FOX Sports and Amazon Prime Video host Charissa Thompson was the talk of sports media late last week when in an appearance on Barstool’s Pardon My Take, she said there were times in her brief stint as an NFL sideline reporter that she presented made-up reports on the air.
On The Greg Hill Show on WEEI on Monday, host Greg Hill said in light of Thompson’s admission it’s time for networks to reconsider retitling the position away from reporter.
“The issue with the sideline reporters, which we talked about a lot during the 7 o’clock hour, is if you’re not gonna be a reporter just change what the job title is,” Hill said. “In the case of these two specifically, Charissa Thompson and Erin Andrews, it seems like they are both sharing that they have done things that generally in the past reporters have not done. That’s all.”
Co-host Courtney Cox echoed the sentiments of a listener who texted the show saying there’s a difference between a reporter with personality and just a personality. Thompson comes across as just a personality.
“There are people that are going to be on your screens that are personalities, and then there are people that are on your screens that are there as personalities,” Cox said. “You just have to know the difference there.”
Co-host Chris Curtis chimed in saying that the reason why so many other sideline reporters rushed to denounce Thompson is because he felt like Charissa shed some light on a practice that isn’t as uncommon as people think it is.
But Greg Hill wasn’t buying it. He felt like even if a coach doesn’t talk to a sideline reporter at halftime, it better serves the audience to just say that the coach didn’t talk instead of generalizing and attributing that to a coach.
“If the head coach is not gonna be available at halftime and that’s essentially what you’re there for – I guess you’re there mid-game to try to get something about an injury that just happened – just say you can’t interview the head coach,” he said. “‘Sorry the head coach didn’t say anything to us.’ Don’t make it up!”
“I think it’s because they don’t think they’re there to be reporters,” Hill later added. “They think they’re there to be personalities.”
Thompson pretty much validated the reason we thought they were there all along. Nothing more than eye candy.
Good article. The director shouldn’t go to the talent if they didn’t talk to the coach if that’s all they want. If the director wants a reporter to contribute ANYTHING, the reporter wouldn’t feel pressured to lie about a coach they didn’t speak to.