Roger James Bennett is a broadcaster, podcaster, and filmmaker, who has, through Men in Blazers, become one of the most prominent football broadcasters in the United States. Along with Michael Davies, Men in Blazers has turned a weekly Premier League podcast into a popular television show on NBCSN and digital content brand covering multiple sports including women’s soccer, golf, and the NHL.The duo have written a New York TimesBest Selling book, released clothing collaborations with a slew of designers, and travelled the nation on sold-out live tours celebrating soccer, which they call “America’s Sport of the Future… as it has been since 1972.”
Career
Men in Blazers
The podcast began on the Grantland network in 2011 and quickly established itself as the most popular football podcast in North America. Regular guests included Billy Beane, John Oliver, Andrew Luck, and bands like The National, Vampire Weekend, and Mumford and Sons, all of whom would come on to discuss their footballing passions. After becoming a cult hit on ESPN during the 2014 World Cup, the duo signed with NBCSN to create a weekly half-hour television show "Men in Blazers" which covers the English Premier League. It debuted on 15 September 2014, and is filmed in a studio in the SoHo area of New York City, which Bennett refers to as “The Panic Room.” The show celebrates Premier League storylines week to week. Bennett interviews a celebrity in the final third of each episode. His guests have included Will Ferrell, Laura Linney, DeAndre Hopkins, Killer Mike, Rory McIlroy, Diplo, and Alex Morgan.
Other Sports
Empowered by the popularity of the Men In Blazers football coverage, Bennett and Men In Blazers, along with his production partner, Jonathan Williamson, have gone on to create content on NFL, golf, where they cover the British Open and The Presidents Cup, and the NHL.
Every summer, Bennett and Davies tour the nation playing a stream of live tours which bring together footballing loving Americans in a theater setting with guests including Waka Flocka, Sam Darnold, and Julie Ertz. The tours were the subject of a "Real Sports" feature on HBO.
In 2017, Bennett launched an annual three-part television series on NBC, entitled ”The Promoted” where he visits the cities of every newly promoted Premier League teams to tell the story of their journey to the Premier League and the culture that surrounds the club. 2017's episodes were Newcastle United F.C., Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. and Huddersfield Town A.F.C.. 2018 featured Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Cardiff City F.C., and Fulham F.C.. 2019 had Norwich City F.C., Sheffield United F.C., and Aston Villa F.C..
Podcasts
American Fiasco
In 2018, Bennett partnered with WNYC to create American Fiasco, a 10-part series that followed the rise and fall of US Soccer’s World Cup dreams in 1998, when the American squad believed that after successfully hosting the 1994 tournament, nothing could stop them from going to the next one and winning it all. The series was described as "part love letter to the American game, and part forensic accounting of the nation’s inability to fulfill its dreams in the global game." It reached Number One on iTunes in its debut week.
Women in Blazers
Bennett has taped films with US Women World Cup winners including Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn, and Lindsey Horan. In September, 2019, Bennett launched a podcast dedicated to the National Women’s Soccer League, which has featured interviews with Sam Kerr and Emily Sonnett.
Wayne Rooney podcast
After Wayne Rooney filmed a Men in Blazers Special with Rog, the duo went on to tape a regular monthly podcast, "The Wayne Rooney Podcast" whilst Rooney was in the United States.
HBO's ''Succession'' podcast
In July 2020, Bennett produced and hosted an eight-part podcast series for HBO. Airing weekly, each episode featured an interview between Bennett and a member of the cast of Succession discussing the series in anticipation of its third season.
Books
Bennett has published books on a slew of eclectic topics including Bar Mitzvah Disco, a book on Bar Mitzvah photographs of the 1980s, which he wrote with Nick Kroll, and Everything You Know is Pong, which he wrote with Eli Horowitz about table tennis.
Other projects
In 2010, he created the architectural design competitionSukkah City with journalist Joshua Foer. Bennett is also co-founder of a record label, Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation, that has tracked down lost music from the 1950s and 60s and reissued it including BAGELS AND BONGOS and BLACK SABBATH. In 2018, he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about Wayne Rooney A lifelong fan of the Chicago WhiteSox, Bennett threw out the first pitch on August 29, 2019.
Personal life
Bennett married Vanessa Kroll, daughter of Kroll Inc. founder Jules Kroll, in 2000. His brother-in-law is comedian Nick Kroll. Bennett is Jewish. In 2014, he announced he would be becoming a naturalized US citizen based upon the United States men's national soccer team's progress in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Bennett became a US citizen on 1 June 2018. Bennett is a longtime supporter of Everton F.C., which plays in the English Premier League. Bennett is also a fan of the Chicago Bears and the Chicago White Sox. He is fond of Tracy Chapman and tweed.
