The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526802
OCTOBER 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 61 ❱ WHERE ARE THEY NOW? which was my lifelong dream, and to go to the NFL, which was a lifelong dream, that the best chance to do that would be to transfer in to play elsewhere. "But I had already put in two years of equity into the football program and into my Michigan education. And a big reason that I decided to stay beyond just those guys were my brothers. … I still thought, 'Hey, maybe just like in high school, that was a wrong offense for me, but maybe I can still find a way to be the starting quarterback here and help Michigan beyond all of that.' "I thought, this is the type of place at Michigan that if I'm good enough, I can still go to the NFL no matter what. NFL scouts can find you here at Michigan. If I end up not being good enough, then it is what it is. I'll still have had a Michigan degree that I can lean on." Cone played in four career games at U-M — two each in 2007 and 2009 — before starting the next chapter of his life. Coaching was on the table, and his parents thought he might go to law school. He chose a different path. "I was really looking at the digital media landscape, thinking I could be good at this," Cone said. "The industry is booming, and everywhere you look at some screen, someone had to produce those things, direct that, edit that. "I got a chance to go to Atlanta right after graduating and I got some really cool opportunities early because peo- ple like my sports background. I got to produce commercials for the PGA of America, the Atlanta Falcons. I got to produce video content for Blue Chip Media Solutions. And some of that [was] at Michigan. So, I got to go back for the night games against Notre Dame. "I got to just cut my teeth at differ- ent production companies and market- ing firms, and I work with some huge brands. And so that kind of led me to starting my own video production com- pany, working with just a lot of different clients around the country, even inter- nationally." Fast-forward to 2024, and Cone is a co-host and producer for "Crain & Company," on The Daily Wire network along with Jake and Blaine Crain. "I got the chance to meet Jake, who had coached football as well, and his brother, too. When COVID hit, so much changed around the world. They kind of were in a situation where they couldn't go back to campus and coach because of COVID. But these are the type of guys who never just sit around and twiddle their thumbs. "Jake had launched this podcast. He had a lot of inside recruiting informa- tion, having been in the industry, and that really skyrocketed and took off, but it was audio only and we got introduced by a marketing executive in Atlanta who said, 'Hey, you have a college football podcast. David shoots video and played college football. You guys should link up.' "Things just really took off, and we got a chance to work with Colin Cow- herd's network at The Volume, which was awesome. Ben Shapiro at The Daily Wire reached out to us in 2022 and said he loved the show that we had put to- gether, would you consider moving to Nashville if we acquired it? "For the decision to be that easy is kind of remarkable considering I had just gotten married. My wife was preg- nant with our first son, and we were like, 'Yeah, this is an awesome oppor- tunity.' Let's just really double down on the college football space and just sports media in general. It's kind of the inter- section of the two things that I've spent my most of my life on, which is football and media. "It's proven to be a really great deci- sion." Like most of his Wolverine peers, the time he spent in Ann Arbor set the foundation for everything that came after it. And sticking it out proved to be the right decision. "My time at Michigan laid the foun- dation for everything that I've been able to do professionally," Cone said. "Play- ing football writ large has been so help- ful just in terms of the discipline, punc- tuality and everything that you need to be successful in life, but specifically at Michigan. … Playing at that high of a level where there's no margin for error, that's why I was able to achieve in the professional space so early. "I'm forever indebted to being able to be a part of that program. I'm doing what so many of us do now, which is trying to make Michigan proud of our professional lives." ❏ Cone has been the producer and a co-host of the "Crain & Company" sports talk show on The Daily Wire since 2022. PHOTO COURTESY DAVID CONE ❱ The David Cone File Michigan Highlights: Member of U-M football team from 2006-09, playing in 4 career games … Went 4-for-6 passing for 76 yards in his collegiate career. Professional Highlights: Producer and co-host of "Crain & Company" on The Daily Wire (2022-present). Favorite Michigan Memory: "Russell Crowe gave us a pregame speech before we played Notre Dame my sophomore year. And that would have just been cool on its own. Right? I mean, so many of us are 'Gladiator' fans. And we got that opportunity because we had screened 'Cinderella Man' the year before for one of our Friday night movies." Favorite Place On Campus: "It's always going to be food-related. I'm a big Maize and Blue Deli fan. Big DiBellas Subs fan for sure. Mr. Spot's, spent a lot of time over there. Big Ten Burrito. All of those places are my favorites." Family: Darbi Lou (wife), Adam (son), Ava and Mary Marie (daughters), Carl and Diana Cone (parents).