Last week when we learned that Michele Tafoya had left ESPN’s Monday Night Football, it was speculated that the natural landing spot for her would be Sunday Night Football. That indeed became true today in the announcement put forth by NBC Sports.
The next question was what happened to the woman Michele replaced, Andrea Kremer? Since 2006, Andrea roamed the sidelines for NBC and did it quite well. But was Andrea fired? Did she leave on her own volition? Had Andrea grown tired of the sideline reporting?
An e-mail to NBC referred me to her agent at Octagon, an agency that represents athletes and sports media personalities. After a brief discussion with Andrea’s agent, this is what I can deduce.
- Andrea felt she had outgrown being a sideline reporter and thus;
- She will no longer work the sidelines at Sunday Night Football. Michele officially replaces her;
- Andrea is a free agent and is negotiating with other networks;
- She is still open to returning to NBC to possibly have a role on the 2012 Olympics and future Games if NBC wins the International Olympics Committee bid in June;
- She will still work for HBO’s Real Sports as a contributing correspondent; and
- Andrea still has an interest in the NFL (remember she got her start at NFL Films) and is open to working as a reporter for one of the league’s TV partners, but not on the sidelines.
So from what I’m led to believe, Andrea decided to leave the Sunday Night Football sidelines on her own and was not blown out by NBC. She’s talking with other networks and is open to returning to NBC for other duties.
Andrea came to NBC in 2006 after working at ESPN for 17 years as a reporter on SportsCenter and Sunday NFL Countdown as well as a host on ESPN’s Up Close interview program. We’ll see where she lands.
