Migraines can seriously delay plans of any kind. Just ask Pam Oliver. The FOX NFL sideline reporter was a guest on Richard Deitsch’s podcast last week. She told The Athletic scribe that there was a time that she suffered from 5-6 severe migraines per month. Even though that number has come down, there are still times it can affect her on-air performance.
“They’re very debilitating for me,” Oliver said on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch. They’ve been a problem for a very, very long time. It’s caused me to miss a few games over the span of my career because I just couldn’t take the noise and the light and the sickness that comes with that. The nausea and the vomiting.”
There was some buzz amongst fans in January that speculated something was wrong with Pam Oliver. She slurred many of her words while working the sidelines of an NFC Divisional Round playoff game between the Packers and Rams.
Oliver said the slurred speech can definitely be a side-effect of a severe migraine. What has been most frustrating is that medication hasn’t been effective, particularly when she is already inside of a stadium.
While it has been a while since she has had to beg off an assignment at the last minute, it is something that has happened in the past and she knows could happen again.
“I feel like they’ve gotten better, just from the standpoint of having fewer,” Pam Oliver said. “But they definitely are real. And they continue to plague me. And not to have people feel sorry for me, but that’s just the way it is. That’s just part of my health issue.”
