When FOX hired award-winning reporter Tom Rinaldi away from ESPN in 2020, the network boasted that it would be adding the fan favorite to its coverage of college football, the NFL and the World Cup.
Rinaldi probably didn’t expect to cover all of those in the same week.
Amid arguably the biggest sports stretch of the year, the journalist took a 10-day, globetrotting odyssey from the Middle East to the Midwest and back again, joining FOX’s coverage of Michigan-Ohio State, Chiefs-Rams, Cowboys-Giants and the U.S. Men’s National Team’s journey through group play in Qatar.
A journey that spanned 18,141 miles and more than 41 hours of flight time.
Exhausted even just reading about Tom Rinaldi's incredible 10-day stretch for Fox Sports, via @richarddeitsch: pic.twitter.com/mwx2efPHRT
— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) December 2, 2022
Rinaldi joined the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast to talk about his wild stretch of travel. Now back in Qatar, Rinaldi still sounded quite upbeat—if not invigorated—by his travels, telling Deitsch it’s unlike anything else he’s done in his career.
“I’m just so incredibly grateful, who wouldn’t be?” Rinaldi said. “To be at these games and these events. To be in The Shoe for Ohio State-Michigan and then to be in the stadium for the USA against Iran. To be part of the Thanksgiving tradition in the NFL and then to be on the sideline to see Sean McVay trying somehow someway to solve Patrick Mahomes. It’s an awesome, awesome set of opportunities.”
Not to mention all those frequent flier miles and hotel points he’s racking up. Hopefully Rinaldi gets to use them on a much-deserved vacation sometime soon.
