Life During Lockdown: Yogi Roth
When I first met Yogi he had just stepped down as the quarterbacks coach for the USC football team, and he was working for Pete Carroll’s foundation. Together we set up a partnership between Pete and the LA Marathon, where I worked. The best thing about that initiative was my lasting friendship with Yogi. I’m attracted to his passion for life, his love of travel, and the joy he finds in telling stories. Now, as the lead football analyst on Pac-12 Networks, he’s the “voice of West Coast football.” If you can, read his autobiography, listen to his podcast, or follow him on social media. Like I tell my friends, “We all need a little Yogi in our lives.”
Give me some highlights and lowlights from your first month in lockdown mode
As a coach, I’ve always enjoyed teaching quarterbacks and as an analyst teaching is what I get to do each Saturday on the Pac-12 Networks. I didn’t realize it when schools were canceled but the 20 years of broadcasting and coaching have allowed me to transition to pre-school teaching with a ton of joy. I don’t know exactly how to teach reading or mathematics but using sports as a backbone with our 5-year old, Zayn, has been the highlight of the quarantine. The lowlights began when reading alerts each day on my phone or watching the news before bed. Learning about people losing their lives, their jobs and their loved ones was crushing so we altered when we consume the news and made sure that our days began and ended with movement, laughter and some Larry David.
How have you grown personally and professionally during this disruption?
Being optimistic has not been difficult during this time but finding ‘meaning’ in my day was the greatest journey during COVID-19. I began this quarantine by trying to create content at a rapid rate: podcasts, YouTube video’s, game analysis, radio interviews and more. After the first two weeks I laid down next to my wife, Amy, and was exhausted. She looked at me and said, ‘why are you doing so much?’ I didn’t have an answer. The next day a friend and fellow creative, Joe Towne, and I began to chat about the world and what was happening. He reminded me what the 5 stages of grief were (denial, anger, depression, bargaining, acceptance) as we discussed the collective grieving the world was in. We then spoke of the 6th stage: meaning. That word struck a cord within me. It was on me to find true meaning in my work, and most importantly, to recognize that some things do not ‘mean’ as much as I thought pre-Coronavirus. I sat down at my desk the following morning and got honest with myself about which creative outlets meant the most to me. That process allowed me to simplify my tasks, give myself more time with my family and find true meaning during this time.
Has your relationship with college football and sports changed as a result of being home alone with no broadcasts on the calendar?
The form of my relationship with the greatest game on earth has changed as there is no spring football but the essence has not. I would have been on the road all of March and April calling games, meeting new coaches and learning about the next wave of star QBs out west. That, along with the NFL Draft, have been completely altered but it’s allowed me to dive deeper into the game. There may not be actual practice film to analyze but I have gone back to last years film to gain a deeper understanding of players strengths and areas of growth, had more phone calls with coaches to learn about their philosophies and approaches to the game and have studied my personal craft of broadcasting with detail. Also, due to technology it’s been a blast to create content for the Pac-12 Networks podcast, Pac-12 Perspective and my own, by interviewing draft prospects via zoom and more. Like my Dad always taught me, ‘man is made to move and we move through things.’ So that’s what I’m trying to do: move through this time with grace and learn a ton along the way. Just from my home vs a college campus.
Can storytellers like yourself create positive change in the world during the pandemic?
I’m a firm believer that when one is given or earns a microphone and a platform to speak they have to embrace that burden of responsibility. That responsibility in storytelling is to create and share stories. Whether it’s ideating a story to tell when on-site production is allowed, sharing via podcasting or being inspired by the Chicago Bulls documentary we must create. Ideas and thoughts enter our minds, positive and negative, and we must get them out in whatever form lights us up.
