NBC sports reporter Michele Tafoya leaves journalism for GOP
The sports reporter discusses why she is getting involved in politics on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
Longtime sports journalist Michele Tafoya recently walked away from NBC’s "Sunday Night Football" to "try to be part of the solution and not part of the problem" after the pro-choice conservative found that too many people with right-of-center ideology are too afraid to speak out.
"I can’t tell you how many people tell me, ‘I’m just shutting my mouth, I don’t wanna get in trouble.’ Getting in trouble for something you believe in the United States of America? That is astonishing and scary. I'm not afraid of many things, but that people feel afraid to speak, or share their beliefs, because there might be ramifications at their place of work, or within their social circles. That scares the hell out of me and I will fight that every step of the way for both sides," Tafoya told Fox News Digital.
Longtime sports journalist Michele Tafoya recently walked away from NBC’s "Sunday Night Football." (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
"All the divisions in this country are factored into me wanting to try to be part of the solution and not part of the problem," she said. "I was looking to get involved politically, socially, public service, that kind of thing. I wanted to change my direction. If I wanted to stay in sports television, I’d still be at NBC Sports."
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Tafoya, who also worked at ESPN before her decade-long run at NBC Sports, feels conservative, and even moderate, political views aren’t typically represented in sports media. However, she has noticed that many liberals in the field are allowed to speak freely. She isn’t sure how this one-sided arrangement became the accepted norm, but suspects that corporate sports media organizations don’t mind promoting topics they consider "virtuous, kind, loving and liberal."
"There's nothing wrong with that at all, except when it excludes anything that might question some of the facts and motivations for those ideas, or those causes, or those thoughts. So in other words, it ends up being very one-sided and that there is no questioning," Tafoya said.
"We saw this so predominantly during the initial phases of COVID, if you questioned anything that was coming out of the CDC or the NIH, you were called names. You were called stupid. You were called a science denier," Tafoya said. "For me, I call it being curious and wondering, do we really have every answer right now?"
Tafoya feels brand-new information, such as the daily flow of COVID information in the spring of 2020, was worth a "rigorous debate," but instead of examining both sides of important issues, anyone who didn’t co-sign mainstream talking points was essentially shunned.
"Why in the heck would you shut down any debate about something as serious as a pandemic? I think it all went back to who was in the White House at the time, and you were branded that if you just question anything, you must be on one side or the other and a science denier," she said. "It was mind-blowing to me how close-minded we all became during that time."
Tafoya initially wanted to step away from sports broadcasting to focus on other interests a few years ago, but she kept getting pulled back in. The COVID pandemic impacted her plans, and then NBC’s turn hosting the Super Bowl was delayed by a season so that it would coincide with the network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics. Along the way, Tafoya said she regularly kept political takes to herself out of respect for her employer.
Michel Tafoya wants to "try to be part of the solution and not part of the problem" in the politically polarized nation. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
"I appreciated that NBC wanted to protect its most prized property, which was ‘Sunday Night Football,’ and that they didn't want to bring controversy to it. I understood that," she said. "If I was going to go and tweet and post and all the things that that were germinating in my mind, that probably would have brought controversy."
Tafoya is aware she could have voiced her opinions and dealt with any consequences, but instead she decided not to stir the pot for much of her NBC Sports tenure. She posted a few "thought-provoking" articles on LinkedIn and a few tweets about local campaigns, but otherwise kept a low profile out of "respect for the show" and understanding of her role as an NFL sideline reporter. Tafoya added that deep down, knowing she was working toward a new career path that would eventually allow her to "be a little freer" also helped her keep opinions bottled up while at NBC.
Since Tafoya left NBC on Super Bowl Sunday with a made-for-Hollywood ending that allowed her to say goodbye from the field as confetti fell on the champion Los Angeles Rams, she hasn’t seen any negative reaction from her sports-world peers.
"[NBC broadcaster] Al Michaels told me if I ever wanted to run for office, he’ll run my campaign," she joked before turning serious. "The people that know me know my heart, they know what I stand for, and they know what my values are … They’re going to support me no matter what."
Tafoya first expressed her personal views on a prominent national stage while a guest host on ABC’s "The View," making headlines for a variety of reasons.
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Tafoya’s agent first reached out to "The View" when it was announced that a rotation of guests would sit in the conservative chair most recently occupied by Meghan McCain. Despite her three decades of on-air experience, Tafoya said ABC News honchos behind the daytime gabfest were initially hesitant to bring her on.
"They were skeptical that a ‘sports person’ would be able to talk about other issues," she said.
But Tafoya wound up on the program and held her own, especially when the conversation included political issues that she had been publicly silent on until that point. She even sparred with co-host Whoopi Goldberg – a rite of passage for conservatives on the program – over critical race theory.
"I guess they were surprised I was able to talk about other issues," she said. "They asked me back."
One of the reasons her appearance on "The View" generated publicity was Tafoya’s former ESPN colleague Bill Simmons, who put on his "Conspiracy Bill" hat to speculate her absence from NBC’s NFL coverage shortly afterward was somehow connected to publicizing conservative views.
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"A couple weeks later, all of a sudden, just on a bye. Taking a break," Simmons said on his popular podcast.
Simmons joked about the situation, even imitating NBC broadcast partners Michaels and Cris Collinsworth pondering where she was. His "conspiracy" was taken seriously by aggregators, and Tafoya’s three-week break from NBC sideline duties was suddenly under a spotlight as Americans wondered if she was sidelined for her beliefs.
NBC had insisted Tafoya was simply taking a few weeks off, and she worked an NBC game after appearing on "The View" before going on vacation, but media outlets ran with Simmons’ theory anyway.
"People took it as fact, and they took it and they ran with it, and no one bothered to call me," she said. "The minute the NFL schedule came out, Fred Gaudelli, our producer, told me, ‘You can have four weeks off,’… I picked cold weather games. Period."
Simmons didn’t seem to buy the vacation rationale, but also appeared to enjoy mocking the situation.
"It may have seemed funny to him, I don’t really care, but it did set off this rumor, and again… one of the reasons I'm so disheartened by the media right now is that people who said they reached out to get comment from me never did," she said. "That was really disheartening."
At one point on "The View," Tafoya drew groans from the liberal audience when she declared people might not know the full story surrounding former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has become a progressive activist and accused the league of racism. "Bring it on," Tafoya responded as she got a true taste of what it’s like to serve as the show’s conservative voice.
"You’re on an island," she said. "People didn’t treat me poorly, I just think that the four other panelists, and let's add in the audience that attends and the guests that they have on the show, all tend to have one sort of a connected view, and you're the odd man out."
Tafoya said it was a tough gig, but she’s not intimidated by the situation and welcomes a chance to defend her stance on important issues.
"I can handle that," she said.
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Tafoya, who is seeking a new platform to offer her thoughts on non-sports topics, said she has "a lot of irons in the fire" but nothing official. In the meantime, she is enjoying extra time with friends and family while preparing for a new dog that she will be taking home in a couple of weeks. She also spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando last month and serves the co-chair of GOP candidate Kendall Qualls’ campaign for governor of Minnesota.
"I believe in this guy," she said. "When I heard he was running for governor, I was all in."
Tafoya might have publicly come out as a conservative, but she still has libertarian views on some issues, such as the always polarizing topic of abortion. The veteran NFL sideline reporter is "pro-choice with exceptions," and doesn’t think abortions after six months are "appropriate" but also doesn’t believe a woman’s right to choose is going any anytime regardless of her opinion. "I completely respect people’s viewpoint on both sides," she said, noting that Qualls is pro-life.
Michele Tafoya considers herself a "pro-choice conservative" who is eager to fight for people on both sides to feel comfortable expressing themselves without fearing ramifications. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Tafoya said seeking office herself is "not out of the realm of possibility" down the road, but doesn’t see it happening at the moment.
Whatever she ends up doing next, Tafoya has said she benefited from the American dream herself and wants to "give back." Her late father grew up "dirt poor," as did her mother, who is Irish and German and was essentially shunned from the family for marrying her Hispanic father.
"Growing up in that family with a largely Spanish-speaking group of cousins and aunts and uncles, you know, we were looked at a little differently, but I didn’t care. I was proud of it," she said. "My dad constantly told me, ‘You live in the greatest country in the world, you can do anything,’ and to go from where I was to where I am… without patting myself on the back, I’m purely a product of hard work."
Tafoya began working at 10 years old, watering flowers around her neighborhood before landing a paper route and eventually a gig at Baskin Robins. She went on to work through her time at University of California, Berkeley and hasn’t stopped along the way,
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"I worked, and worked, and worked and worked, so to me, the American dream is not America saying, ‘Here, let me give you a job,’ the American dream is, if you work hard, and you focus on a goal, there's no one that's going to stand in your way," Tafoya said. "They will try … It's your job to overcome it."
She feels "character, work ethic and values" are the essential requirements to be successful in America, which makes her especially frustrated that some children are taught that "immutable characteristics" can put a ceiling on their potential.
"I'm not going to sit here and peddle myself as some champion for or against any one particular thing, except why are we slicing and dicing ourselves, our society into all these little groups that think that they're victims? I don't see the world that way," she said. "I've overcome enough in my own life to know what's possible."