Yogi Roth: The man behind the college football announcer is a humanitarian who cares about the people in the game that has brought him so much fulfillment.
Did you watch the Arizona Football versus Colorado game a week ago on the Pac-12 Network by any chance? If you did you were blessed to have the privilege to understand the game better through the eyes of PAC-12 Network College Football Analyst, Yogi Roth, a 10-year Pac-12 veteran announcer. If you only liked Yogi before reading this article, you will love him by the end of it.
I met up with Yogi at a quaint restaurant near his home in Venice, California, he had just finished breakfast with his beautiful wife Amy after they dropped off their four-year-old son Zayn at school. Let me tell you, Yogi is living the life!
Grounded by faith and family and surrounded by mentors who he gives a lot of credit to, they have helped to mold him into the man and television talent that he is today.
"“Family is everything. I never really worried about getting married or having a family. I went to Stanford for a spring game at San José State and some coaches talked me into sticking around for dinner and I walked down to a plane the next day and met my wife. So, football has given me everything. What Amy and Zayn have done for me is that they have allowed me to fall in love with the game more. But it doesn’t mean as much. Coming home, or when they go to a game and I come out of the Rose Bowl and Zayn runs up to me, I forget about the bad call I had on third down or if I mispronounced somebody’s name. I mean the game has given me so much. And now being married with a son and a family I have fallen even deeper in love with the game, but it doesn’t consume me like before. I still watch just as much film, prepare just as much, but it has become lighter.”"
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Roth focuses on bringing the humanity of sport to the world both figuratively through his work and literally by traveling to places like India to communicate through the language of “ball.”
Roth spoke about the work he is most proud of producing so far in his career, including that he is most interested in is using film to teach and bring humanity to sport. He pointed out the documentary he directed and produced, Life in a Walk. The documentary documented a walk along the Camino De Santiago in Spain he took in 2015 with his father, who was battling prostate cancer.
The filming of the documentary, his directorial début, which allowed him to be vulnerable and pass on his father’s life story, “When he transfers from this universe to the next, I never want to say I could have spent more time with my dad.” Yogi’s dad told him in 2009 that he had cancer, and in 2013 it hit him “Like a ton of bricks” and he held in his emotions as an athlete was trained to do, and it was the first time he allowed himself to deal with his feelings.
Yogi reminded me that life is precious and although with this project, he wanted to relish his time with his dad on earth and not have regrets. He also wanted to produce a legacy project for his son and family.
Each day his father and he walked the streets of Spain, covering a decade of his father’s life.
As I sat enthralled and listened to his answer, I was amazed at how much he has accomplished so far including writing books (he started writing at 10 years old), producing a film, his current podcast How Great is Ball, playing and coaching football, acting, traveling, sports reporting and announcing. So I asked him for a couple of bucket list items he has yet to check off.
The first thing that popped into his mind was the Rose Bowl. Having coached four times in a Rose Bowl and been a sideline reporter as well (in 14 Rose Bowls), Roth has yet to announce the Rose Bowl game, and that is a dream for him down the road. The second bucket list item he listed was announcing the Olympics. He would be to produce and direct a documentary series focused on players and lastly, he would like to star in a movie or a Broadway show. We both thought a Romantic Comedy would be fun!