Early life and education
Bernstein grew up in Howell, New Jersey. She attended the University of Maryland, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in broadcast journalism, after being a four-time Academic All-America in Gymnastics. She received the Thomas M. Fields award for excellence in academics and sports. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Early career
Bernstein has worked for various radio and television channels: Before her first network job at ESPN. Bernstein made local television history by becoming the “Biggest Little City’s” first-ever female weekday sports anchor at NBC affiliate KRNV-TV in Reno, Nevada. Prior to working in Nevada she was the weekend news anchor in Salisbury, Maryland, at ABC affiliate WMDT-TV. She began her career in broadcasting as the news and sports director of WXJN-FM radio in Lewes, Delaware.
First ESPN stint
Bernstein first joined ESPN in 1995 as its Chicago Bureau Chief, where she covered Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls record-setting championship run (1996–98). She also filed reports for SportsCenter during the Major League Baseball post-season including the World Series (1995–97) and the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, and served as a correspondent for Sunday NFL Countdown and College GameDay.
CBS Sports
Bernstein joined CBS Sports in August 1998 as the lead sideline reporter for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championships and as a feature reporter for The NFL Today. After one season in that role, she was reassigned to the sideline reporter role for the NFL on CBS in 1999 with the then number two crew of Verne Lundquist and Dan Dierdorf, with Dick Enberg replacing Lundquist following the 1999 season, and remained with that crew through 2003. She returned to The NFL Today in 2004 and 2005 while also on sideline duty with the current primary crew of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. Bernstein also covered Super Bowls XXV and XXXVIII for the Network and during Super Bowl XXXVIII, became the first sportscaster in history to serve as sideline reporter for both a network television and network radio as a correspondent, filing reports for CBS Sports/Westwood One Radio.*[1]
Since signing on with CBS/Westwood One Radio in 2001, Bernstein has often pulled "double duty" during the NFL season, covering a Sunday game for CBS and Monday Night Football for radio. In addition to serving as a sideline reporter for Westwood One's Super Bowl announce team, she also served as the network's sideline reporter for the Pro Bowl. It was CBS colleague Dick Enberg who gave Bernstein her nickname of "B-squared."
Bernstein also hosted the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships and CBS' Emmy-nominated anthology series, "Championships of the NCAA," also she served as a studio host for CBS SportsDesk and At The Half, CBS Sports' college basketball halftime studio show.In addition to her roles with the NFL and college basketball, Bernstein also has covered track and field, horse racing and figure skating for the Network and has hosted the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the Hambletonian.
In January 2006, Bernstein left CBS to pursue other broadcasting opportunities and develop Velvet Hammer Media, a company that helps aspiring or working journalists move up to the next level in their careers. She continued to cover the NFL for Westwood One throughout the 2006 season, with her final broadcast being Super Bowl XLI between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears on February 4, 2007.
Return to ESPN
On July 2, 2006, Bernstein rejoined the ESPN family of networks as a field reporter for Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. However, Bernstein revealed in an interview with realhoboken.com, a New Jersey based online magazine, that she switched to ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball coverage on a limited basis for the 2007 season beginning with the April 11 game between the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park due in part to her continuing recovery from deep vein thrombosis in October 2006.
Bernstein also served as a sideline reporter for college football on ABC and ESPN with Brad Nessler, Bob Griese and Paul Maguire for the 2006 and 2007 seasons, but announced on her website that she was leaving sideline reporting prior to the 2008 season to concentrate on studio hosting and in-depth reporting duties, including her role as a substitute host for NFL Live, Jim Rome Is Burning, and Outside the Lines. She has since added College Football Live and First Take to her hosting duties. Bernstein was also the host for the college football pre-Heisman Trophy special Countdown to the Heisman in 2006 and served as a reporter for the live telecast of the Heisman Trophy presentation on ESPN.
1050 ESPN Radio, New York
On Monday, September 14, 2009, Bernstein joined The Michael Kay Show on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York as a co-host and update anchor in her first full-time studio co-hosting role and a content contributor to the station's website. She also recently hosted special programming focused on the New York Jets run through the 2009-10 NFL playoffs, which ended on January 24, 2010 with a 30-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game. She will also contribute content to ESPNnewyork.com, which was launched on April 2, 2010. It was announced on July 19, 2010 that Bernstein has left The Michael Kay Show to become co-host of New York Football Live on 1050 ESPN with former Jets linebacker Greg Buttle beginning July 26, 2010.
Endeavors outside of sportscasting
Bernstein announced on her website in June 2009 that she was elevated to national co-spokesperson for the deep vein thrombosis awareness organization The Coalition to Prevent DVT along with Melanie Bloom, the wife of the late NBC News reporter David Bloom, who died from the blood clot condition while covering the Iraq War in March 2003. As mentioned above, she was diagnosed with the condition in October 2006. Bernstein also guest starred in an episode of the Independent Film Channel semi-scripted series Z Rock that aired in June 2009, stating to a caller to the December 22, 2009 edition of The Michael Kay Show that the guest stint was a "one shot deal." In addition to her public health advocacy work with DVT, her consulting company, Velvet Hammer Media, is collaborating on a campaign to reduce childhood obesity in the US.
