Former NFL sideline reporter Laura Okmin now works helping fired coaches find ‘blind spots’

For someone who spent 23 years working NFL sidelines for Fox, Laura Okmin has been quite enterprising with her free time.

The veteran sideline reporter left Fox prior to this NFL season, wanting to focus more time on her company, GALvanize, which helps mentor young women entering careers in sports. As it turns out, Okmin was working on growing another business too.

According to a new story by Rustin Dodd in The Athletic, Okmin has been developing a service for NFL coaches to help them identify their “blind spots.” It all started five years ago when Dan Quinn had just been fired as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and called Okmin to check in. He revealed he was planning to call a list of players and coaches to document his mistakes, so he could do better when given his next opportunity.

Okmin had a different plan. What if she, an interviewer by trade, contacted the people on Quinn’s list for him. Then, those players and coaches could speak freely, and anonymously, about Quinn’s strengths and shortcomings. This way, those with the most intimate knowledge of Quinn’s processes could be fully honest, rather than trying to tell the coach about his weaknesses face-to-face. Then, Okmin could compile all of the interviews, find any commonalities or trends, and present them to Quinn.

Turns out, the process worked well. After landing on his feet as the Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator, Quinn went on to take the Washington Commanders head coaching job, having immediate success. Speaking with The Athletic, Quinn said he “memorized” the 25-page document Okmin gave him in 2021, and began recommending the process to his colleagues.

Okmin has now done the same thing with 10 NFL coaches over the past five years, including former head coaches Mike McCarthy and Matt Nagy. After Okmin left Fox, Quinn hired her to do “coaching connection and development” for the entire Commanders coaching staff.

The “blind spot” process is exhaustive. Okmin compiles lists of 40-50 sources, a mix of people that had positive and negative experiences with the coach, and interviews each subject for at least an hour. As someone who interviewed coaches and players professionally for over two decades, there are few as qualified as Okmin to ask the questions.

“It was probably my favorite professional season of my life,” Okmin told The Athletic.

It’s also perhaps one of the most unique applications of a journalistic skill set you’ll see anywhere. But it makes perfect sense given her deep NFL connections and interviewing ability. Perhaps Laura Okmin will be the first of many former NFL reporters to take a similar path in the future.