Public media has plenty of great calling cards — dramatic storytelling, essential local journalism, beautiful music, and powerful documentaries — but sports coverage isn’t often top of mind. And in a media landscape like Boston, replete as it is with outlets and journalists covering professional and collegiate sports at a granular level, GBH News has had to find its own lane when it comes to the sports beat.
That’s where Esteban Bustillos, our lead sports writer, comes in. With nearly 10 years of reporting experience at GBH News, Bustillos leveraged his lifelong interest in sports to take over as the journalist behind the sports desk. His journalistic instincts tend to lead him off the well-trodden path, in search of angles deeper and more diffuse than your average sports reporter scrambling to finish a story after the final buzzer. From striking concessions workers at Fenway Park, to end-to-end coverage of the 2026 Boston Marathon, and an Andover soccer club founded a century ago, once the best in the country, but now largely forgotten, Bustillos has a knack for unearthing the less explored elements of a sports story.
I’ve worked at other public media outlets, but GBH is the first one I’ve been at with a dedicated sports reporter. We’re so lucky to have Esteban — who’s great at covering the ins and outs of the sports, but also how they affect our local communities.Sam Turken, GBH News' Worcester Reporter
Likewise, Sam Turken, GBH’s Worcester reporter, is drawn to coloring in the marginalia of a story. Together, they’ll tag-team coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 (June 11–July 19), with a special eye on the seven matches to be played in Foxborough and their many attendant preparations and stories.
We sat down with Bustillos to talk about what sets Boston apart as a sports city, why it’s important for public media to cover sports, and GBH’s strategy for covering the world’s most-watched sporting event.
How did you get started at GBH?
I didn’t come to GBH News to cover sports, per se. I actually started on the Higher Ed Desk, but sports has always been my interest. And with everything happening in Boston sports since I started [in 2017], it got to the point where the Newsroom said, ‘Well, we can’t ignore this.’ So my work’s morphed into a sports and general news role.
You’re from Dallas, and grew up a fan of the San Antonio Spurs. What’s different about Boston as a sports town in your experience?
I’ve actually thought about this a lot. Boston’s probably one of only a few places in the country where every sport matters equally. In Dallas, the Cowboys are always at the top of the pyramid — no matter what. The Mavericks can be in the NBA Finals, but if there’s a big Cowboys offseason story, that may lead the news ahead of basketball. Here, everybody really cares if the Bruins are doing well. Same with the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics — Boston cares about every sport at a level that you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
Who are your influences as a journalist?
My favorite writer is Wright Thompson (a senior writer at ESPN, The Cost of These Dreams and The Barn). I read him a lot. Also Shea Serrano (formerly of Grantland and The Ringer, author of Basketball (and Other Things) and Expensive Basketball) — I’ve had the chance to talk to him a couple times. They’re both very good about digging deeper into stories — especially the parts that aren’t as obvious. Which is, I think, what we try to do, too.
That approach to sports coverage is fascinating. Can you expand on that?
I try to focus on aspects that aren’t talked about as much. With the Celtics, for example, they’re so well covered by local, national, and even foreign outlets, that it becomes hard to do something new. So in 2024, I did a piece on Svi Myhailiuk, the second Ukrainian to ever play in the NBA Finals. I think that kind of story makes sense for GBH News.
What are some experiences in your time covering Boston sports that stick with you?
The marathon is always fun. There’s just nothing like it. You have other big marathons — Chicago, New York — but Boston has its own rituals around it that matter. The first one I did was in 2018, and it was pouring rain the whole time. That was an experience. The Boston Fleet have been great to work with as well. I did a story about a Brazilian rodeo in Norton, Mass., which was a really cool experience.
I’m also grateful for my time covering the Celtics — it meant a lot to me to cover the 2024 NBA Finals in my hometown. In the course of the series, it occurred to me that Dallas and Boston aren’t as different as people might think they are, so I wrote about that.
And when Tom Brady retired (for the first time), I walked a mile through a foot of snow to Coolidge Corner Clubhouse [in Brookline] to talk to people. It was during a Nor’Easter. People were happy to be someplace warm, but it definitely changed the mood in the room — everyone was like, ‘Wow, it’s actually over.’
FIFA World Cup 2026 promises to be a behemoth of a journalistic undertaking — lasting more than a month, with seven matches in Foxborough, events across Greater Boston, and over two million tourists flocking into the city. Esteban and Sam, how do you prepare for a project like this?
Esteban Bustillos: Sam and I have already talked about it a bunch. We’re on the same page, trying to capture community stories. How is this going to impact the various groups that have a lot of interest in it? For instance, we have a huge Haitian population in Greater Boston — and Haiti just made the FIFA World Cup for the first time since the 70s. I’ve already done a story about that community’s excitement for the tournament and their games in Foxborough.
We also have a large Brazilian community. Even though the national team isn’t playing here, Brazilians in Mass. are very invested in what their team is going to do. It’ll likely be a big boost for local Brazilian businesses.
There are so many important stories to cover — how folks are navigating the complexities of how astronomically expensive it is to see these games in-person, how people are going to commute to Foxborough, etc. Sam and I have a good sense about how to execute on it.
Sam Turken: My goal is for our content to stand out — for it to be unique and personal. I want to leverage our resources, not just at GBH News, but as a public media network, collaborating with stations in other host cities to cover this tournament in a way that other media outlets won’t.
Story-wise, we want to know who these fans are who are going to the games in Foxborough — whether they’re local or from overseas — and talk to them about what it was like acquiring the tickets, how they feel about it. We plan on having Jeremy Siegel, our Transportation Correspondent, document the experience of fans commuting to and from the stadium. Our Immigration Reporter, Sarah Betancourt, has already started covering how immigrant-owned businesses will benefit from the tourism boom the tournament brings, and how some African-owned businesses feel excluded from those economic benefits.
Why is it important for public media to cover sports?
ST: We don’t just cover sports — we cover sports’ impact on communities. Most sports networks tend to focus on the results, the players, etc., but you don’t get the broader sense of what goes into the game, what it takes to put it on. As public media — because we’re not traditional sports journalists and we’re not beholden to anybody but our audience — we have the opportunity to be a little bit more creative and experimental with how we cover it.
I’ve worked at other public media outlets, but GBH is the first one I’ve been at with a dedicated sports reporter. Initially, I didn’t quite understand it, because I never associated public media with sports. Having been at GBH for four years, I now see how valuable it is. We’re so lucky to have someone like Esteban who’s great at covering the ins and outs of not just the sports, but also how they affect our local communities.
EB: People care about sports. It’s a cliché to say they bring people together, but, I mean, they do. There’s a reason why we care about sports. Plus, they can be a reflection of everything that’s going on around them. There’s so much rapid change in and around them — from sports betting to robotic umpires in baseball, and private equity in ownership. It’s a bellwether for larger issues and movements.
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Read more of the reporting from Esteban Bustillos and Sam Turken, subscribe to the GBH Daily newsletter, and follow GBH News’ comprehensive coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026.
