Michele Tafoya to Leave NBC’s Sunday Night Football After 10 Years Following Mysterious Three-Week Absence

Sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is leaving NBC’s Sunday Night Football after more than a decade working alongside play-by-play voice Al Michaels and analyst Cris Collinsworth.

News of her departure, first reported by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, comes after a mysterious three-week absence. According to NBC, Tafoya’s bye weeks were pre-planned, but NFL fans couldn’t help but notice the absence came shortly after a controversial guest-hosting appearance on ABC’s The View.

Tafoya filled the conservative chair on The View in early November, where she criticized Colin Kaepernick’s recently released Netflix series and claimed the quarterback’s inability to land an NFL contract is not because he took a knee during the national anthem.

In the weeks immediately after her appearance on The View, Tafoya was back on the sideline for NBC, but her Sunday Night Football absence began later that month. Taking three games off in the middle of an 18-week NFL season is rare for elite broadcasters.

Tafoya is expected back on the sideline for Sunday Night Football this week in Tampa Bay and according to Marchand, she has one more off-week scheduled, Jan. 2 in Green Bay. Her final game on the sideline for NBC will come in Los Angeles Feb. 13, when the network broadcasts Super Bowl LVI.

Tafoya’s departure is the first part of what will be an overhaul for Sunday Night Football, with Michaels’ contract set to expire after the season. NBC is ready to move on from the 77-year-old broadcaster in favor of Mike Tirico, who the network signed to their bench in 2016.