Matthew Sullivan has found a unique way to cope during rough times through his podcast.
By Erin Millann
Sullivan grew up in Staten Island and was considered the golden child in his family, he excelled in football, boxing and baseball and academically gifted, taking AP classes for college early.
However, once he started college at LIU, he lost his spark and watched his GPA take a huge hit which meant he would have been forced to drop out, unless he could find a form of motivation. This came from his grandma who had said her one wish was to see her grandson graduate college but unfortunately, a tragic event meant that Sullivan had a decision to make.
“My grandma had pancreatic cancer, and she passed away August 23rd of last year”, Sullivan said. “That was it, it was my wake-up call, the one thing she had asked of me I didn’t do, I threw it all away for what?”.
Then, just 3 months later, his uncle passed away too. Due to his father’s absence throughout his life, his uncle was the prominent male figure and when he lost both him and his grandma, he was determined to put things right. He recognized that sports were always a passion of his when he was growing up and when one of his old boxing coaches had a space to rent, Sullivan and his friends had an idea, they would start a podcast talking about all things ‘sports’, with a primary focus on football and basketball.
“We started the pod, ‘@BallgamePod’ in October of 2022, but it wasn’t until a year later when we really started taking it seriously, we realized we could turn this into something serious”, said Sullivan. “When the camera flips on, nothing else is even apparent to me… it is what I want to do for the rest of my life”.
Thanks to the focus and confidence that the podcast has given him, Sullivan began to get his life back on track and his first goal was to fulfill his grandma’s wishes. He transferred to CSI from LIU and raised his GPA to over a 3.0. The podcast is now filmed multiple days a week, and boasts over 12,000 followers across all platforms, generating income too.
“The podcast is like therapy for me, I used to look at my friends who are also twenty-three but have graduated and making six figures and it would bother me. But now, I am happy with how I am doing and where my life is going”, Sullivan said. “I think that my grandma and uncle would be proud of me, they helped me realize that potential means nothing if you don’t realize it and thanks to them, I’ve now realized it”.
