On Monday, April 14, Rowan University welcomed NBC Sports Philadelphia host and reporter Ashlyn Sullivan for the last Pizza with the Pros of the semester.

Sullivan graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications. While there, she interviewed the university’s football coaches and players at weekly media availabilities and post-game, was a sideline reporter and videographer for all home and postseason games, and wrote, produced, and edited video recaps for ESPN Gainesville.

After graduating, Sullivan spent the next four months as a digital reporter for USSSA and a sideline reporter for NPFTV. After all the hard work she put in at the university, this isn’t where she wanted to be. That all changed when she saw an opportunity to work with the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

“I graduated without a job, felt like a huge loser, went back home with mom and dad. I saw an internship with the Jacksonville Jaguars, it was a production internship, no promises of being on camera. I took it. I wrapped XLR. I held boom mics over Calais Campbell’s head, arms shaking. It was a brutal internship. By the end of it, I was bugging my boss every day to put me on camera. Finally, he let me do some community stories with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and by the end of the internship, they offered me a full-time job as a team reporter,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan proved to the organization that she was capable of handling any task given. She helped out in many other departments with the team, showing that she was more than just a team reporter. Sullivan also acquired a role as a sports reporter for CBS 47/FOX 30 Action News Jacksonville, co-hosting the weekly segment “Cover Three” and live TV show “Jaguars All Access.”

In her sixth year with Jacksonville, Sullivan was actively searching for another job, as she believed she was ready to take that next step in her career. After a year, she got presented with a job opportunity to cover something she’s never covered before.

“Six seasons went by, and I knew I was ready for my next step. Took about a year to find this next job, and they say it’s when you least expect it. I was working with an agency that was trying to find me a new gig. He called me and asked me how I felt about hockey in Philadelphia. I was like, I drive a truck, from the south, not a big hockey market, no shot they pick me. Sure enough, they did,” Sullivan said. 

Sullivan struggled in her first month with the team, but after studying the sport, team, players, and being around the environment so much, she became an expert in no time. However, she had no desire to stay strictly covering hockey, rather using it as a path to get to where she really wanted to be, which was covering a big market football team such as the Philadelphia Eagles.

“It was a huge risk. I had so many people tell me that I shouldn’t take this gig here in Philadelphia. I had a full-time job in the NFL, working in sunny Jacksonville, making a good salary and having good health insurance. They were like, ‘Why are you going to move to Philadelphia, part-time hockey, a job that you don’t know?’ It was just something in me that knew if I took the swing and got to this big-time sports market, somehow I was going to cover football. I didn’t know how, but I remember one of my coworkers telling me to take that swing and see what happens,” said Sullivan.

It’s safe to say that Sullivan knocked it out of the park. In the last two and a half years working with NBC Sports Philadelphia, she’s been a host of Flyers pre- and postgame live, rinkside reporter for their broadcast, host of Eagles Birds Huddle, and reporter for their practice and game coverage. In less than a year working in Philadelphia, she received an opportunity from the Eagles themselves, becoming the Redzone Gameday host in the stadium and fill-in host on Postgame Show and Eagles Gameplan on NBC10.

Sullivan still works for NBC Sports Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Eagles. She also currently serves as an on-air host for Sports Radio 94WIP in Philadelphia and is the co-host of Audacy Sports podcast “South Philly Sauce”.

Sullivan’s work ethic and determination to be the best at everything she does has played a huge part in why she is where she is today. Students in attendance learned that in order to be successful in not only sports, but anything in life, you need to be fully committed and be willing to take risks. Without taking risks, you’ll never know how far you can go.

Pizza with the Pros will resume in the fall, with plenty more guests to come.

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