Michele Tafoya joins the show to talk about her career patrolling the sidelines of some of America’s biggest sporting events.

We talk about her role with Monday Night Football and how much it actually changed from last season.

1. “It’s tough for Suzy and me. We spend all kinds of time with the players and coaches and we’re down on the field during the game seeing certain things we think are worth mentioning...and that’s been worked out of the philosophy, if you will.”
   

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We also dissect the different responsibilities a sideline reporter can have, from interviewer to news reporter to game-play analyst and how the job has changed over the last decade. We discuss her week, and the process of preparing for a game and the day leading up to gametime.

I ask Michele if she’s ever gotten blown off by a coach at halftime and how she’s dealt with that. And we talk about the  overwhelming attention the younger sideline reporters get from men ogling them in the stands and the bevy of blog sites dedicated to their every moves.

I ask her if Erin Andrews (and the like) have become this generation’s Anna Kournakova. We talk about how the perception of women in sports has changed from when she started.

1. “It’s interesting. It’s really interesting. Look, for those of us who are sort the dinosaurs of the business for lack of a better term – Lesley Visser and I will swap emails now and then about what’s happening to our profession. When I started out, and I certainly am no Miss America, you felt like you had to downplay the fact that you were a female.
   

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3. “It was different, and it really wasn’t all long ago. I’m talking 10-15 years ago when you still felt this way. I talked to Robin Roberts about it and we remember back in those days that you thought ‘oh, better not put on lipstick because I don’t want to draw attention to the fact that I’m a woman.’  It seems to have swung the other direction now. It’s perfectly fine to draw the attention to the fact that, not only you’re a woman, but play it up a bit.
   

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5. “I’m all for looking great on the air, as best as anyone can. I’m not for this, ‘did you notice how good my legs are while I’m doing this report.’
   

We also talk about celebrity, and how being a national television personality opens more doors with coaches and players than the lowly beat writers can open. Is her relationship with coaches and players much different because she is on TV and people feel more protected by the big national media outlets, when the locals and beat writers are just out to get them? It seems that way in Philly, so we discuss.

With John Lynch starting at Fox this week, we talk about athletes leaving the field and going into the booth...who would be the best at it? She brings up some interesting names.

1. “There were times I’d be stuck in a hotel room, whether it was San Antonio or Detroit or wherever I was, and on my off day I’d just sit there and cry for a while because I knew what I was missing. For the last two years I was saying that once my contract was up, which was after these last Finals, I’m not doing this again. I can’t. I cannot do it again.”
   

Finally, we talk a little about Barack Obama becoming the President and how our kids may laugh at us 30 years from now that it’s such a big deal and wonder why it took so long for a minority to become POTUS. We equate that to women in sports...how far have we come exactly?

Oh yeah, we also rip on Minnesota building an open-air baseball stadium and take some shots at Kornheiser.

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