Master Tesfatsion (L) with Percy Harvin on Untold Stories.

Master Tesfatsion has signed a multi-year extension with Bleacher Report. Tesfatsion joined the company in January 2018 and has since written for their website and hosted original video series, including Untold Stories, which focuses on interviews with former NFL players, including news-making ones with Ed Reed (live from the B/R Gridiron House in Miami around the Super Bowl) and Percy Harvin (seen at right above with Tesfatsion in October). Recently, Tesfatsion has started a new show, The Warzone, which sees him live-streaming Call of Duty games with athletes, including Alvin Kamara, JR Smith and Dez Bryant. He was also part of B/R’s NFL Draft coverage this year, interviewing Jalen Raegor and D’Andre Swift on Instagram Live.

Tesfatsion came to Bleacher Report after internships with The Seattle Times and ESPN Dallas and full stints at MLB.com, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and The Washington Post. Under this new deal, he’ll continue to do a mix of long and mid-form original series like Untold Stories and The Warzone, while also conducting separate interview pieces across Bleacher Report’s various channels. He told AA in November that part of what drew him to Bleacher Report was the chance to explore video again:

“I always knew at some point I wanted to get back to the video side. And actually when I was at the Star-Tribune, on top of writing there and being a beat writer, I was doing three videos a week in which I was in the studio by myself directing it, writing the script, editing it, posting it up on StarTribune.com. I was doing that for a weekly preview show, was doing the interviews inside the locker room that led up to pregame, was carrying camera equipment with me at every road game and chopping up our Access Vikings footage and also chopping up something of my own.”

“So it’s something that’s always been around. At The Washington Post, it wasn’t as much, but thankfully here at Bleacher Report, Sam Toles and Howard Mittman really believed in me and believed in this opportunity and gave me Untold Stories. Once I knew I had that opportunity, I wanted to make the most of it, and I’m really happy with where it’s at right now. And I understand the impetus of providing players and athletes the opportunity to just be themselves, and being able to share what goes on behind the scenes, and creating a safe haven for for these athletes in a way that they’ve never really experienced before on camera. It’s been a joy to just be a part of the process and and I’m just fortunate and blessed to be the host of this.”

And it looks like Tesfatsion will be doing that at Bleacher Report for a while to come.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.