Rachel Nichols from ESPN joins the show to talk about her career, including her path from studying at the top journalism school in the country to camping out in the trunk of Brett Favre’s SUV.

We talk about Nichols’ time covering The U and what it was like to be a 21-year old female beat writer interviewing the likes of Ray Lewis every day.  She tells a frightening tale of life covering the University of Miami, including double-digit visits to the courthouse for things as minor a scuffle, but as major as player (she names Ray Lewis) finding a friend murdered in his apartment.  Honestly, covering a beat like that will make you grow up fast.

We discuss her time at the Washington Post I ask if the Post really had the ‘import’ the current and former scribes refer to it having.  She talks glowingly about former Sports Editor George Solomon and explains that her cubicle was right between the offices of Kornheiser and Wilbon. 

Yes, Rachel Nichols was one of the original heads on sticks.

We stay on the Post, and actually talk about her departure to TV.  I make the claim that it’s not blogs that are killing newspapers but young writers like her, Adande and the like leaving newspapers for television.  She has an interesting take on that claim, basically saying that the lack of space in newspapers and the lack of budgets to send reporters to cover good events is what’s making good reporters leave for television.  Chicken, meet egg.

We get into the Brett Favre situation and I ask her what it was like being so close, she became part of the story. We had Sal Pal on last week and he seemed angry about getting beat on the Jets trade by Jay Glazer.  I ask Rachel if she felt the same way, or if her assignment was different than Sal, Wendy Nix, et al. She seemed to be on the pulse of what the Favres were thinking the entire week, so I ask her if she felt scooped, or if she felt her job was something else.

We then talk all things ESPN, including E:60, and her recent piece on billionaire adventure seeker Steve Fossett who mysteriously disappeared one day on a routine plane flight.  People are still spending time, and money, searching for the guy in the desert.  It’s a really fascinating story, and I hope the guy is alive because it would be the greatest escape ever. But alas, she didn’t find him...in any condition.  Still a very interesting story, and we talk about that, and what E:60 is charged with covering.  We also talk about those black and white pitch meetings and get a little inside as to when and how they are done.

We talk about the Stuart Scott interview with Barack Obama and what she would have done differently, which actually turns into a little bit of a back and forth.  Those who listen to the show know how much I try to prepare, but she got me, asking what Scott should have asked that he didn’t. I didn’t have an answer then (now I’d say childhood obesity in this country for starters) but it led to the fact that ESPN is more concerned with showing one of their “stars” play one-on-one with Obama than the actual news piece Nichols and E:60 did on Obama’s camp the week before. 

Being a woman at ESPN who is gaining prominence, I ask what she thinks about the “Summer of Erin” and specifically all the backlash Erin Andrews has gotten.  That spins to a conversation about Rachel’s time at the WWL and if she even notices or cares when people put her on “Sideline reporters we love” and lists like that.  We also talk about her job, being a woman, and if it’s easier or harder to get her job done because of that fact.

The internet is rife with rumors that Nichols is, in fact, a robot who never blinks.  I can assure you after this interview that she is quite engaging.  And from what I can tell, decidedly human.

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