The Nick DiPaolo Show - Michele Tafoya | Nick Di Paolo Show #1345

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

Nick interviews former NFL sideline reporter, Michele Tafoya     Get an extra story Monday-Thursday by joining Nick on Patreon! www.patreon.com/thenickdipaoloshow   Get tickets to see Nick, live! www.nickdip.com/tour

🎵 Folks, welcome to the show. What day is it, Dallas? Tuesday. Tuesday. On a Tuesday. How you doing, folks? Great to be with you. Tuesday. Tuesday. On a Tuesday. How you doing, folks? Great to be with you.

I think you all know my guest today, if you follow the NFL. Terrific sideline reporter who, not afraid to speak her mind, she has since moved on. By the way, she won five Emmy Awards. Did you know that, Dallas? I was nominated for two. Lost on both of them. But I played, what was that best actress? It was a snuff film. Anyways, I've talked to her before.

I was just going to surprise her. But it's my semi-friend, Michelle Tafoya. Michelle, how are you? Michelle, thanks for doing this. I'm happy to be here, but it's only four Emmys, not five. I don't know how that number five got out there. You're not the first person to say five, but I don't want to take that extra one that I don't have. Oh, I added that because you're going to give me one for this performance right now. You didn't win one in

the adult film industry? Trust me, no one wants to see that. Oh, I beg to differ. Anyways, you and I, Michelle, believe it or not, have we talked real briefly before. Do you remember? Just for like a second. You probably wouldn't remember it. I don't.

I really, I mean, tell me this situation. Jog my memory. You were covering a Monday night game in Cleveland, Holiday Inn Express. We ended up in room 216. You don't remember this? No, I do not remember that for sure. I was going to put my tooth in. I forgot.

Hey, no, you and I have a mutual friend, Tom Bernard. Oh, my goodness. Oh, so were you on when I was on his show? Yes. You called in from wherever you were. Okay. And I was in studio with him. See, we are old friends. Yes. I consider that a friendship. I say hi for two

seconds. Absolutely. Since I'm married, I got no friends. But I remember when Tom said, and I go, oh, come on, NBC, Lib, and he's like, no, no, no, you don't know her, Paula. And he was right. I listened to you for five said, and I go, oh, come on, NBC, Lib. And he's like, no, no, no, you don't know her, Paula. And he was right. I listened to you for five minutes and I go, wow, I had it all wrong. I think you'd be surprised about how many people you might have it wrong about in and around certain networks.

But I'll just speak for me for the time being. Yeah, you know, that's what a few people have told me i i'm quick to jump on um but let me let's uh first let's talk a little bit football since um you know what you're talking about probably better than i do uh did you watch the games this weekend absolutely yes every minute so you're still a fan oh yeah i mean i started a fan which is what drew me to the profession to begin with i absolutely love the nfl did uh are you from minnesota no i'm from southern california where the weather is so perfect that it gets really boring and tedious so i had to move somewhere where i'm challenged more i found my soulmate. I lived out there for four and a half

years. That's the reason I tell everybody I left. I go, every day was a Tuesday. I hated it. Yeah, there are plenty of other reasons I would not go back. Weather isn't one of them. I did love the weather out there relative to what I'm dealing with here now for you know 24 25 years here but um so but you know i grew up a 49ers fan uh i'll tell you this when you become a reporter in it you are you are no longer really allowed to be a fan and that was one of the most liberating changes in my life because when you're tied to a team you are tied to a team and you live and breathe and die and laugh and cry with every win and every loss and that's painful and it can be really painful now there were years of being 49ers fans that it was great uh but i just the

the emotional roller coaster to me is not worth it so So I was able to cut that off and just be a fan of players and coaches and people that I knew in the league and not live and die with a team. And so I still don't live and die with a team. And I find it very freeing. That's so you find it liberating. I thought you were going to say it's hard to hide your loyalty when you're on the sideline. No, I mean, if I'm sitting and watch, my family knows who are my favorite people and all of that. So they kind of know. And living in Minnesota for so long, I've gotten to know the Vikings very well.

And so, yeah, it's more fun when the hometown team is winning. There's no question about that. So you sort of pull for that. But other than that, I had no skin in the game yesterday, and it was a great way to watch football. How did you end up in Minneapolis? Or in Minnesota, I should say. Oh, Nick, it's a long, sordid tale. All right, what was his name?

No, I was in Charlotte. I took my first full-time job in Sports Talk Radio in Charlotte, North Carolina. And all due respect to the state and the city, I was miserable. Really? I was so miserable that even Minneapolis sounded like the right move. What was so miserable? And frankly, when they hired me at KFAN here in Minneapolis, an all-sports station, they said I could take a role on their Vikings broadcast,

and that, to me, was one step closer to covering the NFL, which is what I always wanted to do. So I took it. And then, you know, when you meet your husband and you start to raise a family you're kind of stuck and so here we are for a few more years I know I met my husband my life went down a toilet we adopted a uh 18 year old Cherokee girl but that's another let me ask you a question so why were you so miserable and and what do you say, Charlotte? Yeah. Why? What was so bad? It was someone I was working with.

It was a very uncomfortable situation. Yeah, Joe Namath. Really, really horrible. So I had to get myself out of there. Tell me who he is. I'll take care of it. No, no, no. Two phone calls.

You know what? I've lasted this long with just surviving on my own without blaming anybody else, without calling human resources, and that's the way I'd like to keep it. Guys, you know, it's funny because I was going to go on to that a little bit. And, you know, I'm like a... I'm a sexist pig. No, I... Guys are just... I know as I get older and I look back and I go,

how I, we just will never change. And whether it's the workplace or, I know your politics now, you might even think it's gone a little too far the other way, I would think. But, yeah, guys, you hear enough stories. And you're a good-looking woman on TV. And did you have any problem with the plays when you were in the NFL? No, no.

And I think, look, we have a responsibility in this, too. I mean, you either send out a vibe or you don't. And I don't know if it's that simple. But what I do know is that I sent out a very clear vibe that this is strictly professional. Now, and I'm not going to lie. I've had, you know, look, I covered the Olympics, college basketball, college football, the NBA, the NFL. And to say that no one ever, ever, you know, gave me a look or anything like that, it was very rare. gave me a look or anything like that.

It was very rare, but when it happened, I made very clear there was zero that was going to happen there. And that was up to me. So I would like to encourage men and women out there, if they're feeling like they are being harassed or being looked at or being, you've got the power to do something about it. You got all the power. Yeah. I hate to sound PC here, but guys just don't, we don't change.

We don't, it's like DNA. Some guys do, and I think that. I don't like those guys that get. You know, I've watched my nephews and my own son and the way we're raising them. And I, you know, will men stare? Yeah. Do women stare yeah so i mean there are things that we're both guilty of i i don't think it's never going to change i think that i think human nature is there's sexual attraction in the air otherwise

we stop procreating yeah i've been trying to tell my gay friends that they don't do it but i heard look i read you went to that job in Charlotte, used to go to the office in a bikini, so I think you were kind of. Well, yeah, I was kind of asking for it, wasn't I? Trust me again, let me just say no one wants to see that. Yeah. I don't, I'm not, I'm not buying. But listen, let's move on.

Oh, real quick. No, I wanted to, so you watched your 49ers, obviously. You still, now you're a 49ers fan. You can say that, right? Well, no, I'm not. I'm really not. Oh, good for you. My son is.

I don't know how it happened. Yeah. But he is, even though we're living here in Minnesota. So he hated that game. But look, you know, what can I tell you? I honestly am not, I don't cheer for anyone. If anything at all, like Andy Reid treated me so well during all the years I knew him in Philly and in Kansas City,

that, yeah, there's a special place in my heart for Andy Reid. When he won his first Super Bowl with Kansas City, you know, sent him the note, left a message, the whole bit, because I was so happy for him. If it happens again, I'll probably do it again. But I don't feel like, oh, gosh, if Andy doesn't win, I'm going to be crushed. It's just not that place. All right, this will be my last sports question.

We can move on to some politics. As far as the Cincinnati game and the Chiefs, okay, look, I used to hang out with some gamblers. And, you know, when they would lose, they would get picked. It's rigged, but it's crossed my mind a few times because I used to bet a little bit here and there. But I mean,

that game yesterday where the Bengals stopped Mahomes on third down and they say, play over. Ref blew the whistle. Nobody knows why. And then they sack him on the next play and they call holding on the defensive back so they get another shot at it.

These things seem to happen in big games, Michelle. Tell me it's not rigged. I know there are people who feel that way. But here's the thing. If it ever trickled out and believe me there are enough people who would love to take their shot at the nfl for one reason or another if it ever got out that there was something untoward going on with the officiating this league would be dead they'd be dead so i i just have a hard time now i've said this earlier today to someone

it's been a great thing a boon for these broadcasts that they bring in these former officials into the booth. So every major network now has one, right? And Gene Steratore and whoever it happens to be. And they will look back and explain why the call was or wasn't made or what have you. So once that was done, and it was done to my satisfaction, I felt like there was a reason for everything that happened. Whether you saw it or didn't hear the whistle or whatever, bad breaks happen in every freaking game. And that's why every coach in the NFL will tell you, you need a measure of luck to go to get that far to the Super Bowl.'s plain and simple you need a measure of luck i i just have a hard time seeing it as being rigged well i heard what's his name gene what sterator sterator i heard him off you didn't hear him off mike when they the other announcers said what happened because i have no fucking idea what that i was like i knew it god damn it cheating uh no

you're it's actually a good point it It would be hard to pull that off. Yeah. Let's move on to the reason you sort of left the NFL. I don't know if it was the sole reason or maybe you had plans to leave anyways, but this is when I really started to like you. You had the temerity to criticize Colin Kaepernick's Netflix documentary comparing the NFL and slavery. I think you're on The View when you said something like that. And it caused an uproar. And I'm like, you have to be shitting me.

And I think you felt the same way. Was that impetus for getting out of that business? No, no, no. What did NBC say you've got to go? Be honest. NBC said, get out of here, Michelle. No, no, not even close. going into last season. But did NBC say you've got to go? Be honest. NBC said, get out of here, Michelle. No, no, not even close. Not even close.

God damn it. Look, here's what happened. In 2018, I decided I wanted to leave. I told my producer, 2019 is going to be my last season. He said, okay, well, if you could just get me through to the Super Bowl after the 2020 season. I said, okay. So then the Super Bowl got moved another year out. If you could just get me to the Super Bowl after the 2021 season, I said, okay.

So no. Oh, my. I don't even think they would have allowed me to appear on The View if that season wasn't going to be my last in the NFL. Because they knew there was room for controversy to crop up. So no, this had nothing to do with the view i had made up my mind like i said years ago i'd given my notice the plan was in place i had hoped to announce it my own way but that didn't get to happen but yeah did i take on colin kaepernick's comparing the combine and all of that to slavery you damn well right i did i mean i i it was i i mean it's so obvious to me

first of all you get a choice as to whether or not you want to play football in america nobody forces you to play football right nobody so then you get a choice as to whether you want to accept a college scholarship you get a choice as to whether or not you want to enter the nfl draft whether you're going to go to the combine all of of that. So now I know it's really convenient to say, well, these rich white owners are looking at you like pieces of meat. Well, you have spent your whole life competing to be one of the best paid athletes on the planet with the best healthcare, the best athletic trainers, guys who can save a life on the field like we recently saw the best food and logic the best of everything your life is pretty damn good in the nfl so to compare that

to slavery which by the way then colin kaepernick kept trying to get back in right to this he likes that he likened to apparently he liked to be whipped you know i look he can he's got freedom of speech he can say whatever he wants. And you do too. And my response is I call bullshit. Who's going to argue the woman she's wearing camouflage for Christ's sake? That's because I have this plant in my background. I really want to blend in. It looks like we're interviewing her in Vietnam.

She's got a tree behind her. And who's the black guy over your shoulder? That is Booker T. Washington, one of my heroes. I thought it was Gene Washington from the 49ers back in the 80s. Come on, folks. Anybody? Oh, forgive him. We talked to, oh, God, it's too late for that.

We talked to the great Michelle Tafoya. And let's talk a little specific politics. Let's get your take on it. I think they found documents in Biden's bloodstream today. Is that where now? Okay, so he's now eating them to try to hide them. Listen, he keeps them in the fridge next to the club sandwiches. I want your take on how he's being treated.

First of all, let me ask you a question. Nobody seems to be asking this. What spurred them to start looking for Doc? I know they had the Trump thing and they kicked his door in, like they do most Republicans. But what spurred his own lawyers to go, hey, we started snooping on our guy.

I don't understand it. Can you help me with that? Answer that question. That is the multi-billion dollar question in my, I agree with you right there. Like what? So you had your lawyers moving you? No, that wasn't it. I mean, clearly someone was looking for something.

Was it, oh, we want to, you know, we want to try this whole Donald Trump thing. So we better make sure our hands are clean. So go through our stuff. I don't know no i don't know and then they know they didn't make it public for months you know they certainly kept it quiet before the midterms so i don't know what spurred that and we all would like the answer to that why and then they keep popping up all over the place i have a lot of questions i mean what deems something as classified are there you know obviously there are grades of classification i would i would think you know top top secret right top secret kind of top c i don't know right but you know this certainly makes biden's re-election campaign tougher and i don't think a lot of people are disappointed about that

that's my theory right there and. They're not even good at cheating and lying, the Dems. They're so goddamn brazen they don't even try to hide it. Either that or I'm very cynical, but that's exactly what it is. They know. He's been in there what, two and a half years? Enough to know that he's toast.

He's finished. We've got to get him out of here. Here's a perfect way we can do it. They can push him downstairs, but that's too obvious. Well, he has to fall himself. They have to push anybody. Just give him a flight. Well, you know, I think I think a lot of people are thinking along those same lines. What can we find that can make him, you know, not able to run again or run under some sort of shadow? I you know, my concern is this though i i mean i look when biden got elected i thought okay well it'll be okay it'll be okay it has been

i'm trying not to cuss so i'm i'll do it for you i'm trying to be a good example okay it has been a ridiculous circus, just nothing but chaos and disaster. It has been so much worse than I ever dreamt it could be under this president and this administration. And it can't all be him. We know there are people that are making decisions and pulling strings and scheduling meetings and doing this and doing that. So it can't all be him. So there are just as many corrupt people around him as there is in his own little office, his Oval. So I'm not sure that we solve any problems just by getting Biden out of office. No.

That's my concern. You're right. Look, a lot of presidents are just figureheads, but there's some that are real players and stuff. But yeah, this guy, they used him. They used him for what they needed him for. You're absolutely right. When you get him out of there, I think you get Newsom looking over his shoulder, but the people that surrounded him, this guy just, he read whatever they put on the teleprompter. He wasn't that left wing. He's always been a dope. But if you followed his career, he was never far, far left. And everybody's laughing at AOC and Ilhana and the squad. But this looks like their program being implemented on us.

So we have to, you know, get rid of them too. You're right. We have to, you got a clean house. I don't know how you do that, but you're absolutely right. This is just getting him out of there is almost like symbolic. Yeah. Then you're going to get the root of the cancer. I totally agree.

And if Gavin Newsom's the guy and he somehow manages to smooth talk his way into the White House with his hair and his, you know know voice and his rolled up sleeves um it's a wolf in sheep's clothing again i you know the devil comes in interesting forms and i can say that having grown up in california my mom now still lives there my sister my brother their families and it is a shell of what it used to be and you know you got to look at the top and the things that have been put in place by this governor who's just their unrealistic pablum. Just it's I I fear I really do fear what would happen if someone like him were elected. And so, you know, we've got to get it. We're just so into the extremes right now.

We've got to get better candidates who I think are a little more middle of the road, a little more centrist. And, you know, people will say, oh, that's never worked. You've got to beat them at their own game. Well, they are so far left now that you don't have to be so far right to beat them at their own game. You can be a centrist and look really smart and really commonsensical and like you know what you're doing. And so, you know, certainly there need to be better candidates all the way around. We're talking to the great Michelle Tafoya. How about as far, so that's a good segue into my next question.

Who do you see being the winning the Republican nominee? You voted for, can I ask you, did you vote for Trump? I did. I'll say it. Um, because the, the, it's a binary choice, right? Or you can not vote at all. And I do not believe in doing that. So for me personally, I had to vote.

There was no way I was voting for Hillary Clinton, you know, and people could tell, oh, you're, but you're a woman. What are you afraid of a woman? No, I'm afraid of the wrong woman in office. Has nothing to do with female, male, nothing. She's of a woman no i'm afraid of the wrong woman in office she has nothing to do with female male nothing she's not a woman and so then when it was biden uh no i didn't like his policies either this has to do with policy not the person i want someone who knows how to run something and is going to do it with everyone's best interest in mind so now but having said that i also recently wrote an open letter to Donald Trump, which he ignored.

I couldn't believe it. Get him on the phone, Dallas. Get him on the phone. He's ignoring Michelle. Get him on the phone, the son of a bitch. Go ahead. Sorry. I know Donald Jr. pretty well, but he's been on the show twice, three times.

I asked him to please stay out of it for the good of the country. Oh, that was my next question. Say it again? That was my next question. So I'm guessing, let me just take a guess, DeSantis. Am I right? Yeah, because he's tough. He's morally strong.

He does not back down to the media. And to me, that's's what Trump I think changed he he made it okay to not exactly right sweet talk the media but to say what are you saying what do you hear your question you know and I still don't think the media does a great job covering the presidents um or the White House or whatever anyway so yeah i do see ronda santos as a really strong choice and just in terms of the political game the fact that he just turned florida bright red from where it was trending purple the fact that after the hurricane he won so much support that he flipped miami-dade county i, it's pretty, pretty crazy. I think he'd

be formidable. I really do. I do too. I mean, military background, I mean, handsome piece of ass. No, I think I'm sounding like Gutfeld now. No, but no, you're absolutely right. And I'm a Trump. Like you said, Trump exposed, and that's the reason I loved him, but I think he exposed the media. He finally, I mean, George W. Bush, remember, turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek. We get steamrolled because of that attitude. Trump was an outsider, said, I'm not taking this bullshit. I don't have to.

I'm a billionaire. And you're right. He exposed them, but he brought a lot of baggage. And apparently, you know, we have so many people as such juveniles that are, oh, he's mean on Twitter, which counts for something sadly in this country, but he was a great president. He did a lot of stuff with a wind in his face. That's why I loved him. But I think, and I'm with you on this one, we can get the same or better politician with desantis and not all the baggage that comes with it but but i'm grateful for that we had donald trump so well he certainly changed

the conversation and he changed the ability you know what he did was he called out political correctness in a way that so many people were afraid to do because because of the cancel culture that's out there and you know and in some ways cancel culture got exacerbated i mean it was it just multiplied and you know if you said anything that remotely supported trump you were every kind of ist in the book you were you know you were racist white supremacist misogynist xenophobic whatever you were you were that right and so i think he definitely exposed that. So yeah, there's something to be said for that.

But I am of that stance that it sounds like you are too, that less baggage would be helpful. And so that's what I would like. And look, DeSantis is on a roll and the timing could be really, really good. I think it is. And I was called all those names in 1985. I was way ahead of the curve.

Well, you've always been ahead of your time. I have. I have been. But no, thank you so much, Michelle. It was a pleasure finally getting to talk to you for more than a second or two without Tom Bernard sticking his big face in. So, no, it was a pleasure to meet you. I knew you were going to be very cool because I've seen you on Gutfeld. I write for Gutfeld

I help him out with his monologues here and there do you get checks? does he pay you? I'm sort of an independent contractor I do get paid did I just give something away I shouldn't have said I never know I don't know if I should have said that now after all the comments I just said

anyways that's alright I still sell weed to kids during the day. I got to cover it. Michelle, thank you. You got to supplement your income somehow. Absolutely. What are you doing now? Real quick. What are you doing?

I heard you laying around and drinking. I have a podcast that I call Sideline Sanity. And I do that every day. And I go to my kids' games. And I walk my dog. And I do a ton of laundry. I'm not even kidding you. So that's my dog and I do a ton of laundry. I'm not even kidding you. So that's kind of what I do with myself these days.

How many kids you got, Michelle? You don't, how many kids you have? Two. Two? Two really, really, really messy kids. Both boys? No, one boy, one girl. Oh, really?

The girl's room is 10 times messier than the boys. Is that right? Check for booze in her room. I should check for a lot of things. Michelle, thank you so much. I want to do your podcast. I would love that. I would love to do that.

For everyone to hear and see. We'll book you soon. You can get me through Gutfeld or here. Sounds great. Thank you so much. Thank you. It was a joy or here, whatever. Sounds great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. It was a joy.

You got it. Take care. And that is it. Did you enjoy the interview with Michelle? I thought it went swimmingly. I like her instincts. I mean, we're on the same page politically. And anyways, thank you to Michelle Tafoya for doing that.

That is it for today. You guys think it, I will say it. You're very welcome. We'll see you back here tomorrow, which is Wednesday, right? Yeah, we'll see you then. Take care, kids. Hi. Good night, everybody. I don't know what I'm doing I don't know what I'm doing I don't know what I'm doing I don't know what I'm doing guitar solo Outro Music