Michele Tafoya is done with sports, at least for now. With the Super Bowl in the books, the veteran sideline reporter is stepping away from the field and jumping into the political arena.
While she isn’t running for office herself, Tafoya told Richard Deitsch of The Athletic that she will take an active role in Republicans’ bid to claim the Minnesota governor’s office. She will be the co-chair of Kendall Qualls’s campaign.
Qualls is an Army veteran and businessman in the state. He announced he was running in January.
Michele Tafoya will be a guest on this week’s edition of The Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitch. In the episode, she says that she will make herself available for media appearances on behalf of the candidate. She will also be making an appearance later this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.
Tafoya reiterated in the interview that she was not fired or asked to leave NBC. As has been previously reported, she first approached Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli three years ago to discuss leaving the show, but chose to stay to get through the uncertainty of the 2020 season.
“I got to a point in my life where I wanted to try other things, and there are some things that are really important to me,” Michele Tafoya says. “This is not to say that sports isn’t an important field, that my job isn’t an important job. But in my position, I was not as free to be as vocal about world events that I’m concerned about. It’s not because I was told to shut up. I want to be very clear about that. But look, if you’re on a show like ‘Sunday Night Football,’ which is the No. 1 show in prime time for 11 straight years, unprecedented, the last thing they want to do is invite controversy.”
