Michele Tafoya leaving NBC Sports after Super Bowl but stays quiet on next move

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NBC Sports sideline reporter Michele Tafoya says she’s leaving NBC Sports after Super Bowl LVI.

Tafoya, 57, who mainly covers NFL games, said she’s leaving sports television at a press conference. “If I wanted to stay in sports television, I wouldn’t be leaving. This is about opening a new chapter for me.”

However, there’s widespread speculation that she may be headed to ABC’s “The View” (note the emphasis on “sports television” in her statement).

She guest co-hosted the daytime talker in November 2021 and garnered attention for pushing back during topics such as critical race theory and vaccinations.

That said, Tafoya, who is based out of Minnesota’s Twin Cities area, also said she has no plans to leave the area, though that statement doesn’t preclude her from joining “The View” since it’s not uncommon for TV personalities to live in one city and commute to another one — even one that’s fairly far away.

Talk shows also typically only tape four days a week (with Friday’s episode taped Thursday) so such an arrangement could allow Tafoya to go home for a “long weekend.”

For example, “Live!’s” Ryan Seacrest has to commute from coast to coast when he’s appearing on “American Idol” and has homes in both Los Angeles and New York.

Either way, her last gig for NBC Sports will the Super BowL LVI that’s scheduled for Feb. 13, 2022 in the L.A. area. The game will air in the middle of NBC’s planned coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The network was originally slated to have broadcast 2021’s Super Bowl but swapped with CBS so it could create a hopefully powerful block of sports programming throughout the winter of 2022 and sell bundled advertising packages around it.

Tafoya has a long career in high level sports journalism going back to 1994 when she joined CBS Sports. Since then, she’s held roles at ABC and ESPN as well.