Jason Benetti (born September 9, 1983) is an American sportscaster. Since 2016, he has been the primary television play-by-play announcer of

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

baseball. He is also the alternate play-by-play announcer of

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...

basketball for

NBC Sports Chicago NBC Sports Chicago (formerly Comcast SportsNet Chicago) is an American regional sports network that broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports teams in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as college sports events and original sports- ...

. He was also the main announcer for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

's alternate "StatCast" telecasts, and additionally has worked for NBC Sports,

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

, and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

covering football, baseball,

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

Early life and education

Benetti was born 10 weeks prematurely and hospitalized for three months. During the three months in the hospital, Benetti had a respiratory illness while in intensive care that deprived his blood of oxygen. It is believed that caused his

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sens ...

, which was diagnosed when Benetti was a toddler. He underwent years of physical therapy and two surgeries to improve his ability to walk. Benetti grew up a few miles south of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Homewood, Illinois Homewood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,463 at the 2020 census. The village sits just a few miles south of Chicago proper. It is bordered by Chicago Heights and Flossmoor to the south, Hazel Crest to ...

, and graduated from the

Homewood-Flossmoor High School Homewood-Flossmoor High School (H-F) is a comprehensive public high school in Flossmoor, Illinois. The district encompasses nearly 11.5 square miles drawing students from Homewood, Flossmoor, Chicago Heights, Glenwood, Hazel Crest, and Olympia ...

in 2001. He ran school's NCAA tournament pool and joined the school's radio station, WHFH (88.5) as a regular disc jockey and play-by-play announcer for Vikings sports coverage. Benetti's cerebral palsy prevented him from playing tuba during marching band season. Not wanting to exclude him, the band director asked him to serve as the halftime broadcaster for their marching events. Benetti attended

S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, commonly known as Newhouse School, is the communications and journalism school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. It has programs in print and broadcast journalism; music business; graphic ...

at Syracuse University and graduated in 2005 with bachelor’s degrees in broadcast journalism, economics and psychology. At Syracuse, he worked at

WAER-FM WAER (88.3 FM) is a radio station in Syracuse, New York. It is located on the campus of Syracuse University, and is a part of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The station features a jazz music and National Public Radio forma ...

where he called

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is Ott ...

lacrosse and women's basketball. After graduating, Benetti enrolled at

Wake Forest University School of Law The Wake Forest University School of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of Wake Forest University. Located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Wake Forest University School of Law is a private American Bar Association (ABA) accredite ...

where he earned a Juris Doctor degree in 2011.

Career

During law school, Benetti acted as the voice of

High Point Panthers The High Point Panthers are the 16 varsity athletic teams that represent High Point University (HPU) in High Point, North Carolina, United States. All of HPU's varsity teams compete at the NCAA Division I level. All sports except men's lacrosse ...

basketball games,

Syracuse Chiefs Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

baseball games, and high school sports for Time Warner Cable Sports Channel. He also in worked roles with

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports ...

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

IMG College LEARFIELD, formerly Learfield IMG College, is a large collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and ...

Salem Avalanche Salem may refer to: Places Canada Ontario * Bruce County ** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie ** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce * Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, par ...

, and

DePaul University DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...

ESPN (2011–2022)

Benetti served as an intern for Chicago sports radio station

WSCR WSCR (670 AM) – branded as 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwa ...

. In 2011 Benetti joined ESPN, where his broadcasting career would move him into television, despite his childhood preference for radio-only broadcasting. Benetti would call select college basketball games for the ESPN3 online service, and then move on to

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

and ESPNU. In 2013 Benetti called his first football game for ESPN's syndicated

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

package. In 2020, Benetti signed a multi-year extension with ESPN, and during that year called

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

games remotely for the network due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

-induced delay of the 2020 Major League Baseball season.

Chicago White Sox (2016–present)

Beginning with the 2016 season, Benetti replaced

Ken Harrelson Kenneth Smith Harrelson (born September 4, 1941), nicknamed "The Hawk" due to his distinctive profile, is an American former professional baseball All-Star first baseman and outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 197 ...

as the television play-by-play announcer for select

home and road games, where he would be paired with Steve Stone. In May 2017, the White Sox announced Benetti would take over full-time play-by-play duties in 2019 upon Harrelson's retirement.

NBC (2021–2022)

In 2021, Benetti was named as play-by-play announcer for NBC's coverage of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. On April 26, 2022, it was reported that Benetti would serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for the new NBC Sports-produced ''

MLB Sunday Leadoff ''MLB Sunday Leadoff'' is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by NBC Sports for the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock. Peacock's coverage will include 18 Sunday regular season games during the 20 ...

'' games for

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

, joined by rotating analysts representing the teams in each game.

FOX (2022-present)

In August 2022, Benetti moved to

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

and will do play by play for Fox's coverage of college football and basketball, as well as Major League Baseball. Even after the move, he continued calling games for NBC Sports Chicago.

Personal life

Benetti works with the CHAT ("Communication Hope through Assistive Technology") Camp at Syracuse University's

Burton Blatt Institute The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI), established at Syracuse University in 2005, is an organization that aims to advance civic, economic, and social participation of persons with disabilities in a global society. Peter Blanck, a University Profes ...

. At Syracuse’s Newhouse School, he taught sports broadcasting as an adjunct professor. Benetti is part of the

Cerebral Palsy Foundation Cerebral may refer to: * Of or relating to the brain * Cerebrum, the largest and uppermost part of the brain * Cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the cerebrum * Retroflex consonant, also referred to as a cerebral consonant, a type of consonant so ...

's '' 'Just Say Hi' '' campaign.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benetti, Jason Living people American people of Italian descent American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Chicago Bulls announcers Chicago White Sox announcers College baseball announcers in the United States College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers College hockey announcers in the United States High school football announcers in the United States Lacrosse announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Minor League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers People with cerebral palsy S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Sportspeople from Chicago Volleyball commentators Wake Forest University School of Law alumni Women's college basketball announcers in the United States 1983 births