Excerpted from Warrior: My Path to Being Brave, by Lisa Guerrero. Copyright © 2023. Available from Hachette Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dilip Vishwanat/Sporting News/Getty Images
I recently rummaged around through some old boxes and found my VHS tapes from the year I worked as a sideline reporter on Monday Night Football, in 2003. I debated whether I should look at them. Would they confirm that I was as horrible as the media had said for the last 20 years? As I had come to believe myself?
I finally caved. I had the video transferred to digital, queued it up and then waited nervously for that moment when I sucked. But I waited and waited … and it didn’t come. Instead, I thought: I was good at that job! What was the media talking about?
When I finished watching, I broke down. I cried for my younger self, who had nearly been destroyed by that narrative about me. I cried, too, for the person who still carries around the humiliation of that experience.
Monday Night Football was both a dream job and a complete nightmare. But it didn’t start out that way. My role would be a new take on conventional sideline reporting. That’s what Freddie Gaudelli, the show’s executive producer, said when I interviewed for the position. He said he didn’t envision me as a traditional correspondent. Instead, he saw me more as a sports-meets-entertainment reporter. He explained that I’d report from the sidelines as well as the stands, interviewing celebrities and fans. If a couple decided to get married during a game, I’d officiate the wedding.
I loved everything about that job description. So I was thrilled when, a few days after my interview, I was offered the position. With close to 40 million people tuning in weekly, this was the biggest gig a woman could get in sports broadcasting. I’d report on the game with two sports broadcasting legends: Al Michaels and John Madden, who’d joined only a year earlier. But not only would I be part of an American institution, I would also be involved in its transformation into something more openly geared toward entertainment.
In late July, I flew to New York City for the official announcement of my hiring. Charlie Gibson, who hosted Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, introduced me—and he sounded downright disappointed. Instead of asking about my previous work on television, he referred to my time as a cheerleader with the Rams, 16 years earlier. It seemed to me that Charlie didn’t think I was qualified. But I smiled wide. “I’ve been a sports reporter and anchor in Los Angeles for a decade,” I said, “and I was on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
