Kevin C. Cox
It nearly appeared inevitable. Longtime NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is finished with sports activities broadcasting and can now enter conservative politics.
After working the sidelines of Sunday evening’s Tremendous Bowl, Tafoya informed The Athletic that she had wrapped up her profession as a full-time sports activities reporter and that she would instantly co-chair Republican businessman Kendall Qualls’ marketing campaign to grow to be Minnesota’s governor.
Tafoya isn’t going to cease there, both. She can be slated to look at this month’s Conservative Political Motion Convention (CPAC) in Florida and stated she may also make the rounds as a pundit. Already this week, Tafoya is scheduled to look on former Fox Information anchor Megyn Kelly’s podcast and the Fox Information late-night present hosted by Greg Gutfeld.
Tafoya informed The Athletic it was “completely” her personal resolution to stroll away from sports activities and NBC. (It was reported late final 12 months that she had meant to stroll away on the season’s finish.) Moreover, she claimed NBC satisfied her to remain after she gave them her discover to depart three years in the past—and after the pandemic hit, Tafoya says she caught round in order to not make issues extra difficult for the community.
“So, that is all my resolution,” she declared. “Everybody at NBC will again me up on that. They've at all times informed me I can keep so long as I would like. For me, I've to make my transfer whereas I've nonetheless obtained the power to do different issues and have an effect. I do not need to wait.”
Tafoya additional stated that she desires to steer away from sports activities reporting as a result of she feels she “was not as free to be as vocal about world occasions” that she is worried about.
“It’s not as a result of I used to be informed to close up,” Tafoya added. “I need to be very clear about that. However look, when you’re on a present like Sunday Night time Soccer, which is the No. 1 present in prime time for 11 straight years—unprecedented—the very last thing they need to do is invite controversy.”
Throughout the NFL common season, hypothesis arose that Tafoya had been sidelined by the community over her combative guest-hosting stint on ABC’s The View. Whereas showing because the resident conservative panelist, Tafoya taunted the daytime discuss present’s reside viewers in November to “carry it on” after they groaned over her remarks about former NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick.
An NBC spokesperson on the time pushed again on the notion that response to her View look contributed to any absences on Sunday Night time Soccer, noting that her off weeks have been “decided previous to the season” and “some other hypothesis about her day off is blatantly false.”