The Rinaldi frame: the NCAA, College Gameday, and the commodification of Black hardship

Abstract

This study examines Tom Rinaldi’s work for ESPN and College Gameday and the discursive framing of NCAA ‘student-athletes’, primarily Black athletes. The research unpacks what constitutes this ‘Rinaldi Frame’ and the implications of the frame on college sports. At the core of this frame are the familiar ‘bootstrap’ stories and the overcoming of hardship or economically depressed situations at a young age. This is part of the commodification of Black athletes–their labor and pain. To achieve the objectives of this work, the authors evaluate several seasons of ESPN’s College Gameday programming, with a specific focus on the Tom Rinaldi short story pieces. Findings suggest that there is indeed a formulaic frame and portrayal applied all too often to Black college football players in the service of sports and media institutions such as the NCAA and ESPN. Furthermore, the profiteering from these storytelling modes perpetuates misguided narratives regarding Black college football players and all college athletes.

Keywords:

• Sport
• media
• race
• Black hardship
• Tom Rinaldi
• NCAA
• College Gameday
• framing
• qualitative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).