Jennifer Hale (born February 28, 1978) is an American journalist working for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

as an

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

sideline reporter In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

where she is currently paired with

Chris Myers Chris Myers (born ) is an American sportscaster for FOX Sports. He has covered the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the NCAA Final Four, The Masters, the U.S. Open, the Triple Crown, the Olympics and the Daytona 500. Early l ...

and Robert Smith. She also covers

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Confere ...

for Bally Sports New Orleans and also covers college football for Fox Sports. She was a substitute host on the

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (branded on-air as FS1) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 airs an array of live sporting events, including Majo ...

shows '' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed'' and ''Lock It In'' before becoming the full-time moderator for ''Undisputed'' in 2022 to 2023. She has covered

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-invitation, single-elimination tournament, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States, with the stakes being a cash prize (the most recent tournament in The Basketball Tournam ...

for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

as well as the

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an all-breed conformation show, held annually in the New York metropolitan area. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is one of a handful of benched shows in the United States. Dogs are required to be on ...

. She also worked as a sideline reporter for TNT's coverage of the first round of the

2017 NBA playoffs The 2017 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the 2016–17 season. The playoffs began on April 15, 2017, and ended on June 12, with the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors defeating the Eastern Conference champion Clev ...

Early life and education

Hale is a native of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, and was raised in Alabama. She graduated from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

with honors where she was captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming queen, and Miss LSU. Hale interned for

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

in their

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

bureau. She also got her Master's from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism (branded as Northwestern Medill; formally the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications) is the journalism school of Northwestern University. It offers both undergraduate and graduat ...

and spent time in Germany on a fellowship to study the US–Germany relationship after the fall of Communism.

Career

Hale started her journalism career covering politics for

KNOE-TV KNOE-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Monroe, Louisiana, United States, serving the Monroe, Louisiana–El Dorado, Arkansas market as an affiliate of CBS and ABC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power station KCWL-LD ...

, a station in

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and is the parish seat and largest city of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolitan statistical ...

, which sent her to

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

as their capitol correspondent, then she went to

WAFB WAFB (channel 9) is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power, Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-CD (channel 39). The two stations share studios on Government Street i ...

, also in Baton Rouge. When she was a weekend anchor and reporter for

WVTM WVTM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities atop Red Mountain, between Vulcan Trail and Valley V ...

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

, she wrote a book called ''Historic Plantations of Alabama's Black Belt'' in 2009. She also was a fill-in correspondent for

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

during her time in Birmingham. Prior to her Fox Sports career, she was an anchor on

WVUE-DT WVUE-DT (channel 8) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains primary studios on Howard Avenue in New Orleans, with a secondary studio within t ...

's morning show in New Orleans. She received a call from some friends from

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

to interview former athletes and special guests at LSU football games to put on their website. This and her work with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

led to people in the Saints organization to recommend Hale to Fox Sports. She added the Pelicans job a year later. She worked as a sideline reporter for TNT's coverage of the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. During the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

, Hale filled in for Jenny Taft as moderator for '' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed''. She took over as moderator after Taft left the show in February 2022 and was officially named to the position in August 2022. When Undisputed was retooled in August 2023, Hale wasn't a part of the new format. She covered

The Basketball Tournament 2020 The Basketball Tournament 2020 was the seventh edition of The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 5-on-5, single elimination basketball tournament. The tournament, involving 24 teams, started on July 4 and continued through the championship game on Jul ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

for

, staying in the bubble set-up during the COVID-19 pandemic as the only reporter on site.

Personal life

In 2015, Hale launched All Access Sideline Pass, an organization that focuses on educating and empowering young women in the New Orleans community through outreaches and seminars. She started the foundation after encouragement from former Saints running back Pierre Thomas. She also supports Alzheimer's Research, the Speech and Hearing Impaired Foundation among other causes and she's the Women's Health spokesperson for Thibodaux Regional Hospital. Hale was named one of New Orleans's top female achievers by ''New Orleans Magazine'' in 2015. In 2018, Hale revealed in a ''

Women's Health Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". Often treated ...

'' article she co-wrote that she was diagnosed with dilated

cardiomyopathy Cardiomyopathy is a group of primary diseases of the heart muscle. Early on there may be few or no symptoms. As the disease worsens, shortness of breath, feeling tired, and swelling of the legs may occur, due to the onset of heart failure. A ...

during the

2016 NFL season The 2016 NFL season was the 97th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 51st of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 8, 2016, with the defending Super Bowl 50 champion 2016 Denver Broncos season, Denve ...

with 16% heart function rate, and she wore a portable defibrillator for six months until medication she took helped get her heart rate back to normal. Since then, she has worked with the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...

, and she is a cross-fit enthusiast. She currently reside in her

home at French Quarter condo with her family, including her niece D’Vazny, whom she adores and loves a lot. On her social media accounts, Hale announced her engagement on July 18, 2022. By June 2023, that announcement was removed and an engagement ring no longer appeared on her hand. Subsequently, she adopted her niece as her own daughter on October 15, 2024.

References

External links

Jennifer Hale profile
at Fox Sports
Jen Hale profile
at New Orleans Pelicans * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Jennifer 1978 births College football announcers Fox Sports 1 people Fox Sports announcers Journalists from New Orleans Living people Louisiana State University alumni Medill School of Journalism alumni NBA broadcasters NFL announcers New Orleans Pelicans announcers Mass media people from New Orleans American women sports commentators