Award-winning journalist Sam Borden joined ESPN in February 2017 as a writer and television contributor. A global correspondent and senior writer, he focuses on enterprise and investigative stories spanning international soccer, the NFL, the Olympics, and the NBA. He has reported from more than 40 countries, with his written work featured on ESPN.com and, previously, in ESPN The Magazine, while his television stories appear on E:60, Outside The Lines, SC Featured, and SportsCenter.

His notable multiplatform storytelling includes an Emmy-nominated piece on Chapecoense, the Brazilian soccer team devastated by a tragic plane crash in 2016. That written feature earned an APSE award, a Dan Jenkins Medal nomination, and was selected for The Best American Sports Writing. Additional standout work includes an investigation into Russian hooliganism ahead of the 2018 World Cup, a cover story on Lionel Messi, and an E:60 profile of former NBA player-turned-apple-farmer Darko Milicic.

He also spearheaded ESPN’s multimedia project Invisible, which examines the experiences of sports fans with non-apparent disabilities. The piece won 1st Place (Division A Projects) from APSE and received nominations for both a Webby Award and a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Experience.

Throughout his ESPN tenure, Borden has covered major global sporting events, including the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, the Yankees–Red Sox series in London, the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, the FIFA presidential election, and numerous U.S. National Team matches.

Prior to ESPN, Borden was a sports reporter at The New York Times from 2011-17 focused on international soccer and the NFL. During that time, he was The Times sports section’s first European correspondent, based in Paris from 2013-16. He traveled the continent to report features and investigations and was part of the team that won numerous awards for investigative efforts in the FIFA corruption scandals. He also wrote several award-winning features, including a profile of the last man to beat Floyd Mayweather and his spiral into poverty in rural Bulgaria, and contributed to coverage of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.

Borden began his journalism career in 2002 as the Yankees beat writer for the New York Daily News. He was also a sports columnist at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville (2006-08) before moving onto a columnist position at The Journal News from 2008-11.

Borden’s E:60 piece on the Nigerian women’s bobsled team from the Pyeongchang Olympics won a Gracie Award for best sports feature in 2019, while his Russian hooligans story was part of the E:60 submission that won an Emmy for best sports anthology in 2018. In addition, Borden’s writing has been featured in The Best American Sports Writing series on several occasions and he has won numerous awards in the Associated Press Sports Editors annual writing contests, including one during each year he served as a New York Times foreign correspondent.

A native of Larchmont, N.Y., Borden earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Jewish studies from Emory University, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Fairfield University.

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