After 11 years with the network, longtime sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is departing ESPN.
Tafoya and ESPN parted ways “amicably,” according to an ESPN spokesman (usatoday.com, 4/28), after she and the network ended negotiations on a three-year option in her contract (sportsbusinessdaily.com, 4/28).
According to industry publication Sports Business Daily, Tafoya will likely move to NBC Sports, where she will have an unspecified role.
Tafoya had been a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football since 2004, the only MNF broadcaster to stay with the program when it moved from ABC to ESPN.
In addition to her MNF duties, Tafoya was a sideline reporter for the NBA on ESPN/ABC from 2003 to 2008, and also filled a variety of roles on ESPN coverage of the WNBA, college sports, and other programming.
Prior to joining ESPN in 2000, Tafoya worked for CBS Sports.
(Information from Sports Business Daily, USA Today)
