Cover 7 | Friday A daily NFL destination that provides in-depth analysis of football’s biggest stories. Each week, Richard Deitsch examines some of the biggest storylines in the NFL media world.
Of all the reactions to Charissa Thompson’s comments on a recent episode of the “Pardon My Take” podcast — in which the Fox Sports and NFL on Prime Video host said that during her short stint as a sideline reporter in the late 2000s, she made up some halftime reports — the reaction from Laura Okmin stood out the most to me.
First, Okmin works for Fox Sports, as Thompson does, and the reality is it’s always risky professionally to be critical of a colleague. Second, Okmin runs boot camps, workshops and coaching for women working in sports (and who want to work in sports one day) as part of GALvanize, an organization she formed in 2012. NFL sideline reporting is her profession; GALvanize is her passion.
“THE privilege of a sideline role is being the 1 person in the entire world who has the opportunity to ask coaches what’s happening in that moment,” Okmin wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I can’t express the amount of time it takes to build that trust. Devastated w/the texts I’m getting asking if this is ok. No. Never.”
She continued.
“Using as an opportunity to…
