By Robert C. Jones Jr.
3-5-2025
This story originally appeared in News@TheU

Soccer, not football, reigned supreme in the childhood household of former Miami Hurricanes star linebacker Jonathan Vilma. Inspired by his Haitian-born parents, he adored the sport, playing it from the age of 5 up until high school.

But football beckoned. Vilma had long yearned to play the game, a desire his father discouraged out of fear his son would get injured.

“Finally, he said I could play,” recalled Vilma, who started competing in the sport at Coral Gables Senior High School. “The seasons ran concurrently, so I couldn’t play soccer. But I think I chose the right sport, and I did all right.”

“All right” meant attending the University of Miami on a football scholarship and helping the Hurricanes win the 2001 BCS National Championship. Winning First-Team All-American honors. Being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. Capturing Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. And winning a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints.

Tuesday, during a fireside chat at the Cosford Cinema with Miami Herald sportswriter and University alumna Michelle Kaufman, Vilma—also a member of the University’s Board of Trustees—shared with a group of students why he “bleeds orange and green,” the challenges he faced on the collegiate and professional gridiron, the role of media in sports, and his life after football as a successful color analyst.

The talk, supported by a gift from the Freedland family, kicked off the School of Communication’s new Sports Media Speaker Series and marked the genesis of future programming aimed at providing students with real-world experience in the growing sports media industry.

Growing up, Vilma was an avid Hurricanes fan. “You talk about bleeding orange and green,” he said glowingly of the U. “I didn’t even have a favorite NFL team. I didn’t really care about the [Miami] Dolphins. I would watch former Hurricanes who were playing for different NFL teams, and I wanted to be like them.”

Legendary Hurricanes linebacker and NFL Hall of Famer Ray Lewis was his favorite. “I loved the way he played—the passion and energy he brought to the game,” Vilma said. “I get to [the University of Miami], and he comes down in the offseason, and I’m just awestruck. We would talk. He would teach me the game. And because of that, it made me love Miami even more.”

Vilma’s collegiate and pro careers were, in many aspects, similar to Lewis’s. But to let Vilma tell it, football wasn’t always in the cards.

“Frankly, I thought I was going to Wall Street,” said Vilma, who graduated with a 3.5 grade point average and earned a degree in finance. “I interned my junior year with the now-defunct [global financial services firm] Lehman Brothers. Everything was really on course as far as academics and on course to not go to the NFL.”

He credited his parents for his academic success. “If I had anything less than a B, I couldn’t play,” Vilma said.

Practicing alongside the likes of future NFL Pro Bowlers that included safety Ed Reed and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork made college gamedays easier. “There were truly practice weeks that were tougher than the games,” Vilma said.

Today, Vilma is a color analyst for FOX Sports. He previously spent four years at ABC and ESPN.

Kaufman—who, during a journalism career has covered everything from soccer, college sports, and tennis to the Olympics, six World Cups, and numerous Super Bowls, Final Four championships, World Series, and NBA Finals—asked Vilma how the skills he learned in the NFL have helped in his broadcasting career.

“It’s about setting a schedule,” said Vilma, explaining that much like he did to prepare to play on Sunday, he sets a pre-broadcast routine and sticks to it—from attending production meetings, interviewing players and coaches, “reading the tea leaves” from the producer and director, and huddling with his partner in the broadcast booth, FOX play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert.

But with every sports franchise and numerous professional athletes now having their own website and Twitter and Instagram accounts, is the media becoming irrelevant?

“No, we still need the media,” said Vilma said, noting that the social media platforms of different teams and players provide only a narrow lens of a sport. “ESPN will never go away because ESPN covers everything about sports,” Vilma said.

He encouraged the School of Communication students in the audience who would like to have a career in sports media to have mentors and to learn as much as they can about the intricacies of sports.

Kaufman echoed those sentiments while also lobbying for a dedicated sports media program at the School of Communication.

“This is a major league city—a city that has the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer. Lionel Messi, the greatest [soccer] player of all time, is in our backyard. We have Formula 1, we have NASCAR, and we have the Miami Open tennis tournament,” Kaufman said. “If you are a student interested in sports media or sports marketing, there is no better market than Miami, and that’s why I think it’s really important and vital that this University continue to be committed to growing the sports media component of the School of Communication.”