Bonnie Bernstein

Bonnie Bernstein
Born	(1970-08-16) August 16, 1970 Brooklyn, New York
Education	University of Maryland, College Park
Occupation(s)	Sportscaster, Sports anchor
Website	http://www.bonniebernstein.com

Bonnie Lynn Bernstein (born August 16, 1970) is an American television and radio sportscaster. She has also been named one of the top female sportscasters of all time by the American Sportscasters Association.

Biography

Early Life and Education

Bernstein was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Howell, New Jersey. She was Salutatorian of her class at Howell High School, where she is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame. She attended the University of Maryland, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in broadcast journalism. She was a four-time Academic All-American in Gymnastics, receiving the Thomas M. Fields award for excellence in academics and athletics. Bernstein maintains close tie to College Park, serving on the Board of Visitors for the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. She also hosts TerpVision, a quarterly TV program showcasing the University and its notable alumni.

Early Career

Bernstein spent three years climbing the local broadcast ladder, launching her career as the news and sports director at WXJN-FM radio in Lewes, Delaware. She transitioned to television at WMDT-TV in [Salisbury, Maryland]], as the ABC affiliate’s weekend news anchor, then made local television history at NBC affiliate KRNV-TV in Reno, Nevada, becoming the “Biggest Little City’s” first-ever female weekday sports anchor.

ESPN

Bernstein first joined ESPN in 1995 as its Chicago Bureau Chief, where she covered Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls record-setting championship run (1996–98). She also served as a correspondent for Sunday NFL Countdown and College GameDay and filed reports for SportsCenter during the Major League Baseball post-season including the World Series (1995–97) and the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

CBS Sports

Bernstein joined CBS Sports in 1998 as the lead sideline reporter for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championships and as a feature reporter for The NFL Today. The following season, she transitioned to the NFL sidelines for the NFL on CBS in 1999 with Verne Lundquist and Dan Dierdorf, with Dick Enberg replacing Lundquist following the 1999 season, and remained with that crew through 2003. In 2003 she was promoted to the lead NFL on CBS crew of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. Bernstein covered Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII for the Network and during Super Bowl XXXVIII, became the first sportscaster in history to serve as sideline reporter for both a network television and network radio as a correspondent, filing reports for CBS Sports/Westwood One Radio.*[1]

Since signing on with CBS/Westwood One Radio in 2001, Bernstein has often pulled "double duty" during the NFL season, covering a Sunday game for CBS and Monday Night Football for radio. She also covered the Pro Bowl for Westwood One.

In her duties covering the NCAA men's basketball tournament, she was involved in a 2003 incident with Roy Williams, who was then the head coach at Kansas. In an interview after the Jayhawks narrowly lost the tournament final to Syracuse, Bernstein asked Williams about the impending coaching vacancy at North Carolina, Williams' alma mater, to which he had been linked in the past. Williams was visibly perturbed, eventually saying, "I haven't thought about that [the job opening] for one second, I haven't thought about that for one second. The guy in your ear who told you you have to ask that question, as a journalist, that's fine, but as a human being, that's not very nice, because it's not very sensitive, and I gotta think in tough times, people should be more sensitive. I could give a shit about North Carolina right now. I've got thirteen kids in that locker room that I love." Williams later apologized for his on-air profanity and accepted the North Carolina head coaching position one week later on April 14th, 2003. . Responding to the incident, CBS Sports President Sean McManus said, “Bonnie's questions were appropriate. They had to be asked, and her performance was totally professional."

In addition to her NFL and college basketball duties, Bernstein also hosted the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships and CBS' Emmy-nominated anthology series, Championships of the NCAA',' and served as a studio host for CBS SportsDesk and At The Half, CBS Sports' college basketball halftime studio show. Bernstein also has covered tennis, track and field, horse racing and figure skating for the Network and has hosted the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the Hambletonian.

and develop Velvet Hammer Media, a company that helps aspiring or working journalists move up to the next level in their careers. She continued to cover the NFL for Westwood One throughout the 2006 season, with her final broadcast being Super Bowl XLI between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears on February 4, 2007.

Return to ESPN

In January 2006, Bernstein left CBS to pursue other broadcasting opportunities, rejoining ESPN in July as a field reporter for Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan and college football reporter for ESPN on ABC. On October 11, 2006, five days after experiencing severe leg pain while covering the Texas-Oklahoma Red River Rivalry, doctors discovered life-threatening blood clots in both of Bernstein's lungs (pulmonary emboli) that originated in her left leg (deep vein thrombosis.) She returned to ESPN and ABC several weeks later, but reduced her travel schedule the following season as a precautionary health measure, shifting focus to studio hosting many of ESPN’s high-profile shows, including NFL Live, Jim Rome Is Burning, Outside the Lines, First Take' and College Football Live.

Radio Hosting

In September 2009, Bernstein was named co-host and Sports Center anchor for The Michael Kay Show on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York. She also covered the New York Jets and hosted specialty programming durring the New York Jets run through the 2009-10 NFL playoffs, which ended on January 24, 2010 with a 30-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game. It was announced on July 19, 2010 that Bernstein was given her own daily NFL show, New York Football Live, cohosted by Jets linebacker Greg Buttle.

Other Broadcast Work

Bernstein is the only female fill-in host for the award-winning syndicated radio and TV program, The Dan Patrick Show and appears as a guest commentator on several news networks, including NBC, MSNBC and FOX News Channel, to discuss prominent sports stories.

Endeavors outside of sportscasting

Bernstein’s philanthropic efforts focus on two areas: childhood obesity and DVT awareness. She is a media strategist and National Ambassador for ING KiDS ROCK, one of the nation’s largest school-based running programs. In 2010, she co-chaired the Coalition supporting congressional passage of the National Foundation on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, which raises private funds for chilhood obesity initiatives. . Bernstein is also the Co-National Spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis, raising awareness about the disease she was diagnosed with in 2006.

External links

• Article on SI.com by Michael Silver about Bernstein's reasons for leaving CBS and her plans for the future
• 1050 ESPN Radio Adds Bonnie Bernstein To The Michael Kay Show Team
• Official website
• Bonnie Bernstein on X