For six WFUV Sports reporters, that’s just a snapshot of what their Super Bowl week looked like.

“I’m really proud of the hard work the six of us put in for this week—a lot of prep and a lot of research,” senior Charles Maisano said.

The team of students, which included Fordham College Rose Hill seniors Maisano, Dominic Capone, Brianna Leverty, and Artemis Tsagaris, as well as Gabelli School of Business seniors Devin Clementi and Peter Houdek, spent the week in Miami conducting interviews with players, coaches, and other media members; producing multiple shows; and covering the game itself.

WFUV Sports Director Bobby Ciafardini said sending six students to cover the week was one of their largest groups ever.

“Their hard work and dedication to not only producing impactful content, but also working diligently to extract every last ounce out of the experience, speaks volumes about each of the six themselves, as well as the type of students both WFUV and Fordham produce year in, year out,” he said.

Memorable Interviews

“I think it was 34 interviews in total,” Leverty said. “We had a lot of work to do. Essentially we would get to Radio Row [the media center for Super Bowl week]—we had the same table every day—and we would just put ourselves out there.”

Leverty said two interviews really stuck out to her—one with Ian Rapoport, a national breaking news reporter for the NFL Network, and one with Quinnen Williams, a defensive lineman for the New York Jets. Being able to get Rapoport, a huge name in the media industry, was one of their highest profile guests of the week, while Williams helped them connect with their New York audience, she said.

For Capone, the most memorable experience was interviewing a former high school classmate, Jason Cabinda, who now plays linebacker for the Detroit Lions.

“He was there doing something for the NFL and their player engagement—he was interviewing players as well. We got a chance to talk to him, and it was one of our best interviews,” Capone said.

Off the Ground and onto the Airwaves

Each of the students had their own role in helping to get their coverage off the ground and onto the airwaves—both on 90.7 FM for the Saturday show and streaming online throughout the week. Maisano, Capone, and Clementi hosted the daily sports-talk shows, Leverty and Houdek worked primarily on production, and Tsagaris handled video duties.

The students were one of about five college radio teams that had tables at Radio Row. But to simply call WFUV a college station would be a misnomer. The NPR-affiliate is based at the Rose Hill campus, but includes full-time, professional staff members including on-air DJs, a news director, and a sports director. Students have the opportunity to train and then do on- and off-the-air work in a variety of departments, including news and sports.

Three of the six students—Maisano, Capone, and Clementi—went down early in the week to attend Media Day. And Maisano and Leverty attended the Super Bowl game as credentialed members of the media, an opportunity few college students get to do.

Treated Like Professionals

Leverty said that the opportunity to cover the biggest sporting event of the year as a college student really made an impact on her.

“It’s kind of your first real job in the media and I’m doing things that most full-grown media members and adults don’t get to do until they’re very well established,” she said.

For Maisano, this was his second time being around the leadup to the Super Bowl, but his first time actually experiencing the game itself.

“I went as a sophomore to Minnesota [with WFUV],” he said. “I was a producer as a sophomore, so being able to host and talk to these great people [now as a senior]  was unbelievable. As a 21-year-old, checking that off my bucket list, doing it in college, was just incredible.”

WFUV Sports, which has produced legendary talents such as ESPN’s NBA play-by-play broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83; YES and ESPN’s Michael Kay, FCRH ’82; and Ryan Ruocco, FCRH ’08, carries significant weight, allowing the students to be treated as reporters rather than student press, Maisano said.

“Being looked as a professional in college is just incredible,” he said.

Working Alongside MadDog

Capone said the experience gave him a chance to work alongside many of the industry leaders he grew up idolizing.

“Just being able to be there with the professionals in the industry—you’re set up next to affiliates from San Francisco and Kansas City and then you have SiriusXM where you look over and Chris ‘MadDog’ Russo is doing a show, Adam Schien is doing his show, and you get to talk to these people and it’s not like you’re below them, you’re on their level,” he said.

The students said WFUV Sports is also helping them prepare for their future careers.

“I came into Fordham thinking I wanted to do play-by-play and be the next Mike Breen, but I tried it out and it wasn’t for me,” Maisano said. “I leaned toward the production aspect and I found my niche there.”

He credited Bob Ahrens, WFUV’s former sports director, and Ciafardini, with helping him find his calling. Because of their help, Maisano has already interned at SiriusXM, CBS Sports, and Westwood One radio.

“Without WFUV, I never would have been able to get all these internships,” he said.

On Jan. 18, the 42-year-old Fordham Law grad was voted NFL Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association.

Roseman has avoided the spotlight since then, calling the award a credit to the entire Eagles organization. But in recent weeks, journalists and fans alike have been singing his praises, referring to him as a “genius” and a “magician,” and crediting him for a series of shrewd, often bold roster moves that have paid off in a big way this year.

The Eagles overcame back-to-back losing seasons and some potentially devastating player injuries to soar to a 13-3 regular-season record and advance to the Super Bowl, thanks in large part to the depth of young and veteran talent Roseman brought together.

“Every one of his free-agent or traded-for acquisitions were successes,” Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeff McLane wrote on Jan. 21, after the Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings, 38-7, to win the NFC championship.

Now the resilient Eagles are set to face the New England Patriots, winners of two of the past three Super Bowls. Philly will be underdogs on Feb. 4, just as they were in their first two playoff games this year. But that’s a role the team and its fans seem to relish. And it’s one that’s long been familiar to Roseman, who overcame long odds just to land a job in the NFL.

Here are five things to know about Howie Roseman before the big game:

1. He’s living his childhood dream.

Roseman was born in Brooklyn but grew up in suburban New Jersey, where he rooted for the New York Jets and dreamed of a career in an NFL team’s front office. He once said that when he was 9 or 10 years old, “people would ask what I was going to do. I’d say, I’m going to be general manager of a National Football League team. They used to laugh.”

2. His persistence is legendary.

In a 2014 interview with Bleacher Report, Roseman estimated that between his senior year of high school and his third year of law school, he wrote more than 1,000 letters to NFL teams (one letter to each team, several times a year) in hopes of landing a job.

He received rejection letters that could be “stacked as high as the ceiling in any room in your house,” he said, and he admitted that he “really didn’t have a backup plan, which, looking back on it really wasn’t so smart.”

3. A Fordham Law degree helped him get his foot in the door.

Roseman received a glimmer of hope during his senior year at the University of Florida. Mike Tannenbaum, who worked in the New York Jets player personnel department at the time, agreed to give Roseman some advice by phone. No team would hire him as a scout, Tannenbaum reportedly said, because Roseman had no football experience. But if he were to earn a law degree, he might be able to sell himself as a salary-cap expert.

So Roseman enrolled at Fordham Law School. Shortly after earning a J.D. in May 2000, he landed his first NFL position: an unpaid summer internship with the Eagles. And he hasn’t forgotten his alma mater. In spring 2011, he returned to Fordham to deliver the keynote address at the annual Fordham Sports Law Symposium.

4. He rose from intern to general manager in just 10 years.

Roseman initially shared a desk with an administrative assistant in the Eagles’ front office, but before long, he was hired full time as staff counsel and began a rapid, steady climb through the corporate ranks—to director of football administration in 2003, vice president of player personnel in 2008, and general manager in 2010. By then, he was 34 years old, the youngest GM in the league at the time. He’s been in his current position as head of football operations since 2015.

5. He’s the latest exemplar of Fordham’s Super Bowl connections.

Fordham’s ties to the big game date back to the very first one. On Jan. 15, 1967, Fordham grad Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, led the Green Bay Packers to victory in what later became known as Super Bowl I. He repeated the feat the following year. After his untimely death in September 1970, the NFL named its championship trophy in his honor.

One of Lombardi’s Fordham classmates, Wellington Mara, FCRH ’37, also had a share in two Super Bowl victories. As longtime co-owner of the New York Giants, he steered the team to the top in 1987 and 1991.

More recently, Wellington’s son John Mara—a 1979 Fordham Law grad and the Giants’ current president, CEO, and co-owner—has hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice, in 2008 and 2012. In both games, the odds were against his team, and in both games, the Giants defeated the New England Patriots.

No doubt Roseman will be looking to extend that Fordham underdog tradition on Super Bowl Sunday.

Update (Feb. 5): The Eagles defeated the Patriots, 41-33, to win the Super Bowl 52. After the game, Roseman told NBC Sports Philadelphia, “It’s hard to win a world championship. Everything has to go right. And not everything went right for us. … [But] we’re world champions forever. This group is a special group.” 

Timothy Malefyt, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of marketing at the Gabelli School of Business, said this was both by design and surprising.

“Super Bowl ads are different from normal ads. A company’s not going to present their regular-material ad. They’re spending nearly $5 million for 30 seconds, so they really want to have an effect; they really want to come on strong,” he said.

“They’re going to typically work on emotions, and they’re going to come up with something that’s provocative or humorous that makes you think of the brand in a new way.”

We sat with Malefyt for some good old-fashioned “Monday morning quarterbacking” on advertising’s biggest night of the year. Take a listen:

Full transcript below:

Patrick Verel: I feel like everybody talks about, “Oh, what was your favorite ad? What was the one you didn’t like the most?” I wonder for you, which one do you think was the most effective ad?

Timothy Malefyt: The Skittles ad was very clever. The guy … Romance your Skittles, and he was outside throwing Skittles, trying to get the girl’s attention, and the whole family, and a robber, and a police, and everyone else are taking advantage of that.

Another humorous ad was the Spuds MacKenzie. They’re really bringing him back, the ghost of Spuds MacKenzie, because he’s been gone for what, 10, 15 years now? We saw a powerful ad by Airbnb that said, “We all belong. We believe that no matter who you are, where you’re from, or who you love, or who you worship, we all belong.”

Patrick Verel: What are the ones that you felt like they were trying too hard, they were too kind of quote-unquote Super Bowl commercials?

Timothy Malefyt: I think some of the car ads were less memorable, although the Buick ad was clever. If your kid turned into another person, a super star, but that then again seemed it was borrowing from the Snickers ad that was famous years ago. Snickers tried an ad, trying to do something live, Snickers Live. That kind of fell flat. You remember that? The Snickers? This is live?

Patrick Verel: Oh, yeah, everything fell apart or something?

Timothy Malefyt: And everything fell apart. This is you when you’re hungry, and it didn’t quite get it. I think it tried. The idea was great, but it didn’t come across that well.

Patrick Verel: Yeah, yeah, I can see what you mean. When it was over, you’re just kind of like, “Wait, what did I just watch?”

Timothy Malefyt: I had to rewind it on the Tivo.

Patrick Verel: Is there one in particular that you felt really captured the zeitgeist of the mood of the country right now?

Timothy Malefyt: The strongest one, the 84 Lumber, which really showed a woman and her daughter, clearly Mexican immigrants, trying to make it to America. That was most powerful, and I think it was very reactive. People either really liked that or were against it. In fact, they had to continue this and I understand the rest of the story is that they’re in Mexico and they encounter a wall. There is a wall, but then there is a door in the wall, and they enter the door, and that’s kind of the saving grace.

But people in the Super Bowl tried to access this website and I guess it crashed, so they couldn’t get on. So I think there is a mood of expressing unity, diversity, we’re all together with this, from Coca-Cola to Airbnb, these really big campaigns were really trying to drive against that.

Patrick Verel: That 84 ad’s fascinating because it was like a lot of people sort of seeing in that ad what they wanted to see because the people who are favored one way focused on the wall, and then people who are feeling the other way focused on, but the wall has a door in it.

Timothy Malefyt: That’s a good way of putting that. I think you’re right, and I think that’s why it was very polarizing. Some people were really cheering that on, and other people were saying, “We need the wall.” So people took both sides out of it. Maybe that’s where commercials that are most provocative get people to react in some way.

The Audi ad was really interesting. The Audi ad for equal pay. That was surprising for a car ad because most of the other car ads were either humorous, the Buick ad, or kind of showing performance. But the Audi ad had a strong social message and talked about gender equality or inequality I should say. I thought it would not be good for the car. It would not be relevant for the car commercial, had it not had the girl in the car, the toy car, racing against other boys and showing her competitive spirit. She really is one who would be out there in the world, and one that a father could be proud of in succeeding. This message was that gender inequality still exists and he’s hoping for change that will come and perhaps Audi is a part of that.

Patrick Verel: Was there anything from last night that genuinely surprised or shocked you?

Timothy Malefyt: No. I think this year, the ads were really relevant and were trying to push some buttons and provoke. There was nothing really out of place, nothing really great or really bad. They went with the whole mood of the country. I thought this is a good representation of really what you’d expect in high quality Super Bowl ads.

Fordham’s Garrett Broad, an assistant professor of communications and media studies, penned a new piece for The Huffington Post about the importance of the Black Panther Party’s anti-hunger initiatives during its heyday. His piece critiques the absence of this story from mainstream history and the mainstream food movement, and describes the role it plays in shaping the actions of food justice activists.

Broad, the author of the recently released More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change (University of California Press, 2016), says the food justice aspect of the Black Panthers Party is a “story that often goes untold, both in media narratives about the Panthers and throughout the food movement itself.

“Setting the BPP’s flaws aside – the truth is that at a moment when Black Americans were suffering from widespread hunger, sickness, unemployment, and police violence, the Black Panther Party was there to try to fill the gaps that institutional racism and government negligence had created. The late 1960s saw the Panthers develop a host of community-based initiatives, with chapters across the country shifting their focus away from armed militancy and toward the development of “survival programs” — survival pending revolution, of course,” he writes.

Read his entire piece here, and then read our story on Broad’s new book.

(Top photo: Charles Bursey hands a plate of food to a child seated at a Free Breakfast Program. Photograph via Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch/National Geographic)

Harrington, an Apache helicopter pilot, commanded three Apache, three Blackhawk, and three Chinook helicopters during the flyover. He is part of a contingent of soldiers from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

“It’s an incredible honor to lead a team of professional, selfless soldiers and represent our armed forces during Super Bowl XLVIII,” Harrington said. “Like so many military officers serving today, I feel that my Fordham experience, particularly being a member of the Pershing Rifles, provided me an outstanding foundation to serve in today’s military. I was also blessed to meet my wife, Jennifer, at Fordham. She has always been the most important part of my life since leaving Rose Hill.”

Harrington and his wife, Jennifer Brizzolara Harrington, FCRH ’97, live in Fort Campbell. Bernard Harrington is from Rego Park, New York, and was commissioned from the ROTC Battalion at Fordham, where he was a member of the Pershing Rifles drill team. He is a graduate of Xavier High School, in Manhattan.

Jennifer Harrington is from Wilmington, Delaware. She graduated from Fordham with a degree in anthropology, is currently raising their 3-year-old son, Jeremy, at home. Both her father and sister attended Fordham.

As part of its pre-game coverage, Fox Sports tapped Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York, to highlight Lombardi’s deep Catholic faith. Lombardi considered joining the priesthood early in his life, and his funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

Lombardi: 6 Boroughs, by NFL Films, highlights the connection Lombardi, had with each of the five New York City boroughs as well as New Jersey.

For the Bronx connection, the film, which is narrated by fellow Ram Vin Scully, FCRH ’49, focused on Lombardi’s Fordham connection, beginning with his playing days in the 1930s and transitioning to the success of Fordham’s historic 2013 football season.

Head coach Joe Moorhead, junior wide receiver Tebucky Jones Jr. (whose father won the Lombardi trophy in 2001 with the New England Patriots), and junior kicker Michael Marando, a Brooklyn native, are all interviewed for the film.

A recent Newsday article and video likewise traces Lombardi’s roots through New York City and includes memorabilia of his days at Fordham.

The game featured a pair of former Rams on the Denver sidelines—wide receiver Greg Wilson, FCRH ‘13, and Denver assistant strength coach Jason George, who was Fordham’s head strength and conditioning coach from 1998-2009.

When the NFL’s most prestigious piece of hardware is hoisted aloft by the winners in Miami this Sunday, February 7, those at the Bronx institution of higher learning recall the bygone days of Lombardi, the five-time Super Bowl champion head coach of the Green Bay Packers.

“He always came back, Vince Lombardi always loved Fordham,” Fordham’s executive director of athletics Frank McLaughlin said. “He was very religious and was strongly influenced by the Jesuits.”

A favorite son of the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, Lombardi went to Fordham on a football scholarship to play guard for Coach Jim Crowley in 1933. The two enjoyed great success built around Lombardi and the “Seven Blocks of Granite” – the nickname for Fordham’s dominant offensive line. Fordham began to gain national attention in 1935 when the Rams finished 6-1-2 and were ranked No. 11 in the United Press Sports Writers Poll conducted at the end of the season.

In 1936, Lombardi’s senior season, the team got off to a 5-0-2 start and had hopes of playing in the Rose Bowl. However, the team suffered a devastating 7-6 loss to NYU and finished the season ranked 15th in the first AP poll and out of bowl contention. “Lombardi always said that was his most bitter defeat,” says McLaughlin.

After his playing days at Fordham, Lombardi spent two years playing semi-professional football before going into coaching. In 1938, he began as an assistant at St. Cecilia, a high school in Englewood, New Jersey. Lombardi stayed at St. Cecilia for eight seasons, the last five as the head coach, before heading back to Fordham to coach the freshman football and basketball teams. After one season, Lombardi became an assistant football coach for the varsity team.
“Lombardi always wanted to coach Fordham,” McLaughlin said. “Fordham already had a successful coach, so the university stuck by him and Lombardi moved on.”

However, Lombardi only stayed for one more season before heading off to West Point to coach the U.S. Military Academy’s offensive line in 1949. Lombardi stayed for five seasons and had a very successful run.

Lombardi’s success led to a job as the offensive coordinator in the NFL for the New York Giants in 1954. Under Lombardi, defensive coordinator Tom Landry and Head Coach Jim Lee Howell, the Giants became NFL champions in 1956.

Lombardi received his greatest acclaim as Head Coach and General Manager of the Green Bay Packers, a position he accepted in 1959. Despite the Packers going 1-10-1 in 1958, Lombardi brought immediate results to Green Bay with a 7-5 record in 1959. The following season, Lombardi led the Packers to the championship; however, the Packers were defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles 17-13, a loss which would go down as Lombardi’s only postseason loss.

Lombardi came back to win back-to-back championships in 1961 and 1962. Two years later Lombardi began a string a three-straight NFL championships beginning in 1965. He capped the run with a win in the infamous “Ice Bowl” over the Dallas Cowboys, dubbed this because of the -13 degree temperature.

Lombardi stepped down after the 1967 season after five championships in nine seasons in Green Bay. He remained General Manager for one season before returning to coaching with the Washington Redskins in 1969.

With a 7-5-2 season, Lombardi brought Washington its first winning season after a 14 losing ones. It was Lombardi’s only season in Washington as he fell ill during the summer of 1970 and was diagnosed with colon cancer. Lombardi died in September at the age of 57.

Over the course of his career, Lombardi amassed a 96-34-6 record over 10 seasons and a 9-1 record in the playoffs. Lombardi was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

For Fordham, the Super Bowl brings many reminders of the glory days of Vince Lombardi. Lombardi’s influence on professional football cannot be measured and it all began at Fordham–first as a player, and later as a coach. Lombardi put a lot of value into his days at Fordham and they had a strong influence on him. Fordham remember s Lombardi in a variety of ways. The Lombardi Memorial Center is an athletic facility containing a gym and numerous playing courts. The Seven Blocks of Granite are also remembered with a monument outside of Jack Coffey Field.

“I have long admired the selfless way that Wellington Mara lived his life, and shaped the NFL,” stated Pascrell, the author of H.Res. 517.  “This resolution is a national gesture that is a fitting token of appreciation for a great American.”

“Our family is extremely humbled by Rep. Pascrell’s resolution in honor of my father and its passage by the House,” said John Mara, the oldest of Wellington’s 11 children and the Giants’ team president.”The last thing he would ever want is to be singled out for what he did in his life and the way in which he lived it. He simply tried to do the right thing as best he could, and while he would shudder at the recognition, we, his family, are greatly appreciative.”

In 1930, Wellington and Jack were named part owners of the New York Giants by their father, Tim Mara.  Together they led the club to five NFL Championship games between 1958 and 1963.  Under Wellington’s leadership, the New York Giants have 26 postseason appearances, 18 NFL divisional championships, and 6 NFL championships, including the Super Bowl XXI and Super Bowl XXV titles.

Wellington”s success in the New York media market did not discourage him from supporting an agreement to share television revenues equally among all NFL teams.  In supporting the agreement, Wellington and Jack Mara sacrificed significant revenue for their own team, but put the NFL on a path to collective success that it still enjoys today.

“The NFL that Wellington crafted has reshaped the way millions of Americans families across America enjoy weekends together,” said Pascrell”

The only time Mr. Mara spent away from the New York Giants was during World War II, when he honorably served in the United States Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.

Mara has been inducted into the Fordham Athletic Hall of Fame, and received one of Fordham’s greatest distinctions when he was honored with the Fordham Founder’s Award.  In 1997 Mara was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Mara was so highly regarded by his fellow owners that on March 27, 2006, the NFL renamed their official game ball “The Duke,” the nickname given to Mara as a child by the New York Giants’ players.

Mara served his community as a board member on the Giants Foundation, a charitable organization founded by the New York Giants to provide financial and social support for disadvantaged youths in the New York Metropolitan Area.

“Wellington is a model for the principles of charity and compassion that are taught at Fordham University,” said Pascrell, a fellow alumnus of Fordham University.  “As a fellow Fordham Ram, passage of this resolution marks a very proud moment in my career.”

Mara passed away on October 25, 2005 at the age of 89.  He is survived by his wife, 11 children, 41 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.