Being a sideline reporter or just reporting in general, particularly with poor-performing teams, can be a challenge.
Often, no matter how a reporter forms the question, a coach or player isn’t going to give the full in-depth answer the reporter was hoping for. But when the interviewee doesn’t give the answer a reporter wants to hear, that puts the reporter in a difficult situation. On the most recent edition of the podcast Calm Down with Erin and Charissa, sideline reporters Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson admitted they’ve had to make up reports based on the answers, or non-answers, they were given.
Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler was the featured guest on the show, and at one point he was asked about questions reporters asked that annoyed him the most. He answered that often it was a question along the lines of “What happened” or “Why did you throw a pass there” on a particular play.
“Sometimes the receiver just fell down, but you can’t be like, ‘Hey, the receiver fell down,’” he said. “You can’t be like, ‘You know what, the O.C. called an awful play, and I just ran it.’…You can’t say those things.”
As the conversation continued, and Cutler talked about having his own conversations with coaches breaking down what happened on the field, that’s when Thompson made the admission.
At the time, she was a newer reporter and covered the Detroit Lions during the 2008 season, when the Lions went 0-16. When things were going tough, then-head coach Rod Marinelli would tell her things like, “That’s a great perfume you’re wearing,” when Thompson would ask about making adjustments at halftime.
“I was like ‘oh f**k, this isn’t gonna work,” she said. “I’m like, alright I’ve got to make up a report. I’m not kidding, I made up a report.”
Andrews added that she, too, had to do the same thing because “he was telling me all the wrong stuff.”
“You’re not going to say anything that’s going to put them in a bad spot,” Thompson said.