Charissa Thompson is one of the most familiar faces in sports media, hosting Fox NFL Kickoff and Amazon Prime Video’s studio coverage for Thursday Night Football.
While she seems like a natural in those roles now, she had to work her way up the career ladder to get there. Recently, she made a surprising admission about that process.
In an appearance on the Not Gonna Lie podcast with Kylie Kelce, the host talked about Thompson’s close relationship with fellow Fox Sports broadcast personality Erin Andrews. The two host a podcast together, Calm Down with Erin and Charissa.
“Is there anyone else that you feel strongly that they were a positive influence in your career?” Kelce asked.
“I actually would go the other way, it was the women that were not nice to me that have left the biggest mark,” Thompson said. “Because then I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be that.’
“I won’t name any names, but there were, you know, a few people who, women, let’s just be honest, can be super catty and super competitive. Look, guys can be, too, but the narrative sometimes is perpetuated with women and jealousy and all that other stuff, because it’s true. So I remember a couple in particular that treated me a certain way and now I’m like, ‘I’m not going to be that.'”
It’s tempting to dig back through Thompson’s career path, which included stops at ESPN and the Big Ten Network, and look at some of the women she might have come across in the business to guess who might have left that impression on her. But Thompson has put all that behind her. In fact, those snubs she suffered early in her career have had a positive impact on her today.
“The young woman that comes up to me or the young woman that reaches out to me on Instagram that says, ‘Hey, I want to do what you do one day. Can you help me?’ My answer’s always, ‘Yes, of course, I can help you,’ because there is going to be a time where you have to pass the baton, and I hope that I get to do this job for a long time,” Thompson said. “But my goal is when that next person gets this opportunity, they can look back and have an answer to your question, which is, ‘She helped me,’ not tried to get in the way or be jealous of an opportunity.”
Thompson also said she’s enjoying doing the Calm Down podcast with Andrews, and she’s happy the NFL on Fox sideline reporter gets a chance to show some of her personality.
“I mean, you see it in her reports and stuff like that, but I think, at least the response that I get a lot is like, ‘Oh my gosh. I didn’t know that Erin was so funny. I didn’t know that Erin was this,’ all these things because you get to see her in a different space,” Thompson said.
[Not Gonna Lie, via Barrett Media]