‘MY DECISION’

Michele Tafoya Finally Ditches NFL Sideline Reporting for GOP Politics

The sports reporter, who sparked backlash for her combative stint on ‘The View,’ has now jumped headlong into Republican politics.

It almost seemed inevitable. Longtime NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is done with sports broadcasting and will now enter conservative politics.

After working the sidelines of Sunday night’s Super Bowl, Tafoya told The Athletic that she had wrapped up her career as a full-time sports reporter and that she would immediately co-chair Republican businessman Kendall Qualls’ campaign to become Minnesota’s governor.

Tafoya isn’t going to stop there, either. She is also slated to appear at this month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida and said she will also make the rounds as a pundit. Already this week, Tafoya is scheduled to appear on former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s podcast and the Fox News late-night show hosted by Greg Gutfeld.

Tafoya told The Athletic it was “absolutely” her own decision to walk away from sports and NBC. (It was reported late last year that she had intended to walk away at the season’s end.) Additionally, she claimed NBC convinced her to stay after she gave them her notice to leave three years ago—and after the pandemic hit, Tafoya says she stuck around so as not to make things more complicated for the network.

“So, this is all my decision,” she declared. “Everyone at NBC will back me up on that. They have always told me I can stay as long as I want. For me, I have to make my move while I've still got the energy to do other things and have an impact. I don't want to wait.”

Tafoya further said that she wants to steer away from sports reporting because she feels she “was not as free to be as vocal about world events” that she is concerned about.

“It’s not because I was told to shut up,” Tafoya added. “I want to be very clear about that. But look, if you’re on a show like Sunday Night Football, which is the No. 1 show in prime time for 11 straight years—unprecedented—the last thing they want to do is invite controversy.”

During the NFL regular season, speculation arose that Tafoya had been sidelined by the network over her combative guest-hosting stint on ABC’s The View. While appearing as the resident conservative panelist, Tafoya taunted the daytime talk show’s live audience in November to “bring it on” after they groaned over her remarks about former NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick.

An NBC spokesperson at the time pushed back on the notion that reaction to her View appearance contributed to any absences on Sunday Night Football, noting that her off weeks were “determined prior to the season” and “any other speculation about her time off is blatantly false.”

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Justin BaragonaSenior Media Reporter

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