🏆 From Michigan Rowing to NFL Reporting

Caroline Hendershot is the Host and Team Reporter for the New York Jets, working week-to-week inside the team’s storylines, locker room, and gameday coverage. She’s also a contributor with Big Ten Network, calls rowing events, and co-hosts Wellplayed, a podcast with The Skimm that blends sports, culture, and the stories that pull fans in.

The Pivot That Built Her Foundation

Caroline grew up in a family where sports were simply the default. “Growing up I played every sport under the sun because my entire family was sports oriented,” she said. Her dad played tight end at the Naval Academy, her mom played field hockey at Fairfield, and her siblings all went to school for sports.

She started in volleyball before pivoting into rowing, a sport she initially wanted nothing to do with. Her oldest sister rowed at Princeton and went to the Olympics in 2012, and Caroline’s first reaction was, “that looks horrendously hard.” Then she tried it and thought, “oh I actually do like this.” That “yes” changed everything. She was recruited to row at Michigan and arrived in Ann Arbor without much context for what she was walking into. She fell in love with it, and by her senior year she became a Big Ten Champion and was named the Big Ten Athlete of the Year.

The Moment Sports Media Became Real

While at Michigan, she joined Big Ten Student Union and Wolverine TV, and suddenly sports media and storytelling felt like a real lane. The biggest spark came through a “shadowship” with CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson, offered to student-athletes. She shadowed Wolfson for Patriots at Bills and left with her “jaw on the floor.” She couldn’t believe this was a job. She hadn’t fully considered the production side of sports until then. “The whole production aspect and storytelling of it all, which I was just immediately a big fan of.”

Like a lot of careers in sports, Caroline’s path included doing a little of everything, sometimes literally. She joined the Hartford Yard Goats, a minor league baseball team, during its first year. “We did everything, including running the bases in a mascot suit and selling tickets.” That experience gave her team-side reps and a clear view into how sports actually runs day-to-day: “I had the opportunity to see how it all works from a team perspective.”

After graduation, she was “banging down everyone’s door and got no responses,” so she started looking at production assistant roles. She landed at ESPN after a Big Ten Network internship in Chicago. Then 2020 hit, and her world narrowed to a few live shows still running at ESPN. She ended up in a surreal daily routine with Mike Greenberg, who relocated from New York to Connecticut. “It was quite literally me and then him working together during COVID,” she said, and the two bonded. “We became close because it was only the two of us for two hours every single day.” It became an important mentorship moment that helped shape her next steps.

The NFL & the Week That Never Stops

When the Jets job was posted, Caroline knew immediately: “This is exactly what I’ve always wanted to do.” She wanted the NFL, and she wanted a team environment: “A more personal level with the players.” Greenberg wrote her a recommendation, she went through multiple interviews, and she started in late 2021.

Her in-season schedule is a masterclass in controlled chaos. “In a typical week in season, I am usually working seven days a week.” By Sunday, she’s at the stadium around 9:00 a.m. for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff, handling pregame, radio hits, sideline injury updates, postgame interviews, locker room, media scrums, social recaps, and more. By December, the recovery plan is simple: “I’m staying home, talking to no one, and cleaning my apartment for the first time in months,” she joked.

The Power of Storytelling

Over time, she’s learned the importance of connecting through narrative, not spreadsheets. The podcast has sharpened that muscle. Her co-host “was very involved in pop culture,” and the dynamic forces clarity. Caroline brings context, her co-host keeps it human. That perspective also shapes how she views the industry. Sometimes sports is still stuck in old-school assumptions. “Women drive the consumerism of the economy,” she said. “Did you see the Taylor Swift effect? It was insane and a clear example of that.”

Her career advice is equal parts simple and hard: stop overthinking and say yes. “There’s no right decision. The decision you make is the right decision,” she shared. She’s proof of it. “What would have happened if I never said yes to trying the sport of rowing,” she said. One yes led to Michigan, ESPN, and eventually the NFL. And when people try to shrink your ambition, she’s blunt about ignoring the noise. “People will try to dissuade you. There’s going to be so many people that say no. You really just have to trust yourself.”

Carrying the Torch & Opening Doors

Caroline’s “why” centers on the team and the trailblazers who paved the way before her. She loves the privilege of working in sports, but she also feels responsibility to the women who “had to essentially be trailblazers in this industry.” She said, “I don’t want to let them down,” and she wants to keep the door open wider. Her message is clear: “Just because you never played football growing up doesn’t mean there’s not a spot for you there. If you’re invested, know your stuff, and are willing to work hard, you belong.”