Now a production manager for ESPN Radio, Nick Cardi knew this was a dream of his since he was a little kid. PHOTO COURTESY OF: Nick Cardi
Growing up, Nick Cardi always knew he wanted his career to revolve around sports. The only question left for him was how.
Now a production assistant at ESPN Radio, Cardi grew up in New York as a fan of the Giants and Yankees during his childhood. As a kid, he would go to his backyard and reenact iconic plays in New York sports for several hours at a time, including David Tyree’s famous helmet catch in Super Bowl XLII against the undefeated New England Patriots.
While he didn’t get involved in covering sports during high school, when the time came to choose where he would further his education, he knew he didn’t want to wait around on the sidelines for his opportunity.
“‘Come join us, and in a year or two, we’ll get you on air,’” Cardi said, quoting what other programs he had considered told him. “But when I got to URI, it was Accepted Students Day, and [I] walked up to the WRIU tent, and they were like ‘yeah, we’ll get you on air. You’ll get opportunities right away.’”
Cardi got involved in WRIU and The Good Five Cent Cigar in his first year. Right away, he developed a close bond with Stone Freeman, the then-RIU2 Sports Director, who now serves as the manager of business development with Rhody Sports Properties. Freeman would become a close friend and “huge influence” for Cardi, who was still uncertain about exactly what career path he wanted to follow.
“Because I went to WRIU, I met Stone,” he said. “Because I met Stone, I was able to get an internship with ABC6.”
While Cardi quickly realized television news was not for him, he continued to pursue opportunities to write and commentate for URI Athletics on WRIU. Along the way, he met a number of like-minded colleagues, including Freeman, Nolan Reilly, Jack O’Marra and Will Pipicelli, all of whom he made connections with at the Cigar and WRIU. Besides being involved in the same organizations, they have all become good friends and regularly keep in contact to this day, according to Freeman.
“They’ll never appear to me as writers, or journalists, or reporters,” Freeman said. “They’re all just my really good friends.”
Cardi’s work ethic is one thing that stood out the most to Freeman, something that continues on with his work at ESPN.
“That’s the stuff that’s super cool to see, is him succeeding,” Freeman said. “He put in a lot of hard work.”
Cardi eventually moved his way up to leading roles in both organizations, becoming the sports editor of the Cigar his junior year in 2018 and WRIU FM sports director the next year as a senior. His time at URI was highlighted by covering games on-site and calling games in front of the mic.
In his junior year, Cardi found his voice going viral thanks to his call of an interception-turned-fumble recovery touchdown in URI football’s 2018 matchup against William & Mary. While Cardi admits it wasn’t his best call, he said it became a worthwhile learning experience in the end.
“You learn from it,” he said. “You’re gonna mess up. It’s gonna happen, no matter what you do.”
Following his graduation from URI in 2020, the pandemic hindered Cardi’s job search for over a year until October 2021, when he landed his first role out of school with ESPN. As a production assistant, no two days on the job look the same, which are conditions he believes he thrives in.
“I don’t like ‘boring’,” he said. “I like to change it up, nothing similar day-to-day.”
Cardi’s roles vary from running the board on weeknight talk shows, producing on weekends and occasionally cutting audio clips together.
In the future, Cardi currently doesn’t have any specific plans on where he will take his career moving forward. While he did most of his work at URI on camera and in front of the mic, he’s now content to continue honing his craft behind the scenes at ESPN.
Reflecting on his time in Kingston, Cardi said he takes pride in knowing that he and his classmates were able to take their opportunities covering sports and pass it on to the current lineup of sports media majors within the Harrington School of Communication and Media — a program that has taken off since its launch in 2019.
“My advice to other students would be to try as many things as you can,” he said. “Even if you’re like, ‘I think I don’t want to do it,’ you never really know until you’re doing it.”