Alex Day with Saquon Barkley
Whether it was reciting batting averages, yards-per-game, or even the Rangers’ third defensive-line pair, Alex Day has known exactly what he wanted to do since a young age — work in sports.
Day, the New York-based sports media personality, has changed the game of content, making a wave with short-form content in his most recent partnership with Whistle, which hosts his newest show called “Heat Check.”
“Heat Check came about in the last couple of months after seeing so much good trivia content,” said Day. “Sports fans always want to get in on trivia, and having a recognizable format while doing it with Whistle is awesome.”
Prior to Heat Check, Day got his career started as a producer with the Yankees. After being furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic, he began creating rapid-fire sports takes on TikTok and eventually founded his own page, “No Huddle Sports.”
Day then joined the sports media company Overtime in July 2021. Over three years, he became a prominent face of the brand, hosting studio shows and conducting “man on the street” interviews.
Heat Check launched on Feb. 25, in partnership with the sports media company Team Whistle.
The format is built to scale across athletes, major sporting/cultural moments, and Team Whistle talent throughout the year. Heat Check is engineered for how fans actually engage: play-along prompts, confidently wrong answers, and athlete-driven banter that sparks chatter across social platforms.
Team Whistle has been known for its partnership with the highly acclaimed sports media channel Dude Perfect, dating back to 2014, and has been one of the company’s founding partners.
In 2018, Whistle signed an expanded “multi-year pact” specifically to develop longer-form content ventures and push their collaboration onto new digital and television platforms.
Now, eight years later, they shift their focus to short-form content.
“Short-form content was a big initiative for us this year,” said Team Whistle’s president Joe Caporoso. “Which is where the thinking for Heat Check came from.”
Caporoso has been with Team Whistle since 2013, like Alex, serving as a die-hard sports fan. Team Whistle’s goal is to attack sports fandom — focusing on storytelling about sports events and finding ways to humanize people’s favorite athletes.
Team Whistle will run two short-form shows in 2026, including “Bite Club,” a series that brings food to the world of sports. However, Heat Check can be something that sticks around for an extended period.
“There’s a reason we’re not running Heat Check on all the platforms,” said Caporoso. “We want it to have Alex’s face. Establishing that we’re not doing it for just 60 days, a whole year. Can we continue to improve the content? What works today on social media might not work in three months. Ensuring we stay adaptable with that is the goal.”
One of the most unique aspects of Day’s content is that it is all filmed on the streets of New York, delivering authentic moments with strangers and athletes.
“The best part of working in New York is that it’s the most authentic part of myself,” said Day. “I love how New Yorkers feel about their sports.”
Through his channel, Day has interviewed prominent figures, including Amon-Ra St. Brown, Chance the Rapper, Cam Skattebo, and Quinshon Judkins, but one person remains whom he hasn’t interviewed.
“My white whale has always been Derek Jeter.”
To Day, recording content on the streets and working in sports media isn’t just a job — it’s a stepping stone to building connections, the ultimate equalizer.
“Sports help create connections. You see someone in a Giants shirt, say ‘Let’s go Giants,’ and it turns into a conversation,” said Day. “You have 100 Yankees fans wearing 100 Yankees hats; those are people who look pretty unified to me. It’s the great equalizer.”
For more like this Heat Check feature, visit AMNY.com