Jon Rothstein sleeps in May.
This means that the CBS Sports college basketball insider’s phone is never on silent. Like Adam Schefter, this means he’s broken some stories in some strange places. The ESPN NFL insider broke that Dale Carter was being suspended after he had sex with a woman — not his now-wife — earlier in his career.
Rothstein has a story, too. But the one he shared on the Awful Announcing Podcast with host Brandon Contes is a little less controversial.
“My wife and I had our first child 18 months ago, and they were moving us into the delivery unit,” Rothstein recalled. “They were waiting to see if we could have our child, who we love dearly, Mila. It happened naturally, and we’re going through that stage of the pregnancy, but I was tracking that the Big East and the Big Ten were going to discontinue the Gavit Games. So, you’re kind of sitting there, waiting in the hospital room. My wife’s the best. Again, I love her to death; she’s my best friend in the world. There’s nobody I’d rather be with and hang out with than her.”
But Rothstein had to “go take care of something,” and he didn’t want to do it in front of her.
“I had to take a call from a source in the bathroom of my wife’s hospital room while she’s getting ready to deliver our first child,” Rothstein says, “just to confirm and corroborate that the Gavit Games were going to be no more.”
According to his Instagram, Rothstein’s daughter was born on Sept. 2, 2023.
So, it appears that the Gavit Games were in flux. Later that month, he tweeted that both conferences were close to finalizing an agreement to continue the annual eight-game tip-off.
NEWS: The Big East and Big Ten are close to finalizing an agreement to continue the Gavitt Games, with all 11 Big East teams likely to participate beginning in the 2024-25 season, according to multiple sources.https://t.co/9Ki2VMM42V
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) September 27, 2023
It later came to a head in October when Rothstein reported that the Gavitt Games would not be played during the 2024-25 season, and the future beyond that was uncertain.
NEWS: The Gavitt Games will not be played during the 2024-25 season and while beyond that is uncertain, the future of the event is doubtful as of today, according to a source.https://t.co/Bs3WqJONPe
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) October 23, 2023
But Rothstein had to be certain himself.
And he didn’t think his wife ever realized.
“I don’t think she realized,” he tells Contes. “And if she realized that’s probably what I was doing, she wouldn’t be surprised. She would be like, ‘This is what I’m gonna sign up for.’ When we first started dating, I remember us having a conversation in Dakota Bar on 72nd on the Upper West Side, right actually near where John Lennon was shot, that was in the neighborhood where she used to live.
“And when we started dating, you’re talking, you get serious, and I just kind of had the talk like, ‘Look, if I look or pick up my phone now, I am not ignoring you, but this is my job. If we go out to a place from now until the end of the Final Four — that’s fine. There just has to be a TV because I have to track what’s going on.’ And then she was like, ‘This is what I’m gonna need after the Final Four,’ and that was a serious talk.”
Rothstein fondly remembers an Illinois-Iowa game in Champaign during Brad Underwood’s first years coaching the Fighting Illini. They were up three, and they fouled the 3-point shooter, and he was like, “Hold on a second.”
“But, I vividly remember that was kind of the life she signed up for, you know?” Rothstein added.
Listen to the full episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast featuring Jon Rothstein on Friday, March 7. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.
