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Bonnie-Jill Laflin has never let a table full of men in the sports world keep her from pulling up a chair. Her career beginnings as a cheerleader and broadcaster have brought her opportunities as an executive, author, TV personality, philanthropist, and more. Her experiences from nearly every facet of the sports world have led her to roles with journalistic integrity at the forefront.
Loving sports came naturally to Laflin, who notes that she’s been learning the games “right out of the womb.” She says of her beginnings, “I just immediately was drawn to sports at a young age.”
“I was such a daddy’s girl, that I think that was just the easiest way for me to always be with my dad was to be at the sporting events that he would go to,” she says, reminiscing about benefiting from her dad’s devoted season-ticket-holder status.
It wasn’t just hot dogs and the excitement of the stadiums for Laflin, as she recounts wanting to know the ins and outs of the games she enjoyed, from rules to stats and more. “Everything that I could get my hands on, I wanted to know when it came to sports,” she says. “I actually cared about the game, which was pretty fascinating for a little girl.”
It’s about more than just the game for Laflin. “It’s my serenity. My way to be able to have happiness in this crazy world is sports.”
Growing up in the Bay Area and spending summers in Texas eventually led to an opportunity as a cheerleader with the Dallas Cowboys, a career move that could be seen as going to “the dark side,” having grown up in a house of San Francisco 49ers. “Obviously, with my dad being a season ticket holder for the 49ers, he hates the Dallas Cowboys,” she says.
Still, she couldn’t shy away from the opportunity to work with the Cowboys. “I wanted to be a part of the best cheerleaders in the NFL,” she says, which lent itself to an interesting team allegiance internally. “It’s funny because everyone’s like, ‘You can’t be a fan of both the Niners and the Cowboys,’ and I am.”
Knowing all sides of the business so intimately, from being a fan to being on the field to ultimately becoming the first and only female NBA scout with the Los Angeles Lakers, Laflin has been able to bring her unique experiences and knowledge to her work as a broadcaster.
Laflin currently contributes to a number of endeavors including online hosting and reporting for the Dallas Cowboys, on-air work on Audacy’s 98.7 “The Spot” and KRLD in Dallas alongside her role as a ring reporter for Shawne Merriman’s MMA “Lights Out” on Fubo TV.
“From being a cheerleader to being a broadcaster and then going full-time in the front office with the Lakers for almost 13 seasons and then being back on air, for me, it was being able to know the industry so well – the business side to the basketball, football ops side – and I think that really gets you a well-rounded view… me being friends, to be frank, with so many athletes…knowing where they’re coming from and having that respect for the players.”
Whether she’s reporting, writing, or showing up to executive meetings, one thing that Laflin will always keep at the front of her mind is respect for her fellow humans, whether they’re athletes, NFL execs, or beyond. “I think a lot of times, and journalists are all different, but I feel that they sometimes will push the envelope and cross the line.”
When it comes to broadcasting and reporting in particular, Laflin is sure to leave her biases at the door and focus on the game and the topic at hand. She sees everyone she speaks with as a human first, with the same feelings and complexities we all experience in varying capacities. This has allowed her to maintain such great relationships with high-profile athletes and executives throughout her career.
When the opportunity came about for her to write a book, Laflin wasn’t sure what shape it would take at first but knew it wouldn’t be a tell-all. “I would never do that,” she says.
Her position as a woman in sports spaces has given her a perspective that few are able to achieve, which led to the writing of A League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports. It’s a book that aims “to celebrate women who have done it from the beginning and for little girls to realize there may not be a woman in that space, but they can create that. That’s saying that if there’s not a seat at the table, make that seat.”
“It was so hard to figure out being the only female, and no one could give me great advice as a female because no one had done it… Even though you’re under a microscope, people are going to look past the physical attributes and what I’ve done in my career and listen to the fact that I know the game.”
As Laflin continues to carve out her spot as a female sports professional, she looks towards continuing her work as the founder and president of Hound Heroes & Horses, an organization that pairs animals with vets and first responders for therapeutic purposes, operated out of her own Battle Buddies Ranch. She also looks towards climbing her next mountains.
“I want at some point, and I know it’s me reaching for the stars, but I would love to at some point end my career being a minority owner of a team. That’s what I really want at some point, to have a stake in a team,” she says.
“My journey has been so different… I think I’ve got so many layers to my story… I think that people see the grind that I did to get to where I’m at. Regardless of what was going on, I continued to pivot to keep myself in the sports space and being a female in a man’s world…the resiliency and the blood, sweat, and tears that I had to endure while I was there… no one’s ever going to say that she doesn’t work hard.”
Jacquie Cadorette is a music features reporter for Barrett Media with over 10 years of experience crafting and managing digital editorial content in the broadcast media space. Her radio career began at Philadelphia’s 102.9 WMGK where she assisted with crafting copy for promotional materials before moving on to blogging for Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, writing prep copy for iHeart, and ultimately becoming a senior editorial content producer on Audacy’s central team, where her work was syndicated to over 250 station sites nationwide. After bringing the company’s podcast editorial brand to life as the Head of Content, Jacquie dove into freelance editorial work alongside her other endeavors.
A PA native, Jacquie spent 9 years in New York City and then a few years in Portland, OR to continue her writing career and indulge in great coffee on the west coast. She now lives in South Philly and can be found enjoying live music, looking at the world through her Canon camera, or diving into a project she’s never tried before with unfounded confidence. Jacquie can be reached at jacquiecad.media@gmail.com.
