“Coming into this job I was like, I cannot be so hard on myself because I will diminish myself so fast,” said 28-year-old Rachel Herzog on her quick start as a host and analyst for MSG Networks less than a year ago. “It was such a dramatic jump, and that doesn’t happen that often.”
Herzog packed her bags and moved to New Jersey from Minnesota in just three weeks after getting an offer to cover the New Jersey Devils. With help from two friends already living in New Jersey, she found an apartment and settled in.
Herzog had to quickly adjust from covering high school and college level sports to stepping into the world of professional hockey. Her position calls for her to provide analysis and interview professional hockey players, as well as host a talk show for thousands of New Jersey Devils fans.
The quick rise to industry recognition did not come without criticism. “The fanbase hangs on every word you say, so if you say something stupid, they’re calling you out for it,” Herzog said.
As a woman taking a position in professional sports, Herzog had fears of “being overly sexualized,” but thus far has found “it was almost the other way around because now that is more normalized.”
Herzog states that from multiple sources, she has heard only great things about her team, and she has never felt put down or uncomfortable by working in a male-dominated field.
“Bryce Salvador, who I work with very closely, has been amazing to work with. He has been so supportive, and helpful, and never made me feel like I was inferior or silly when I messed up. He was always super encouraging, and I think I really needed that in the beginning,” she said.
“I think for me as a girl feeling cared for, and appreciated, and knowing that I’m contributing more than what was initially expected out of this position, has been helpful,” Herzog said.
Herzog explained that looking at the comments left on social media for other women in the industry leaves a bad taste in her mouth about the way people can perceive women in sports.
“I get those things on social media more than anything, but I don’t have any of that with my coworkers if anything they are very defensive. So, they have my back in those regards. They have brought security up to the suite before because there were weird people hanging out.”
Of course, she hasn’t completely escaped the negative perceptions. “People will be like ‘why aren’t you wearing heels…’, I’m like, I don’t want to,” Herzog said. “It’s just the expectations of, OK, well you’re a woman in sports, you’ve got to kind of live up to the standards of what men want from you, and that’s kind of all they want to see from you.”
“I did high school tournaments for basketball and hockey, and the high school student sections would make shirts and signs, and scream at me while I’m doing my live hit on the air,” she said.
Herzog said people are starting to appreciate her contributions to the broadcast and can see that she knows what she is talking about regarding the Devils. “That’s more so coming to the forefront rather than what I wear or what I look like,” she said.
Herzog didn’t always plan a career in sports. She was a biomed student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, playing for St. Clouds women’s hockey team, when she got the opportunity to participate in the school’s large broadcasting program.
“I clearly figured out that the biomed thing wasn’t working out for me. It was just such a busy schedule, with my hockey schedule as well, and just wasn’t fulfilling what I needed,” Herzog said. “The girl that was the ice side reporter at the time, I had gotten closer with her.”
As they became closer, Herzog would talk about how biomed was not for her, and she suggested Herzog explore broadcasting due to her personality and people skills. “I never really gave it any thought. In high school, I was like ‘Oh that would be cool, but I could never do it.’
“’I just never considered it, and I didn’t know what I wanted to go into and that was the one influence that I had, so I kind of just jumped into it with no prior knowledge of what it really entailed. She influenced me enough to give it a try.” Herzog said.
Herzog stayed in college for an extra two years to get more experience through the school before landing a job in Fargo, North Dakota, where she covered various high school and college sports and athletes. “Obviously as I got further into this industry I was like, OK, I don’t want to be covering high school sports my whole life.”
“I knew that I would need to kind of work my way up and take the steps you need. It’s kind of just, you got to go through the growing pains of the industry, and typically that’s a lot longer than a year and a half to two years,” she said.
Herzog got a call from her old boss from St. Cloud where he told her a position for the New Jersey Devils was opening up. Despite doubts in her experience and living a distance from New Jersey, she was all in. Herzog stayed up after work from 5 a.m. to update her resume and applied for the job.
“I didn’t hear back for two weeks, and I just figured, OK, yeah, they saw my basketball coverage and laughed it off and moved on,” Herzog said. “I was out shopping, and I get an email back that was like ‘Hey Rachel, can I call you in an hour?’ and I rushed home.”
Herzog then spoke with Chris Guijarro, the senior coordinating producer for MSG Networks, where she shortly heard back from him again, and then got invited to New York for an audition for the job. At the interview, she had to go over specific topics, talk about players, etc. “I don’t know a lick about any of these players, or even how to pronounce their names,” Herzog said about where she stood when she landed the audition.
As the nerves kicked in, she studied the team until the day came to leave for New York. Herzog attended the audition, got good feedback, including that she showed confidence, and flew home the next day. Two and a half weeks later, she got the call, and the job.
“I think the big thing I have been worried about all year is that this is a one-year contract for me,” Herzog said. “They’ll have to rediscuss do they want to hire me again, and if they don’t, I have to start looking again.”
