An Incredible Summer + Where I Go From Here

Well, that was fast. It seemed like just yesterday when I was running a 40-yard dash in a full suit, chasing down Joey Chestnut on the Fourth of July, and holding down King of the Court at the US Open. It has been one incredible summer with Pardon My Take consisting of some incredible experiences and meeting all kinds of great people. Luckily, this won’t be the end of my journey with PMT and Barstool Sports, as I have signed a new contract to remain with the company, and I could not be more excited for that.

However, my situation will be a little bit different than most of the Barstool employees I’ve had the pleasure working with over the last four months. At the end of October, I will be moving back to Burlington, VT to return as the play-by-play broadcaster for the University of Vermont Men’s Basketball Team. The passion and excitement I’ve had for calling games is something I’ve held for a very long time and being in the booth on the national level one day is still one of my ultimate goals. Just getting to the point where I am lucky enough to be the voice of a D-1 men’s basketball team was a grind and a half on its own. It started with choosing to head to Syracuse all because of how much respect I had for the broadcasting program when making my decision back in 2014. Specifically, the student radio station I worked for, WAER, has had a long list of distinguished alumni come through there over the years. I can only hope to be half as successful as some of the broadcasters whose shoes I am trying to fill.

But this summer, in a way, felt like a fantasy. I had always planned on going back to UVM this season from the start, though coming into the Barstool HQ every day over the last few months solidified my thoughts that I would have a hard time leaving here when the summer was over as well. It’s such a unique place to work, unlike anything I’ve experienced in the sports media world throughout the early stage of my career. I didn’t want to have to be presented with a decision to pick one job over the other, because both opportunities have done more for me than I could ever imagine. With that, I am grateful that Big Cat and PFT Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter along with Hank and Liam are willing to work with me given the unique circumstances here. It goes without saying how incredible that crew is and getting to see them at work makes you appreciate it that much more. I can’t thank them enough for taking a chance on me and basically creating a brand-new role where they thought I could succeed back in June.

So, what will my role be going forward? For the AWL’s, you probably won’t notice much of a change. I will still be running @PMTsportsbiz, getting more PMT-related content up here on the blog, and helping out with various pieces of work in other areas. But since I’ve been asked more and more frequently over the last few weeks about if I’m sticking around or not, hopefully this clears things up.

Meanwhile, the basketball team who’s season I will be calling this year, yeah, they’re going to be very, very good. Remember the name Anthony Lamb. He and the rest of the Catamounts will be a team to watch out for throughout the season, and hopefully in March. I can guarant-….

… Woah, that was close. I won’t be throwing “G” word out there today, after seeing the dangers of what misusing that term can do to you in this office. Won’t go that far. But you get the point. Buy into the Catamounts. At the very least, feel free to follow along throughout the college hoops season. I’ll be providing updates over the next five months so when Vermont does make a run… you can say you knew it all along.