Baltimore man celebrates three decades of sports industry success
BALTIMORE -- It's a dream job for an avid sports fan: travel coast to coast across the U.S. every week, attend the best sporting events and get paid for it.
It can be hard work, but it's a labor of love for one Baltimore man.
WJZ Sports Director Mark Viviano met Russ Dlin three decades ago when he was fresh out of college and eager to get a job in television sports.
He achieved that goal in no time. Since then, he has traveled millions of air miles and attended thousands of sporting events—and he has no plans to stop any time soon.
On the rare occasion that Dlin is home in Maryland, he's typically in front of a computer scouring the internet for sports statistics and information while writing detailed notes.
Dlin shares those notes and statistics with game broadcasters for CBS Sports and ESPN.
His fall schedule is filled with college games every Saturday and NFL games on Sunday.
In the winter, he focuses on basketball games. In the spring and summer, lacrosse games have his attention. Dlin attends sporting events 47 weekends a year.
This sports gig is Dlin's "side hustle." He has a full-time job in hotel sales.
"It's uh, let's put it this way, honestly, the last day I've had off was June 1," Dlin told Viviano. "That was the last day I had off, and it's now January what? Something? Whatever it is."
The accumulation of press credentials is a reminder and a road map of where Dlin has traveled. He has worked games in 49 of the 50 U.S. states. Alaska is his only outlier.
How many games has Dlin worked? The estimate is roughly 4,000 with well over a million frequent flier miles to show for it. For Dlin, it's all worth the work on game day.
"I feel the energy of the crowd and I'm like, wow, this is such a great environment to be at," he said. "It's unbelievable. I shake my head sometimes because I realize wow- I get to experience this."
Dlin has the enthusiasm of a spectator, but he is a key player on game day. He feeds statistics and information to the play-by-play person and color commentator. His information and timing are top notch, and that's what has kept him on the job for 30 years.
"Being in an NFL booth on Sundays is like being in controlled chaos," CBS sportscaster Spero Dedes said. "So, if you have someone next to you who trust implicitly as I do—Russ, who knows what I need before I even ask him the question. . . It could be a certain number on Lamar Jackson. It could be something on John Harbaugh's defense. He just instinctively knows what I need when I need it and it's there for me. And you can't put a price on that, you can't put a premium on that. It's the reason he's one of the best out there."
Dlin loves his job. He said he enjoys the work and the personal connections that he gets to make.
"I grew up idolizing a lot of these broadcasters, and now I get a chance to work with them or worked with them over the years," Dlin said. "I gotta pinch myself sometimes. I'm like, wow, I grew up watching these broadcasters. All of the sudden, I'm doing games with them. Like what? You know, and I've become friends with a lot of them. It's really the relationships over the years.
Dlin has some advice for those who dream of entering the sports world.
"Do your work; do what you're supposed to do," he said. "Go above and beyond the call of duty, and you'll last in this business a long time."
