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; Birle asked Eagles media darling Jordan Mailata about his chance at becoming the second-ever Australian to hoist the trophy; Harkin talked with one of the game’s heroes, Cooper DeJean, about what the win meant to him. The list goes on.
The week was chock-full of “pinch me” moments, though none greater than the feeling Harkin got when it set in that he would be the one covering Sunday’s game: “I was just sitting in the Uber looking down at my credential for maybe 10 minutes, just staring at the Super Bowl logo on it, thinking, ‘I’m about to cover the Super Bowl,’” Harkin reflected. “It felt like I was living in a dream at that moment.”
During the event, Harkin captured on-site video footage, posted his insights on the game and interviewed players after the clock struck zero.
Leading into the week, it was Orlando, WFUV’s sports manager, who ran point in setting up the operation. “Logistically, getting to New Orleans was not an easy thing for us,” he revealed, pointing to housing and travel as particularly tricky aspects of planning.
He and Tallant — the station’s assistant sports manager — said that deciding the exclusive group of reporters to send to New Orleans was, surprisingly, less difficult. “They bring high effort all the time,” said Orlando of the crew, with Tallant adding that, “we all gelled since the moment that we met each other, and that’s why it was really easy and efficient to get things done before the trip, during the trip, and now, after the trip — everyone had boots on the ground.”
The reporters stayed in Mississippi – over an hour away from New Orleans – and drove in early each morning. Once player availability wrapped up each day, the team took to the airwaves each afternoon, running three four-hour live shows – part of the station’s signature programming, “One on One” – in which they previewed the game and spoke with a slew of special guests. In extended interviews, they talked to Super Bowl champion Jason McCourty, along with former Eagles WR Jason Avant and even ventured across the sports world in speaking with Jayson Werth, a former MLB all-star for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Given the chaotic and spontaneous nature of Radio Row, these interviews were completely spur-of-the-moment. Tallant considered this less of a challenge and more of a thrill, saying “The beauty of [these interviews] was that, if you did get someone, you had very minimal [time to] prep. We would… dig up two or three facts, and then riff on those… For me, that’s the best form of interviewing.”
The group found this interview style to be successful in facilitating entertaining and fresh discussions with guests who, according to an estimation from Orlando, were giving 20-25 interviews per day.
After each show, the team spent hours editing and posting content for the world to see, which Harkin said gave him a sense of fulfillment, as it meant he was “part of something bigger than himself.” Between the three YouTube-broadcasted editions of “One on One” and the exclusive interview content the group put on social media, the station got around 60,000 views; that’s excluding the radio audience that tuned into a three-hour “Best of Super Bowl LIX Media Week” edition of “One on One” on 90.7 FM Saturday night.
The overwhelming sentiment from the student reporters was that the trip was a near-flawless execution, one reflecting the group’s tight bond, professionalism, and adaptability. “The fact that everything turned out so smoothly is a testament to the WFUV staff’s ability to work so well with each other for what is probably our biggest event of the year,” espoused Orlando, expressing that the team’s success would not have been possible without the many members of the staff who stayed at Rose Hill, sitting in WFUV’s studios in the basement of Keating Hall to produce the team’s shows. Orlando made sure to note that the studio team stayed an extra hour each day to allow the team to get an extra hour of coverage.
Orlando was not alone in expressing his thankfulness.
When folks think about the Super Bowl, they usually think of glory, greatness and grandeur. For WFUV, the word is “gratitude.” Overwhelmingly, the team was more grateful than anything to have spent the week down south.
Tallant sent his gratitude back to the Bronx, giving thanks to the WFUV Program Director Rich McLaughlin, General Manager Chuck Singleton and Sports Director Bobby Ciafardini, who were each instrumental in affording the students this opportunity.
“There is no place for a young media professional like Fordham’s WFUV,” said Ciafardini. “We empower students to become the best version of themselves through training and real-world experiences.” It’s difficult to imagine a student reporter getting better real-world experience than covering an event heralded as the pinnacle of the sports world.
“Our journalists are armed with the tools first and then sent out into the field with the best of the best to create sports media magic,” added Ciafardini. The members of WFUV’s Radio Row crew have spent years cultivating their skills as reporters, hosts, broadcasters and producers for both Fordham Athletics and New York City’s professional sports teams, all culminating in moments like these.
The group’s gratitude was greatest when directed at each other. Guzman raved about the tight-knit team, saying, “it was such a positive experience for me, not just because of all the great people we got to interview, but because of the people I got to spend it with.”
“WFUV has changed my life,” said Harkin. “And [that’s] because of these five guys who I’ve grown to love, and to everybody in the studio and at WFUV.”
Orlando, being his always-eloquent self, summarized their feelings in one cogent statement: “All of the experiences WFUV gives me are really cool; what’s the point if you don’t have anyone to share them with?”
In discussing the personal and professional magnitude of this moment, the usually articulate student reporters became short for words. Finding those words often meant placing this event in the grander scope of their entire lives.
“I will never forget this for the rest of my life. I’ll tell my kids, my kids’ kids, and, God forbid, my kids’ kids’ kids,” said a grinning Warner.
Many people will refer to things of significance in their life as “their Super Bowl.” These six lucky students quite literally had their Super Bowl this past week.
Editor’s Note: Joe Henry is a staff member at WFUV.
