Fox Sports Poaches Tom Rinaldi From ESPN

Tom Rinaldi, one of ESPN’s top on-air reporters, is leaving for Fox, where he is expected to be featured across all of its major events from the Super Bowl to the World Series to the World Cup and college football, according to The NY Post citing sources.

Tom Rinaldi

At ESPN, Rinaldi was probably best known for the poignant features he would do for “College GameDay” and on the sidelines for the national championship. He has worked on most of the major sports for the network with a deep association with golf.

In 2010, Rinaldi conducted the first interview with Tiger Woods after his car accident and subsequent scandal. Rinaldi has also become well known for his touching features, regardless of sport; those have led to him winning three Regional Emmy Awards, three Associated Press Awards and a USA Today Feature-of-the-Year Award.

Rinaldi joined ESPN in 2002 after being a reporter at CNN/SI. ESPN recently had layoffs in which it eliminated 500 positions and let go of 300 employees. Rindaldi was a favorite there, but left at his own discretion.

Over the past year, Fox has been swiping top ESPN on-air people. Among them, Fox has signed Adam Amin, Jonathan Vilma and Emmanuel Acho.