Tom Rinaldi leaving ESPN may be the worst college football news of 2020

Veteran reporter and storyteller Tom Rinaldi is reportedly leaving ESPN to join the team at FOX Sports, yet another blow from the year 2020.

Tom Rinaldi is an artist, a genuine Rembrandt using his words and voice as the paint and canvas, and to find out the longtime ESPN reporter and broadcaster was leaving the worldwide leader to head over to FOX Sports was a gut-punch none of us needed.

This is no slight to FOX, who does fine sports broadcasting work and has poached some pretty big names from ESPN in recent years. But the fact remains that not having Tom Rinaldi as a part of ESPN College GameDay next season reeks of 2020’s foul, yearlong stench.

While Tom Rinaldi’s professional resume isn’t at all limited to just college football — having covered the Masters, Wimbledon, the US Open, the NBA, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Final Four, and the Olympics — his work on the ESPN flagship college football show is how most fans recognize the New York Times bestselling author.

Rinaldi is the guy who can make every college football fan — man, woman, and child — cry ugly tears in the midst of a Saturday celebration. More than once I’ve had to sit my adult beverage down to fetch the box of tissues while watching his weekly segment.

He’ll bring his award-winning style (16 Sports Emmy Awards and seven Edward R. Murrow Awards) to FOX and will become a favorite of that network’s loyal fans. But for fans who faithfully partake in the Saturday institution on ESPN every week, Rinaldi’s work will be missed.

Rinaldi’s genius is finding the deep-seated human element of any given sport, and then tapping into our souls with his touching brand of storytelling. On Saturdays, when fans are generally amped up and jovial, he found a way to remind us of sacrifices, pain, love, and behind-the-scenes stories none of us could have possibly known.

For most college football fans, the Rinaldi-induced tears were cathartic and therapeutic, and gave us all gentle reminders of how much more there was to the sport than what we saw on the field for a few hours. Lives have been changed forever because of his work, and that’s irreplacable.

We’ll all still be able to tune in and catch his work on FOX Sports, and we’d be fools not to do so. But College GameDay is a family. I’ve been around them. I’ve seen them interact. There’s more than just respect happening on the set and behind the scenes. There’s a feeling of family.

The bond everyone on that show shares is as strong as any I’ve ever seen, which is why Rinaldi’s ESPN colleagues shared a common feeling on social media that losing him “hurts”.

It certainly does. It most certainly does.