BY: Zola Reeves

To millions of television viewers across Canada, Jason Portuondo is the most trusted man in sports. Each night, Portuondo recaps the scores and highlights on Rogers Sportsnet Connected, bringing a fresh new vibe to the sports TV landscape. Sway caught up with Portuondo in Toronto.

How did you get started in the industry?
Well, to be honest with you, growing up I had no idea what I wanted to do. I followed the path of post-secondary education and ended up taking commerce at the University of Toronto, but really didn’t enjoy the program. While I was at U of T, I had a friend who was in charge of the radio station and she needed someone to co-host a sports show. I decided to give it a chance and that was really my first step towards broadcast journalism. After U of T, I went to college to hone my broadcasting skills and ended up getting a job at 680 News.

As so much of this city’s sports coverage is geared toward hockey and other traditionally white sports, what is it like being a black sports journalist in Toronto?
It’s interesting. Sometimes I get the feeling that because I am a black journalist people think I should be more geared towards basketball or baseball. I still feel there is somewhat of a stereotype, people thinking “well what could he know about hockey?” In fact, hockey is one of my strongest sports. I’ve never had any issue when it comes to the athletes; I think it’s more of a public perception.

What is it that makes sports so popular for people in countries all around the world?
First of all, sport is an escape. It’s not like the general news. I tell people all the time that you could pay me a million dollars and I would not do news. For me, the news is just too depressing. Sport is a release and an escape, for half an hour; I can take people’s minds off of the economy, job losses and tragedy of the day. It’s entertainment and it gives you a chance to break away from reality.

You’ve connected with a lot of sports personalities — who is the most memorable?
Not for good reasons, but probably Vince Carter. Vince and I always used to butt heads. Every time he saw me coming he’d turn the other way. I would always dig into him about things he didn’t want to talk about, whether it was a potential fight with Sam Mitchell or a player saying that he was not giving his all. I called him out on that. He’d give me dirty looks. Every time we’d buck up on each other it would be like “oh boy, here we go again.”

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