Michele Tafoya fired back at Lisa Guerrero’s experience on Monday Night Football.
In 2004, Tafoya succeeded Guerrero on the MNF sidelines after the latter was fired just a year later. Guerrero recently gave an interview to People magazine about her new memoir, in which she spoke about her miscarriage and the criticism she has received from her bosses at ABC and the general public via her broadcast.
On her podcast Sideline Sanity last week, Tafoya made a lengthy comment in response to Guerrero’s interview.
In response to Guerrero’s statement that she wanted to be the Barbara Walters of the sport, Tafoya said, “Barbara Walters [was] one of the toughest people on the planet. You’ve got to be tough if you want to be successful at the top of any industry, whether it’s orthopedic surgery, being an astronaut, working for NASA, sports coverage, or the night news. It’s a tough business and you have to sign up for it. Either you cut it off or you can’t. She wanted to be Barbara Walters? I contend she wasn’t tough enough if that’s what she really wanted to be.”
Tafoya addressed Guerrero’s revelation that she suffered a miscarriage.
“I’ve had multiple miscarriages,” Tafoya said. “I’ve been open about my struggles having a baby, my adoption of my second child. I don’t wish it on anyone. An abortion between eight and twelve weeks is not uncommon. If it was such pain that she was carried for 20 years and her best friends still have to buy the book to learn more about it, I see a discrepancy there.”
“It’s their story to tell. But after going through similar things, trust me when I tell you my best friends knew.”
Lisa Guerrero worked on ABC’s Monday Night Football in 2003. Getty Images
Tafoya said there was a miscarriage once in her career when she was assigned to cover the Pro Bowl and another time when she thought she had done it again but was wrong. In both cases, she said her bosses have been extremely accommodating.
“That was a real bummer in my life,” Tafoya said. “And trust me when I tell you, all my best friends know about it. I don’t know why you are waiting 15 years later to publish a book to reveal this to your best friends and therefore I have a hesitation, was this really a devastating miscarriage? But it is their story to tell. I’m just trying to draw a little parallel to let you know how I felt going through these things under similar circumstances.”
Tafoya also defended executive producer Fred Gaudelli, whom Guerrero accused of being hostile in his criticism. Tafoya worked with Gaudelli for nearly 13 years, first on ABC and later on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
Michele Tafoya has responded extensively to Lisa Guerrero’s interview about her experience on Monday Night Football. YouTube / Michele Tafoya
“He’s a Hall of Fame producer for a reason,” Tafoya said. “He demands excellence. Every day he raises the bar. Either you want to take this journey with him or you don’t. If not, you don’t have to take the job. You don’t have to stay in the job. That’s no shame. But blaming other people for your shortcomings, failures, or mistakes is an easy way out, and it seems like a path a lot of people want to take these days.”
“I am so grateful for the guidance I received from Fred Gaudelli and for the support. I would say that he, Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and the late great John Madden stood up for me. You supported me. They helped me reach the bar I was trying to reach for. You made me want to get better. We’ve all worked our asses off, individually and as a team, and that’s what you do to stay on top.”