Charissa Thompson admitted that sideline reporters sometimes more often than not fake their own sideline reports because a) coaches are not media friendly, since they don't want to tell the millions of fans their most secret plays that could decide a game, and b) one must wonder--does their ego really get in the way?
Erin Andrews offered a small take in their joint podcast "Calm Down with Erin and Charissa"
Michele Tafoya talked about this at length during her lengthy career in her podcast (formerly called Sideline Sanity)
Again, there are those ones that personify class in every way. Honesty shows each time they ask questions of coaches and especially players after a game. I think of those in the past like Lesley Visser and Bonnie Bernstein who brought lots of credibility when there weren't many sideline reporters to begin with in the 1990's.
Today, we have Tracy Wolfson, Melissa Stark, Jenny Taft, Pam Oliver, Laura Okmin, Laura Rutledge during her small handful of games for ESPN. In terms of baseball down in the dugouts there's Heidi Watney nationally with TBS and AppleTV+, Elise Menaker and Taylor McGregor doing the Chicago Cubs for Marquee Sports Network, the list goes on and on.
It is very subjective and fans should understand that these ladies are doing a job, and they do it well. As long as those "trolls" don't do what they did with Lisa Guerrero back in the 2000's (she talked about this in her book "Warrior"), the sporting would be far better.
That's my take. Another Awful Announcing commentary is at this link from Thursday:
https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/charissa-thompson-sideline-reports.html
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