Says Who Sports with John Dauphin
Says Who Sports cuts through the media noise and manufactured controversy to deliver for fans authentic, smart, and candid analysis of college and professional sports. The podcast is hosted by John Dauphin, who has interviewed and written about numerous sports legends including Bob Knight, Bobby Bowden, Roy Williams, and Roger Clemens. Dauphin believes sports media has become a mess, a rush by reporters to the digital finish line in a desperate search for clicks, with little regard for truth or context. Join John and his co-host, Phil Dauphin, a former professional baseball player who had a game-winning hit for the Chicago Cubs, for fresh perspective and unique insight on the stories that matter.
Listen to Says Who Sports and talk a better game!
Says Who Sports with John Dauphin
Episode 34: Michele Tafoya, Four-Time Emmy-winning Sports Reporter, Talks with Says Who Sports
Michele Tafoya, who was the sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football from 2011-22 and worked five Super Bowls and multiple Olympics for NBC, including the poolside reporter role during Michael Phelps’s last Olympics at Rio in ’16, joins Says Who Sports to discuss a variety of topics, including the upcoming Super Bowl, the intensity of an NFL sideline and the necessity of being able to adjust on-the-fly to ever-changing storylines during a game and relay key information at a moment’s notice to viewers during a television broadcast.
Tafoya, who grew up in Southern California in a family of San Francisco 49ers fans (her parents were from the Bay Area), recalls the excitement of trips to old Candlestick Park to watch the Joe Montana-era Niners play, and the thrill of meeting Montana for the first time early in her career. Tafoya talks the importance of preparation, keys to improvement (including willingness to accept criticism) and the work ethic needed to succeed for decades at the highest level.
She shares the excitement of covering Phelps, Katie Ledecky and company at the Rio 2016 Games, including the added joy of being able to share it with her family, who accompanied her on the trip. Tafoya, who left NBC Sports in ’22 to become host of The Michele Tafoya Podcast, shares the reasons behind her move, discusses her concern for the slide of sports media coverage into activism and identity politics, and shares her perspectives on keeping our minds right to overcome life's challenges.