Michele Tafoya Enters Republican Politics Immediately After NBC Sports Departure
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Michele Tafoya worked her final NFL game for NBC Sports Sunday night during Super Bowl LVI and the sideline reporter already announced her next venture: a dive into republican politics.
In an exclusive interview with Richard Deitsch of The Athletic, Tafoya stated her immediate plans to serve as the co-chair of a political campaign for Kendall Qualls to help Republicans reclaim the Minnesota governor’s office.
“I got to a point in my life where I wanted to try other things, and there are some things that are really important to me,” Tafoya told The Athletic. “This is not to say that sports isn’t an important field, that my job isn’t an important job.”
Qualls, a businessman and Army veteran, announced his campaign as a Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota in January. While Tafoya has no plans of running for office right now, the 57-year-old sports reporter didn’t rule out a future bid.”
“I’ll say this — I’ve been asked multiple times to run for office in Minnesota,” Tafoya told Deitsch. “But I just don’t know yet. Not at the moment. I will say not at the moment. A lot will depend on what transpires here over the next year.”
In addition to her role with Qualls’ bid for governor, Tafoya also said she’ll make more appearances on political talk shows and plans to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference later this month.
“In my position, I was not as free to be as vocal about world events that I’m concerned about,” Tafoya said of previously working in sports media. “It’s not because I was told to shut up. I want to be very clear about that. But look, if you’re on a show like ‘Sunday Night Football,’ which is the No. 1 show in prime time for 11 straight years, unprecedented, the last thing they want to do is invite controversy.”
Prior to the announcement of this being her final NFL season with NBC, Tafoya filled the conservative chair on The View for two episodes last year, where she drew criticism for comments about Covid-19 and Colin Kaepernick.
