Michele Tafoya is an American former sportscaster. From 2011 to 2022, she was a reporter for NBC Sports, primarily as a sideline reporter for ''

NBC Sunday Night Football ''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, with the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...

''. She currently works as a political advisor and makes television appearances on talk shows discussing the state of American politics and culture.

Early life

Tafoya attended Mira Costa High School. She received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in mass communications from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1988, and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in business administration from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

in 1991.

Career

Tafoya worked as a host and reporter for KFAN-AM in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, primarily for

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

and

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

women's basketball broadcasts. She worked for WAQS (now WFNZ) in

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, where she went by the name Mickey Conley. Conley is her mother's maiden name. Tafoya also worked for the Midwest Sports Channel, serving as a

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

host and sideline reporter, as well as a play-by-play commentator for women's Big Ten basketball and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

. Tafoya then spent three years at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis as a sports anchor and reporter.

CBS Sports

Tafoya joined CBS Sports in September 1994 as a reporter and host for the CBS Television Network's sports anthology show '' CBS Sports Spectacular'' and

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coverage. She served as a host of ''At The Half'' and as a reporter for college football games. She made her on-air debut at the 1994 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. In 1997, The American Women in Radio and Television honored Tafoya with a

Gracie Award The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...

for "Outstanding Achievement by an Individual On-Air TV Personality" for her play-by-play calling of WNBA games on

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

. Tafoya served as a reporter for the network's coverage of the NFL, college football—including the 1998 National Championship Orange Bowl—and was late-night co-host with

Al Trautwig Alan Trautwig (born February 26, 1956) is a sports commentator who worked with MSG Network, ABC, NBC, NBC Sports Network, and USA Network. He most recently did pre-game and post-game shows for the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, as well a ...

of the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

. In addition to her diverse assignments, Tafoya hosted CBS's NCAA Tournament selection show, Goodwill Games and the U.S Open Tennis Championships coverage. She left CBS at the end of 1999, after five years with the network.

ABC Sports and ESPN

Tafoya joined

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Televisi ...

in January 2000, working as a sideline reporter for ABC Sports' ''Monday Night Football'' during the

2004 NFL season The 2004 NFL season was the 85th regular season of the National Football League. With New England as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 9, 2004 to January 2, 2005. Hurricanes forced the rescheduling o ...

and the 2005 NFL season before the program shifted to ESPN; she worked the sideline for '' ESPN Monday Night Football'' beginning in 2006. Tafoya was a co-host for the '' Mike Tirico Show'' on ESPN radio. She helped ABC in its coverage of

Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...

in Detroit as a sideline reporter with

Suzy Kolber Suzy Kolber (; born ) is an American football sideline reporter, co- producer, and sportscaster for ESPN. She was one of the original anchors of ESPN2 when it launched in 1993. Three years later, she left ESPN2 to join Fox Sports, and rejoined ...

. She was loaned to NBC Sports for the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

as a Reporter for Rhythmic Gymnastics and as the play-by-play woman for

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

. On October 10, 2003, Tafoya purposely poured beer over two fans beneath her luxury box at the Metrodome during a University of Minnesota versus

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

game. Tafoya admitted to losing her composure and said she was embarrassed over the incident. She also issued a public apology. Tafoya formerly worked at NBA games on ABC and

. On October 21, 2008, she announced she would be resigning from her duties as head NBA sideline reporter. Tafoya's other previous roles included a stint as the men's and women's NCAA basketball play-by-play and studio host and as a college football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

sideline reporter. She also has served as a substitute host on ''

Pardon the Interruption ''Pardon the Interruption'' (abbreviated ''PTI'') is an American sports talk television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stor ...

'' and as a panelist on ''

The Sports Reporters ''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four spor ...

II''. Her other ESPN assignments have included calling WNBA games as well as hosting

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

telecasts and working on ESPN's college basketball selection shows as a reporter. She also was a correspondent for '' SportsCenter'' and '' Outside the Lines''. In 2006, the Davie-Brown Index ranked Tafoya among the most likable TV sports personalities, including Biggest Trend-Setter. At the end of the 2010-2011 NFL season, she left ESPN for NBC Sports.

Return to WCCO

Tafoya was announced as the new evening

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this cl ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

host for

WCCO-AM WCCO (830 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located on Second Avenue South in Downtown Minneapolis. WCCO features a talk radio format, with frequent newscasts ...

on April 19, 2009.Gustafson, Amy Carlson
Michele Tafoya gets WCCO-AM drive-time slot
TwinCities.com Pioneer Press, April 19, 2009 Her show began on June 1, 2009, where she teamed with afternoon host and lead-in Don Shelby on the schedule from 3-3:30 p.m., with Tafoya taking over from 3:30-6 p.m. Her hosting ended on Friday, January 27, 2012.Michele Tafoya Ending Show On WCCO Radio
CBS News, January 24, 2012 She made the decision ahead of her schedule becoming busier with the Super Bowl and London Olympics.

KQRS Radio

Tafoya joined "The KQ Morning Show" on

KQRS-FM KQRS-FM (92.5 FM, KQ92 or 92 KQRS) is a Classic Rock radio station in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. The station is licensed to suburban Golden Valley, transmits from the KMSP-TV tower in Shoreview, and is owned by Cumulus Media, wi ...

as co-host with long-time KQ morning personality

Tom Barnard Thomas 'Tom' Mark Paul Barnard (born November 7, 1951) is an American talk radio host and former voice-over talent. He retired as the host of '' The KQ92 Morning Show'' on 92 KQRS but currently hosts Tom Barnard Show on 105 The Ticket from 6:0 ...

on September 8, 2016.Venta, Lance
Michelle Tafoya Exits KQRS Morning Show
Radio Insight, March 9, 2020 She left the KQRS morning show in March 2020. The team dynamics were well received.

NBC Sports

WAS at PHI Jan 2021 D50 4769 (50804581393)

On May 4, 2011, Tafoya was announced as the new sideline reporter for ''

'', replacing Andrea Kremer and rejoining former co-worker and announcer

Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for '' Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on n ...

. Tafoya has also covered

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

during the Summer Olympics for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. Andrew Marchand of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' reported that Tafoya would leave ''Sunday Night Football'' following the 2021 season. On January 11, 2022, NBC confirmed in a press release that Tafoya would depart the network, with Super Bowl LVI as her final assignment, to pursue other opportunities.

Politics

On February 14, 2022, a day after her departure from NBC Sports,

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Kendall Qualls announced Tafoya would be joining his campaign as co-chair.

Personal life

Tafoya and husband Mark Vandersall have a son. The family lives in

Edina, Minnesota Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota. Edina began as a small farming and mil ...

. In 2007, she told WCCO-TV that she had been struggling with an eating disorder since she was a child. Tafoya describes herself as a "'

pro-choice Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...

' conservative with libertarian leanings".

Career timeline

*1998:

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

Late-Night HostMichele Tafoya - ESPN MediaZone Bio
* 1994–1997 & 1999 ''

NCAA on CBS The ''NCAA on CBS'' is the branding used for NCAA college football, college basketball, college baseball, college softball and college lacrosse on CBS and CBS Sports Network. College football CBS has been televising college football games si ...

'' Sideline Reporter *1998: ''

NFL on CBS The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts sin ...

'' Sideline Reporter *1999: '' SEC on CBS'' Sideline Reporter *2000–2003: '' ESPN College Football'' sideline reporter *2002–2003: ''

Monday Night Countdown ''ESPN Monday Night Countdown'' (officially ''Monday Night Countdown presented by Subway'') is an American pregame television program that is broadcast on ESPN, preceding ''Monday Night Football''. When it debuted in 1993 as ''NFL Prime Monday'', ...

'' reporter *2004–2010: ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...

'' Sideline Reporter *2002–2008: ''

NBA on ABC The ''NBA on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC. After the ABC Sports division was integrated with its cable sister network in September 2006, broadcasts have s ...

'' and ''

NBA on ESPN The ''NBA on ESPN'' is the branding used for the presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN cable network first televised NBA games from 1982 until 1984, and has been airing games curren ...

'' Sideline Reporter *2009–2012: WCCO Radio Afternoon Drive Host *2011–2021: ''

'' Sideline Reporter *2016–2020: '' KQRS'' Morning Show Co-host *2022–present: Left ''NBC'' to become a freelance reporter

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tafoya, Michele Living people People from Minneapolis People from Greater Los Angeles Marshall School of Business alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American radio sports announcers American television reporters and correspondents American talk radio hosts American television sports announcers American libertarians American women television journalists College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Radio personalities from Minneapolis National Football League announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters Olympic Games broadcasters American women radio presenters Women sports announcers Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association announcers Tennis commentators Volleyball commentators 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Year of birth missing (living people)