Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Ralph Vacchiano, graduated from Syracuse University in 1991. He began his professional career covering the Buffalo Bills for the Niagara Gazette in Niagara Falls, New York. He spent two seasons doing that before moving on for four years covering the New York Giants and the National Football League in general for the North Jersey Herald and News in Passaic, New Jersey. In 1997 he joined the Daily News to cover hockey, first the New York Islanders and then the New Jersey Devils, before returning to cover football in 2001. He is married and lives in West Caldwell, New Jersey with his wife, Kara, and daughter, Alexandra.