Sports and journalism are two worlds Lisa Roman has been passionate about from a young age. One on hand, there was something about playing and watching a variety of sports growing up in Philadelphia that solidified her commitment to embarking on a journey of her own in the space. On the other, there was something about writing and telling stories that sparked an interest within her to become a journalist. This was only the beginning. As she gravitated towards soccer throughout her time in high school, Lisa continued to explore ways to merge those two passions of hers. Sure enough, as she began her collegiate career, she did just that. During her time at Marquette University, Lisa played Division I soccer while also pursuing a bachelor's degree in journalism. Upon graduation, she began working with 247Sports as a video editor and doing freelance broadcasting on the side. The rest is history! From video production to sideline reporting to hosting, Lisa has branched out across several areas within sports broadcasting and media since. Currently co-hosting and producing "Attacking Third"—a CBS Sports soccer podcast and digital show that covers the NWSL and U.S. Women’s National Team—while also working with the NWSL as a color analyst, Lisa continues to leave her mark on the industry. Driven by her love for women's sports, the game of soccer, and storytelling, she is looking forward to growing as a broadcaster in the years to come; and helping the game expand as well through her work in the space.
Take us through that journey of tapping into all of these different areas of sports broadcasting and journalism. What has this experience been like for you?
Yeah! It's interesting tapping into all these different parts of it because I think if you told 22-year-old Lisa that she would be doing all these different things, she might be pretty shocked. When I first got those jobs right out of college on-air, it was as a sideline reporter—for soccer, for basketball, I covered baseball a lot as well. I covered everything. I actually didn't even want to cover soccer that much initially. I was burnt out just from playing in college, and I didn't touch a soccer ball for probably a year after. I didn't want to talk about soccer or work in it, so I tried to do a little bit of everything. I hired a talent development coach who helped develop my skills on camera, how to talk about different sports, and how to make sure my conversations and my sentences were succinct. I was saying exactly what I meant with as few words as possible. She's the one that actually pushed me and said, “You know soccer so well, why aren't you analyzing it? What are you doing?” She pulled up a game and she said: “Ok, tell me what they're doing. Why are they doing that?”
She kept asking me questions to explain exactly what was happening while we were watching it; and after about five minutes she was like: “There, you just analyzed the game. Now, you have to make it a little tighter, you have to be better, but that's exactly how you do it.” No one had ever taught me what that was or how to do it. The best way to describe it and explain it is: the play-by-play is driving the bus and saying: “Ok, we're going to make a left turn here. The forward placed it inside to the midfielder and then back to the defender, and it's a turnover, (etc).” The analyst is the one pointing out the window of the bus and describing everything they see, why it happens, and what it is. That's what an analyst is during the game: just looking at it and telling you what's happening. Then of course, there's so many more layers to that but that's like the bare bones of what being an analyst is. My talent development coach pushed me to do that. I then started calling schools, local teams, high schools, and colleges around me that had soccer programs. I mean, everything is digital now so every game is a broadcast, and they need analysts. That's kind of how I started to get more and more jobs. Then, I reached out to the NWSL and they hired me a couple of years ago to be one of their color analysts—all while working and rewatching game tape after game tape after game tape. I mean, so much of the work for a game is prepping. The game, that's only half of it because if you're not watching back on what you're doing and trying to get better, it's almost like a missed opportunity.
Let’s dive now into your work with CBS Sports! You're currently a host, analyst, and producer. Could you share more with us about your work there?
With CBS Sports, my title is a Senior Podcast Producer and then Host & Analyst in addition to that. I launched with them “Attacking Third”—which is a CBS Sports soccer podcast where we talk all about soccer. I'm the producer, I'm the editor of that, and I'm one of the co-hosts. I’m the analyst on the show alongside Sandra Herrera—my other co-host and my partner in crime. We do that show three times a week. It's kind of our little baby because we created it, we developed the name, we developed the artwork. We actually just went through a rebrand to make the artwork a little bit better. I do a lot on that front with CBS; and within CBS Sports, there are so many talented people involved on every aspect of it—from digital to network. Because Sandra and I cover so much of the women's game, when they need analysts or insiders to talk about the game on CBS HQ or things like that, they come to us; which is very cool because although we are just a podcast, I get to do a lot of studio-analyst work with CBS HQ because of the podcast. They kind of go hand-in-hand because I'm an analyst in the NWSL as a league. It's a great gig. I love working for CBS. The people I work for are all very dedicated. They want to do well by the NWSL, by women's (soccer) in general, by the Women's Super League in England, and the US Women's national team. They want to give it the correct coverage and media attention that it deserves, and I'm very fortunate to be able to do that with them on a platform that is CBS. Frankly, I'm just doing something I'm really passionate about every day. I'm not necessarily working, and they give me a platform to talk about it and to do it.
If you could give someone insight into your work and describe a “Day in the Life” in it, how would you describe it to somebody?