Last week during an appearance on the Barstool Sports podcast Pardon My Take, FOX Sports and Amazon Prime Video host Charissa Thompson revealed that she used to fabricate sideline reports coming out of halftime. Thompson had divulged this practice in an earlier episode of her Calm Down podcast with Erin Andrews, who also admitted to doing the same thing when a coach would provide her insufficient information or if she did not want to throw the person under the bus.
Both reporters received excoriating backlash from colleagues and other industry professionals and later released statements on the matter, with Thompson stating that she had never lied or been unethical during her time as a sports broadcaster. The remark led to further reactions from people around the industry, claiming that her apology was insufficient and failed to understand the importance of the moment.
On Wednesday morning, NFL Network studio host and reporter Stacey Dales joined the Mully & Haugh morning program on 670 The Score, a former colleague of Thompson’s when she used to work at NFL Network. Morning host David Haugh explained that it was essential to ask her how she felt about what Charissa Thompson stated on the podcast and the subsequent insinuation and repercussions it has or could potentially cause. Haugh views Dales as a credible source of information who has been adept at creating context and reports information truthfully.
“When I heard the comments, my reaction was I was disappointed because I have such respect for the women in this industry because it’s really hard,” Dales said. “Especially whether you are a female that is grinding – and I love my male counterparts too by the way – it’s tough as a woman in this industry because it takes so long to become trusted and to become integrally trusted and to develop a foundation of trustworthiness.”
Dales added that she is a forgiving person and is cognizant of the fact that everyone makes mistakes. Having worked with Charissa Thompson in the past, she conveyed that the comments were alarming and assumed that the remarks took the conversation to a degree that Thompson was not planning.
“I think she was trying to imply in some respects that it’s really hard to get a coach at halftime or whatever it is to get a comment, but she took it to the wrong place,” Dales said of Charissa Thompson. “I think if she had a do-over, she wouldn’t do it again, [and] I just hope people understand how much integrity it takes to do this job and how, I can only speak for myself, but how diligent I prepare.”
Dales will be reporting from Detroit, Mich. for Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers and outlined her preparation process ahead of the holiday showdown. For each game she is covering, she goes back two weeks to gather recent information about the teams and players and compiles a booklet that contains these materials, which includes self-transcribed interviews. Estimating that she will do 12 reports on Thursday morning from Detroit, Dales knows the information well enough that she would be able to fulfill her obligations by rote should she forget her notes.
“It’s almost in my memory bank to where I can sit in a bar with you and go, ‘Oh yeah, he told me this last week,’” Dales said. “That’s how deeply I prepare…. The notion that we make stuff up doesn’t register to me, and so I think if Charissa had a do-over she would.”
Throughout her years as a reporter for both NFL and NBA games, Dales says she can reference an innumerable number of instances where coaches did not want to converse with a reporter. When she was reporting for the NBA on TNT, Dales remembers being treated rudely by San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, which led to colleagues at Turner Sports to call her and check if she was okay. Recently when NFL Network was in Germany, Dales remembers her colleague Sara Walsh having to interview Bill Belichick for an interview, something that she knew was a difficult task.
“Everybody’s different and every coach is different,” Dales expressed. “You’re dealing with future Hall of Fame coaches, and there’s a respect factor and a trust factor that’s really important.”
