From the Sideline to the Headlines

For Connor Hughes ’15, football wasn’t just a passion—it was a way of life. Growing up in a household where NFL Sundays were sacred, Hughes found a way to channel his love for the game early on. As a teenager, he provided play-by-play commentary for local high school games and was already working as a sports reporter before setting foot on Monmouth’s campus. By the time he graduated, he had a resume any aspiring journalist would envy—thanks in part to breaking his first national news story as an undergraduate.

Since then, Hughes has made a name for himself in sports journalism. He’s held high-profile positions at such outlets as USA Today, NJ Advance Media, and The Athletic, where his coverage of the NFL made him a regular guest on CBS 2 New York. In 2022, Hughes made the jump full time to broadcast TV, joining SportsNet New York (SNY) as an NFL Insider and Reporter. Today, Hughes covers both the Jets and Giants, delivering a mix of written, audio, and visual content across SNY’s platforms.

“I constantly have to pinch myself when I think about what I do for a living,” Hughes says. “It really is a dream come true.” He spoke with us about how he broke into the industry and what it takes to be successful in today’s ever-changing media landscape.

When did you realize sports journalism was the career you were interested in?

As a kid, I actually wanted to be the next great play-by-play broadcaster. I used to turn off the audio on my Madden video games and do my own commentary. I was fortunate enough to do that in high school. A local station carried area high school games, and I provided play-by-play and color commentary. So, breaking into sports broadcasting was my goal when I enrolled at Rowan College at Burlington County (RCBC), where I went before transferring to Monmouth.

That all changed during my second semester at RCBC. I was in a class with other communications majors and the professor asked us what, specifically, we wanted to do within our major. I told him play-by-play broadcaster and he said, “You better learn to write.” I had no idea what he meant, so I checked with him after class. He challenged me to find a broadcaster who didn’t have a background in writing. I couldn’t. The next day I signed up for a journalism class and my career took off from there.

Were there any Monmouth professors who helped you along the way?

For broadcasting, Aaron Furgason [’92], Matt Harmon [’96, ’04M], and the late Chris Cavallaro [’95] all worked with me on my delivery in radio, which helped me immensely when my career then went to TV.

The professor who undeniably I owe so much of my career to, though, is John Morano. I cannot put into words how much he meant to me and helped me. I was already working in the field when I took two of his classes. What I appreciated so much about him was that he didn’t look at me and say, “Oh, you’re good for your class. Keep grinding.” He tried everything he could to make me better. I used to take the stories I wrote for the Ledger or Journal Inquirer to him during his office hours. We would tear them apart, word by word, paragraph by paragraph, to make them better. After I graduated, the Star-Ledger hired me as their Jets beat writer. I got that job at 23-years old and was the youngest person in the media room by 10-plus years. I got such a leg up on my competition in large part because of the time Professor Morano invested in helping me get better.

What drew you to covering the NFL specifically?

I was obsessed with football growing up. It was religion in my house. My mom used to have a sign hanging in our kitchen that read, “We interrupt this family for football season.”

I played football when I was a kid and realized then that if there were people on my youth league who were bigger, stronger, and faster, I probably wasn’t making it to the NFL. I saw broadcasting—and eventually writing—as a chance to make a career out of the game I loved as a kid.

You broke your first national news story—Antonio Cromartie signing with the Jets—in 2015 while you were still at Monmouth. How’d you manage that scoop?

Jordan Raanan, who’s now the Giants beat writer for ESPN, was (and still is) one of my biggest mentors in this field. I met him while I was at Monmouth, and one of the first things I asked him was, “How do you get a source?” He explained that some are built over time (mostly on the team side), but you can start developing sources by reaching out to NFL agents. Jordan gave me this big PDF listing every registered agent and a contact number for each, and told me to call every one of them, introduce myself, and then keep in touch with them. Over time, those relationships could prove helpful, he said.

So, I took two days off from class and spent all day calling people on the list (there were hundreds of them). Some hung up on me; some didn’t answer; some laughed me off the phone when they heard, “Connor Hughes, about.com.” But several of them were good people who I’m still close with. One of those agents was Ben Dogra. We talked, and I told him I’d keep in touch.

In the NFL, a major offseason event is free agency, when players whose contracts have expired sign with other teams. I viewed that as my No. 1 spot to break something. Antonio Cromartie was a player many people believed had a chance to return to the Jets; he had played the previous year with the Cardinals. His agent was Ben Dogra.

On the first morning of free agency, I got up at 5 a.m. and sent text messages to every agent I’d spoken with earlier, including Ben. He said I was the first reporter to call him that morning, so I had 15 minutes off the record with him to ask whatever I needed. I called and we chatted. Eventually, we got to the subject of Cromartie. Ben said he believed he’d be signing with the Jets and told me to check in with him every couple of hours because it could happen quickly.

So, I did. I kept texting, and he kept saying nothing new. Eventually, he called me. That offseason the Jets were also interested in Darrelle Revis. Ben was trying to explain to me why Cromartie was a better fit because of his experience. He then asked me, “How old are you?” I think he was trying to get to how I’m more experienced than people younger than me. I said, “I’m 21, Ben.” He responded, “You had the b–ls to call me at 21? You know what? I like you. This break is yours when it happens. Keep your phone on you.”

The next two days I had my phone on me 24/7 waiting for the text. I’m not sure what it’s like in school now, but we couldn’t text or have ours out in class. I had to go to every one of my professors and explain my current situation. Most of them looked at me like I was nuts but told me I could.

Finally, the text came in. “Cro to Jets. Done. Go.” Story broke.

After I graduated, Kevin Manahan, sports director for the Star-Ledger, took me to dinner and asked me to tell him how I broke the Cromartie news. He laughed after I told him that same story. “I needed to know how some kid in college beat my two full-time reporters,” he said. Two weeks later, one of those reporters left and Manahan offered me a job.

How has the work you do evolved over time?

The days of doing one thing are over. You need to be multidimensional. Just look at what I do in my current job: I write columns, features, and breaking news. I then am used on television as both a reporter (to relay the news and what it means) and as a personality (to let the energy shine in a more fun, loose format). I also appear weekly on radio shows and podcasts. Mix in a heavy dose of social media and you have exactly what I love about this job. You wear so many different hats that you don’t get bored.

But you also stay employed by being versatile—you can do everything. That, to me, is the biggest way it’s changed. You can’t “just” be a writer, columnist, reporter, or TV/radio personality—you have to do it all.

Away from football and work, what keeps you busy?

My wife, Brie, and I just had our first! Brooke is 18 months old now, so it’s work or being a dad. Aside from that, I love golf—that’s my true escape.