Michael Rothstein joined ESPN’s NFL Nation in 2013 after two years covering the University of Michigan football and basketball teams for the network. He covered the Detroit Lions for eight seasons before moving to Atlanta in 2021 to cover the Falcons. In addition to writing for ESPN.com, Rothstein can be seen and heard on ESPN’s other platforms discussing the NFL and the Falcons. Rothstein also contributes to ESPN’s combat sports and Madden coverage.

Rothstein started his career at the Daily Press in Victorville, California, in 2002, where he covered high schools and the High Desert Mavericks, including a story where he dressed up as the team’s mascot, Wooly Bully. He spent two years at the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia, covering high schools, James Madison women’s basketball, University of Virginia football and Bridgewater College football.

He then spent four years at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette, covering Notre Dame football and basketball along with auto racing. While there, he won two National APSE awards, including a first-place finish for a series on college athletes and eating disorders. He then spent two years at AnnArbor.com covering University of Michigan basketball and football. While at AnnArbor.com, he would sometimes be a guest host on WTKA-AM in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

When Rothstein covered college basketball in Fort Wayne, Ann Arbor and for ESPN, he started the College Basketball Player of the Year poll, which correctly predicted the consensus player of the year every year of its existence until he moved to the NFL before the 2013-14 basketball season.

Rothstein has won numerous USBWA and FWAA writing awards throughout his career. Also, in 2020, Rothstein and his ESPN colleague Seth Wickersham were recognized by the Pro Football Writers of America with a Dick Connor Writing Award for their work on Inside the short, unhappy life of the Alliance of American Football.

Born and raised in East Meadow, N.Y., Rothstein graduated from Syracuse University in 2002.