If you’ve ever thought that NFL sideline reporters “Mad Libs” the coach-speak they deliver to viewers at halftime, Charissa Thompson confirmed a whopper of a conspiracy theory.
Thompson, a former sideline reporter who is now a host for Fox Sports’ “Fox NFL Kickoff” and Amazon’s studio coverage for “Thursday Night Football,” revealed some tricks of the trade on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” this week.
“I’ve said this before so I haven’t been fired for saying it, so I’ll say it again … I would make up the report sometimes because a) the coach wouldn’t come out at halftime, or it was too late, and I didn’t want to screw up the report, so I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make this up,” Thompson said.
“Because first of all, no coach is going to get mad if I say, ‘Hey, we need to stop hurting ourselves, we needed to be better on third down.”
“Pardon My Take” co-host Dan Katz chimed in: “We need to pressure the quarterback.”
“Yeah exactly,” Thompson replied.
“And do a better job of getting off the field. They’re not gonna correct me on that. I’m like, ‘It’s fine I’ll just make up the report.”
PFT Commenter, the other co-host, joked about a more inflammatory fake sideline report.
“It would be very funny if you were like, ‘So I just spoke with Arthur Smith at halftime, and he said Bijan Robinson blew smoke in his face, and that’s why he’s not getting the ball,'” he laughed.
Thompson, 41, also co-hosts the “Calm Down” podcast alongside Fox Sports sideline reporter Erin Andrews.
In August, the two discussed the phenomenon of jumbotron proposals at sporting events and Thompson wasn’t having it.
“I love a surprise … you’ll do this, cause you’re so generous, like if it’s flowers, or if it’s anything like that, my massage, I love things like that. I’m into a surprise but not a surprise party — and if you ever put my name on that god damn Jumbotron and propose to me, it is a hard no,” Thompson said.