Jason Benetti is now widely regarded as one of the best play-by-play broadcasters in the business. On Wednesday, he recalled nearly missing out on his first big national break at ESPN because he uncharacteristically got the itch to detach from his phone.
During a conversation with Andrew Marchand on his podcast, The Main Event with Andrew Marchand, Benetti discussed his journey in broadcasting, which ultimately culminated in his current set of responsibilities in the broadcasting world, including working as the TV play-by-play voice of the Detroit Tigers and the NFL play-by-play voice at Fox.
A significant turning point in Benetti’s career came when he received an email from ESPN’s Chris Farrow asking him to call a college football game between Syracuse and Albany in 2011. However, Benetti nearly missed out on this opportunity because he was camping for the first and last time in his life.
“I was on a camping trip and I wasn’t near my phone,” said Benetti. “I mean, look at me. I don’t go camping. It was the only time I had ever been camping. I was like ‘I am going to cleanse and put my phone away.’ And then I get to my phone like 72 hours later and there is an email from two days before from Chris Farrow at ESPN asking if I could do Albany versus Syracuse. I was like ‘Son of a…’ The one time I put my phone away, I am an addict.
“That’s the game that turned into four games that year and then like ten the next year,” he continued. “And then ESPN started using me for the high school football package. And then I started doing some college football at the same time, about 2016. Once I had done football for a few years, the White Sox thing happened. That changed my course as well.”
Luckily, Chris Farrow was still interested in bringing in Benetti once he was finally able to reply to the email. However, Benetti was worried that Farrow and others at ESPN would hold the delayed response against him.
“So I sent the email. I was driving with a buddy of mine in like southern Maine. We’re in a Dunkin’ Donuts and I’m waiting for this email back. If it doesn’t come, I wouldn’t blame the guy. But Chris wrote back, ‘Okay, lock in.’ It was like a very short email. But it was ambiguous enough that I was like ‘Did I piss this guy off?’ This is not good. There is no way that you could characterize this as good. But I hope that it is okay. And it turned out to be fine.”
Who knows how Benetti’s career would have turned out if Farrow had responded differently to his tardy email. Regardless, Benetti has clearly taken full advantage of the opportunity he was given.