Fox Sports and NFL on Prime Video host Charissa Thompson sparked strong reactions on Thursday thanks to comments made on Pardon My Take regarding sideline reporting. While many sports fans didn’t see the harm in Thompson’s revelations, the widespread response on Thursday night highlighted the problem.
During a recent appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, Thompson admitted to fabricating quotes from coaches while she worked as a sideline reporter. She also stated that she’s been public about doing this before, with former sideline reporter Erin Andrews sharing similar experiences of making up quotes from coaches.
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Thompson defended her actions on Pardon My Take, sharing that there are instances where a coach either refused to provide her with anything or gave her a quote she couldn’t use. In her mind, because no coach “is going to get mad” over her reporting on television that the coach said, “We need to stop hurting ourselves, we need to be better on third down, we need to stop turning the ball over and do a better job of getting off the field” that it wasn’t a problem that could backfire.
“I’ve said this before, so I haven’t been fired for saying it, but I’ll say it again. I would make up the report sometimes because, A, the coach wouldn’t come out at halftime, or it was too late and … I didn’t want to screw up the report, so I was like, ‘I’m just going to make this up.’”
Charissa Thompson on making up sideline reports, quotes from coaches
Many college football and NFL fans on social media immediately reflected a dismissive tone, seeing no value in halftime interviews to begin with. However, responses from Thompson’s colleagues and fellow women across the sports industry help point to some of the damage her comments could cause.
Women in sports media react to Charissa Thompson comments
The Athletic dedicated its Friday morning NFL story to the matter, with many of Thompson’s peers and even friends in the industry being extremely critical of her comments and distancing themselves from her actions. Among those, Laura Okmin of Fox Sports who runs workshops and boot camps for women working in sports said many young women in the GALvanize organization started reacting to it, forcing Okmin to use it as a teaching moment.
“There are all of these young women who are just trying to learn how to do this the right way and they see someone who they look up to very much say it’s OK to do this and laughing about it. I wasn’t thinking about me or about my peers. We’re used to this. Pam (Oliver) and I have been texting all day. We’re used to people questioning our worth and devaluing us. I don’t think that hits us as much anymore. But I went into protective mode and started reaching out to all the groups (at GALvanize) and saying this is not OK. It’s not acceptable.”
Laura Okmin on Charissa Thompson’s comments, teaching women in sports to not follow in her footsteps
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The reaction was even stronger from some of the most well-known women sideline reporters, both actively working and retired. They all made it clear that Thompson is an outlier, not only failing to follow the basic principles of journalism but diminishing the hard work her women peers have had to go through just to become sideline reporters.
While many women in sports are now using this as a teaching moment for others who want to follow in their footsteps, it permanently damaged Thompson’s reputation. Many women in sports have close relationships because of shared experiences and the ability to connect over struggles and hurdles they encountered that their male colleagues haven’t. In a single moment, Thompson damaged their reputations, her own and likely cost herself multiple relationships in the industry.
Social media mockery is only the beginning for Charissa Thompson
Amazon did not pull Thompson from its coverage for the Thursday Night Football game between the Cincinnati Bengals vs Baltimore Ravens. While she didn’t address the matter on the broadcast, social media wasted little time mocking Thompson for her lack of work ethic and willingness to fabricate stories and quotes.
This will be the other negative fallout from Thompson’s comments. She now becomes a running joke to NFL fans, who can use her own shared experience as something to mock and delegitimize anything she says or reports in the future.
Long-term, it could jeopardize her career covering the NFL even as a studio analyst and her new reputation will follow her wherever she goes. Unfortunately for her peers, Thompson’s comments will also be held against their own legitimate reporting moving forward.