Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was well-known as a professional wrestler before he became a Hollywood celebrity, but he also played football for the University of Miami. He was part of the 1991 Hurricanes team that won a national championship, yet injury ultimately ended his football prospects. He got cut from the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders after two months and returned home with only $7 left. He’s come a long way since those seven bucks, as Forbes named him the highest paid actor in 2018.

For those unfamiliar with the current fashion world, Sweden’s Elsa Hosk is one of Victoria’s Secret’s top models, but she originally tried to model alongside a basketball career in the Swedish national team. “It became hard to balance everything,” she said of her decision to choose to model. “I had to choose basketball or modeling because I was doing both on top of school and it was hard coming back from jobs and having my teammates already practicing new [skills]. I couldn’t keep up.”

Modern Family star Ed O’Neill was on a completely different career path at one point. He received a scholarship for football at the University of Ohio before moving to Youngstown State, and his performance was good enough that he tried out for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, which was the year legendary coach Chuck Noll joined. O’Neill wasn’t selected, though. “I actually enjoyed it,” O’Neill later said, “and my problem was that I’d never played (strong-side linebacker) before. So I was trying to learn it and make the team at the same time.”

Emma Watson has done a lot since she wrapped up the Harry Potter series, including getting an Ivy League education at Brown. She traded quidditch for the sport she’s loved since she was little: field hockey. “Hockey was a big part of my life growing up,” she has said. While at Brown, she got back into it and played field hockey for the school team. She may be the one celebrity on this list who started her athletic career after she became famous.

In 1972, years before Mark Harmon became the star of NCIS, Sports Illustrated‘s Dan Jenkins wrote about a dazzling young athlete, the star quarterback out of UCLA: “If Hollywood wanted to cast a young man in the role of football hero, Mark Harmon would be perfect.” Harmon’s very first game against Nebraska, the two-time defending champions, ended in a surprise victory for the UCLA Bruins, opening up a stellar college career. He even won an award for all-around excellence from the National Collegiate Football Foundation.

Way before Duck Dynasty, in the ’60s, Phil Robertson was playing quarterback at Louisiana Tech a year ahead of Terry Bradshaw, starting for two seasons while the future Superbowl champion sat on the bench. According to Bradshaw, “Phil Robertson, loved hunting more than he loved football.” Robertson, who stopped playing football because it interfered with his hunting, said, “Terry went for the bucks, and I chased after the ducks.” This led him to invent a revolutionary new duck call in the ’70s and found Duck Commander, a company now worth millions.

After his big break, Sam Hunt was honored as the American Music Awards’ 2015 New Artist of the Year. Before seeing him sing, however, you might have spotted him on Saturdays playing football for Middle Tennessee State. He later transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, starting for the team in 2007. Since college ended, however, he chose a different path and moved to Nashville. He started off writing some hit songs for Kenney Chesney, Keith Urban, and Billy Currington before signing to MCA Nashville.

James Caan has played in his fair share of football movies, including Brian’s Song and The Program. It’s no surprise he was cast in these roles, as he actually played football for Michigan State in real life. Later, he moved back to New York where he got into acting, but he recalled his time in college as being a lot of fun. When asked in 1998 by the Spartans alumni association which position he played, Caan immediately answered: “Tackling dummy. They sent me home in a box.”

John Wayne played college football at the University of Southern California back in the 1920s. Still known as Marion Morrison, he played offensive tackle before breaking his collarbone his junior year and losing his football scholarship. He got his first movie-making gigs thanks to his head coach’s connections. Originally credited as Duke Morrison, his name was changed by studio executives without consulting the actor, now known as John Wayne. His salary increased to $105 and the rest is history.

Phil McGraw is now known as Dr. Phil thanks to his successful TV career. In 1968, long before he became a TV psychologist, though, he played middle linebacker at Tulsa University. He suffered a serious head injury that caused him to go blind temporarily. Before he ended his football career, he was part of the team that lost 100-6 to Houston. “At halftime,” he later told David Letterman, “I was looking out the earhole of my helmet.” He later received his Ph.D. from the University of North Texas.

John Goodman became famous for playing alongside Roseanne Barr in Roseanne, but over a decade earlier he was on a completely different career path. He played football at Southwest Missouri State after they awarded him with a scholarship, but an injury ended his career. As Missouri State President Clif Smart said when Goodman received an honorary doctorate from the school, “That was the bad news. The good news for all of us was that he changed his major to drama.”

It may surprise you to learn that Burt Reynolds actually played halfback for Florida State back in the 1950s. He was injured most of the time, though he did spectacularly when he did play. In four games, he carried the ball 19 times for 146 yards and two touchdowns, catching six passes for 76 yards. One of those catches was against Georgia in 1954 with an impressive 33-yard reception. The Seminoles inducted him into their hall of fame in 1967, when his acting career was already taking off.

Way back before The Daily Show was conceived, Jon Stewart was still known as Jon Leibowitz and he played soccer for William & Mary. The Tribe still gives a “Leibo Award” to the player who had the most positive influence on the team. As a walk-on that made it to the varsity team, his former coach praised his work ethic, saying, “He was a really good player. He wasn’t the best player, but he was a good player. His journey speaks to the type of person he is. He’s very hard working and not easily discouraged.”

Kurt Russell’s father was a minor league owner and former player, so it’s no surprise he had a short minor league career of his own, reaching the Double-A level before injury forced him to quit. “I had geared up to play pro ball from the time I was 13 or 14. The acting was something that just came along. But I made good money acting, so it wasn’t something that I was just going to put aside and pretend it didn’t exist.”

Terry Crews now enjoys a very successful acting career because he was able to own and transcend the meathead typecast instead of being bound by it, but fans of Brooklyn Nine-Nine might be surprised to learn that he had a serious professional football career before getting into acting. He had a full ride to Western Michigan University before being drafted by the L.A. Rams. Later, he played with the San Diego Chargers, the Washington Redskins, the Philadelphia Eagles, and had a stint in NFL Europe.

Long before winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Green Book, Mahershala Ali played basketball for Saint Mary’s College of California. He was disenchanted by the sport, though. “Honestly, I kind of resented basketball by the end of my time there,” he recalled of his time playing at college. “I’d seen guys on the team get chewed up, spat out, and I was personally threatened with being shipped off to the University of Denver. All in the name of wins and productivity.”

Jason Statham, a massive action star today, was once part of the British national diving team, competing at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. He said he first got into it after taking a trip with his family to Miami when he was a boy. “There was a guy who used to do a high dive, at noon every day, from one of the hotels that we stayed in,” he recalled. “And I went, ‘You know what? When we get home, I’m gonna do that.”

Long before he became Superman in the ’90s TV show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Cain was a student at Princeton University, where he had a remarkable football career. As a free safety, he set a national record with 12 interceptions in 10 games. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills but an injury meant the end of his football career. It’s all OK, though, because Lois & Clark became a mega-TV hit that drew in 15 million viewers per episode at the height of its four-year run.

Now an Oscar winner, the first time many saw Forest Whitaker on the silver screen was when he played a football player in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. He was initially slated to become a football player, receiving a football scholarship from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. After an injury, he transferred to the University of Southern California, receiving a music scholarship. Whitaker focused on his voice at school and later studied acting at the Drama Studio London’s Berkeley branch.

Uzo Aduba is known from Orange is the New Black, where she played Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, but she was also a college track star back when she was studying classical voice at Boston University. She almost broke the 7.03-second record in the 55-meter race with her 7.07-second performance. In addition to that race, she also competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter races. She still runs, having run in the 2013 New York City Marathon and the 2015 Boston Marathon.

Tommy Lee Jones played offensive guard for Harvard’s football team. In 2013 he recalled that he told the football coach: “‘Coach, I love football, and I’m interested in acting, and I’ve been offered a part. Do you think I’ve got any chance of starting on this football team?’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t know … but I can tell you that you can act for the rest of your life, but you’ve only got four more years to play football. You make up your mind.'” Jones ended up following the coach’s advice.

Channing Tatum was the captain of his high school football team before he was offered a scholarship to play football at Glenville State College. He was more into martial arts, he told Vanity Fair, and dropped out in the end. “I just got tired of playing,” he later said. “I was only playing to keep that scholarship. I was interested in other things and missing home.” He ended up returning to Florida where his family is and became an exotic dancer. He only got into acting later.

Josh Duhamel is best-known for starring in four of the five Transformers movies that were made in the last decade. That being said, things could have been different if he didn’t drop out of Minot State University just short of a bachelor’s degree. He played quarterback for the school while he was there. “After college, I followed an ex-girlfriend to northern California,” he recalled, “did a bunch of odd jobs.” Later, he got into modeling and scored early roles in soap operas.

Denzel Washington is such a good actor that, regardless of what role he is playing, he gives off the impression he spent years preparing for the role. This actually happened to be the case for Spike Lee’s 1998 movie He Got Game, as he played basketball at Fordham University. His coach was the legendary P.J. Carlesimo, who called Washington “a decent player.” After a period of indecision about which major to choose at Fordham, he ended up choosing acting.

Carl Weathers reportedly had a lot of promise in his two seasons with the Oakland Raiders, but this didn’t pan out. When asked why, he said, “I’ll give you a completely honest answer: I wasn’t present,” Weathers told Sporting News in 2007 when asked why football didn’t pan out. “I was a guy who had a tremendous amount of ability, but my head was always in the world of wanting to be an actor. I majored in theater at San Diego State. My one eye was on football, and my other eye was on Hollywood.”

These female sports reporters cover everything from college games, NFL football, and yes, even NASCAR. Whether they’re reporting from the sidelines or in-studio, these female sports reporters know what they’re talking about!

Diletta Leotta is an Italian television presenter from Catania, Sicily. Leotta studied Law at the Luiss University in Rome and graduated in 2015. She currently presents the Serie A broadcasts for DAZN since the 2018–2019 season. Earlier, she hosted Serie B games on Sky Sport in Italy. From April to August of 2018, Leotta worked alongside Aída Yéspica as the host of 105 Take Away, a program of Radio 105 Network. In 2020, Leotta co-presented the 70th annual edition of the Sanremo Music Festival.

Olivia Harlan is now known as Olivia Dekker after she married Sam Dekker, the professional basketball player. Oliva has covered all things football including SEC and ACC broadcasts for Fox South and a web series for the Green Bay Packers. Olivia and her father Kevin Harlan made history by being the first father-daughter team to call an NFL game when the San Francisco 49ers played the Green Bay Packers. She is an active philanthropist, for her wedding, she asked her guests to donate to the Children’s Center Family Foundation, instead of gifts, raising over $65,000!

Jimena Sanchez is one of the most recognized Mexican women on American television, as she appears as a host on Fox Sports. She boasts many followers on her social media accounts, not only for her beauty but also for her talent on camera. Jimena is currently the host of Lo Mejor De Fox Sports on Fox Sports 2. A lover of American sports, Sanchez’s favorite teams are the Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Lakers, and New York Yankees!

After multiple years working in the states, Hawksworth finally returned to her native Canada to become a sports anchor/reporter for Rogers Sportsnet in Toronto. Hawksworth initially got her start as an intern for the National Broadcasting Company, covering the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Erin has also served as a sports anchor for CNN. Erin worked for KCPQ, the Fox affiliate in Seattle as both a sports reporter and morning news anchor. Erin also worked for WFXT, the Fox affiliate in Boston, and KJCT in Grand Junction in Colorado.

Jenn Sterger is an American model, television personality, and former online columnist for Sports Illustrated. She has worked as the Gameday Host for the New York Jets and was a co-host of the Versus sports news show The Daily Line. She currently works for All Elite Wrestling as a backstage interviewer. While Sterger’s name has been out of the spotlight in recent years, especially in NFL circles, she is still one of the most notable women in sports media over the last 20 years.

Kelsey Wingert is a journalist that previously worked for Fox Sports South covering the Atlanta Braves and other teams that Fox Sports South covers. In the offseason, she does studio cut-ins for NBA and NHL games and does sideline reporting for Atlantic Coast Conference football games. Kelsey Wingert grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, and graduated from Louisiana State University in 2014, where she played volleyball and was a member of the sorority group Delta Zeta. She picked LSU because of the TV broadcast department.

Kacie McDonnell was born and raised in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. She went to Villanova University where she graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. Kacie is a Fox News talent mostly on the Fox Nation Subscription Channel as a lifestyle and sports host. Her first assignment ever was hosting the red carpet in the Patriot Awards in 2019. Before joining Fox News, Kacie began her career in sports at WTXF-TV, delivering reports on the Philadelphia Eagles for Good Day Philadelphia.

Lauren Gardner is a Colorado native and American sportscaster who served as a sideline reporter and host for CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports Ohio, Smithsonian Channel and Altitude Sports and Entertainment. She has covered the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, College football and College basketball. More recently, Lauren Gardener joined the DAZN team as a host of the MLB whip around the show, Change-Up in 2019 and is part of NHL and MLB Networks where she works on various programs.

Alex Curry was a soccer player throughout her youth and continued her career in college, where she won the NISRA title in 2006. As a lifelong Southern California resident, Alex is always finding new ways to give back to her community and can often be found volunteering at GrowingGreat, a charity that encourages healthy eating. Alex Curry is now a TV host and reporter for FOX Sports. Alex has covered everything from E! News Now to football, baseball, hockey, volleyball, and action sports all around the world.

We’ve watched her on the sidelines, followed her on social media and even learned a thing or two while watching her interviews. Beauty, brains, sports, what more can we ask for? Coming from a family of athletes, it makes perfect sense that Allie LaForce played basketball for the university team while studying at Ohio State, where she majored in broadcast journalism. She also appeared in the charity basketball game, Celebrity Cheese Crunch Classic, back in 2008. Allie went on to win a 2011 Emmy award for anchoring FOX 8’s Friday Night Touchdown high school football show.

Cari Champion attended UCLA, where she landed an internship with CNN. Following her graduation, she was brought on board with the Tennis Network to follow the Williams sister’s tennis careers. Cari was drawn to journalism to challenge and change negative stereotypes: “I wanted to give people a voice that didn’t have a voice. I’m always fighting for the underdog. I’m not sure where I got it from, but I’ve been like that all my life. That’s why I love journalism.”

Erin Andrews is a TV personality and sportscaster, and definitely in the sports reporting hall of fame. Erin is most well known for her roles on ESPN College Gameday and Good Morning America, and frequently appears as the host of Dancing with the Stars. In an interview, Erin said that growing up she always described herself as a tomboy. She lived a life that always revolved around sports, whether that was watching NBA games with her father or playing basketball at school.

Heidi Watney is a host and sideline reporter for the Major League Baseball Network. Heidi Watney attended Clovis West High School in Fresno, participating in hurdles, diving, gymnastics, and cheerleading. Heidi was a National Merit Scholar and earned a scholarship to San Diego State, where she graduated with honors. She also took part in the Miss California USA pageant, where she was the first runner-up in 2002. Her experience includes sportscasting roles at New England Sports Network in Boston and Time Warner Cable SportsNet in Los Angeles.

Kaylee Hartung is a reporter for ABC News, and she was previously a reporter for the news channel CNN as well as for the sports channel ESPN, where she contributed to the SEC Network. Kaylee earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in journalism and politics from Washington and Lee University, graduating in 2007. Kaylee was also a CBSNews.com reporter on the daily Washington Unplugged program and a featured correspondent for Unplugged Under 40. In July 2019, ABC announced she was joining the Disney family as a correspondent based out of New York City.

Kristine Leahy gained fame for hosting the American action game show American Ninja Warrior back in 2010. She earned her degree from Boston University and bounced around news stations as an anchor before being hired by the NBC network. Kristine moved to Los Angeles back in 2012 and contributed as a sideline reporter for Turner Sports’ March Madness coverage. Kristine is the former co-host and newswoman of Fox Sports 1’s simulcast of The Herd with Colin Cowherd.

Laura Rutledge was born in St Petersburg, Florida, and won the Miss Florida title in 2012; her competition talent was ballet. Laura is a graduate of the University of Florida, having majored in broadcast journalism. She is known for her contributions to ESPN, where she is featured in multiple shows, including the SEC Network, and as a host for CNN International. She is also the producer and host of SDLive, an original show she started at Fox Sports San Diego.

Maria Taylor grew up in Alpharetta, Georgia, where she attended Centennial High School, earning many accolades for volleyball starting in high school, through college. Among her awards were being a member of the Atlanta Tip-Off Team of the Year and MVP of her high school volleyball team. Nowadays, she covers all things college football and has an outstanding reputation with the ESPN network as an analyst and host. In 2019, Taylor began hosting NBA Countdown, the pre-game show for ESPN’s Friday night and Sunday afternoon NBA games.

Marakovits grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania where she earned a volleyball scholarship to play at La Salle University. Meredith is known for reporting on the Yankees as the YES network host, and for her presence online at YESNetwork.com. Meredith worked as a sideline reporter for the Philadelphia 76ers on Comcast SportsNet. Before her work in Philadelphia, she began her career by serving as both the pre- and post-game host and reporter for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs for the television network in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Sage Steele is one of the best female reporters in the game, there’s no doubt about it. She attended Thomas B. Doherty High School in Colorado Springs for two years, then she transferred to Carmel, Indiana, and attended Carmel High School as a senior, graduating in 1990. She attended Indiana University Bloomington and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in sports communication. It was precisely 20 years later that she was the commencement speaker at the 2015 Indiana University undergraduate commencement, which she considers the highest honor of her career.

Jennifer Lynne Brown was acollegiate athlete for the University of Florida, where she worked as a reporter and host for eight years for ESPN and American Ninja Warrior. Jenn grew up with a passion for sports. She played and captained several sports in High School. Before ESPN, Jenn worked for Showtime Sports as a reporter for two consecutive years. Brown was a special correspondent on Inside the NFL for two seasons, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Studio Show in 2008.

Jen started her career in journalism at KNOE-TV in Monroe, Louisiana, which sent her to Baton Rouge as their capitol correspondent in Louisiana. While she was a weekend anchor and reporter for WVTM in Birmingham, Alabama, she wrote a book called Historic Plantations of Alabama’s Black Belt in 2009. Jen is currently working for Fox Sports as an NFL sideline reporter. She also covers NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans for Fox Sports New Orleans, as well as college football for Fox Sports.

The beautiful and popular journalist was born on June 21, 1983, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Kristina went on to attend the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and graduated with a news broadcasting degree in 2006. Now she can be found hosting shows as a sports reporter and anchor and is well-known for making appearances on CNN shows such as New Day and Weekend Express with Lynn Smith. Kristina Akra also covers the Atlanta Braves on FoxSports South with in-game reports from the field.

Kristen Ledlow was the third runner up in the 2010 Miss Florida USA pageant and a former Miss Capital City USA. Now, she’s the host of NBA Inside Stuff on NBA TV. She attended Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, majoring in broadcasting and communications, while minoring in business, and graduated in 2010. After college, Ledlow became an anchor at WTXL-TV, hosting the Good News Show, while writing for the Tallahassee Quarterback Club and working on radio for ESPN Tallahassee, later becoming a sideline reporter for Florida State Seminoles football games.

Rebecca Haarlow has an extensive career reporting for MSG Network, NBA TV, NBA on TNT, Fox Sports Net, the NFL Network and the Big Ten Network. A Chicago native, she spent her youth as a track star, securing six state medals. She also graduated from Princeton University. She scored 4,700 in the 1999 Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Championships in which is the second-highest mark in Princeton history, finishing in third place with that score. Now that is amazing, well done Rebecca!

Michelle Beisner is currently a feature reporter for ESPN and is also a member of the Monday Night Countdown crew, along with Monday Night Football. Before that, she had an eight-year tenure at the NFL Network as the host of NFL Weekly Countdown and served as a sideline reporter for NFL Total Access and NFL GameDay Morning. Michelle is not just a reporter but also a talented actress and has acted in the films Any Given Sunday, Throttle, and Alice in Wasteland.

Molly McGrath attended Boston College and graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Broadcast Journalism. After graduating, Molly worked at ESPN as a production assistant, where she produced highlights, logged play-by-plays, as well as other support tasks for various ESPN shows. Molly McGrath has hosted several sportscasts on FOX as well as a revival of the robot-fighting show Battlebots on ABC. After her hiatus, she returned to the sports network with ESPN to cover college football.

Samantha Ponder is a career broadcaster who, after graduating from King’s College, began as a sideline reporter for smaller college football and basketball games. Her big break came when she was promoted to host the College Gameday segment on ESPN. She is currently hosting the Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN. Samantha was named host of Sunday NFL Countdown. She’s just the third person to occupy this position in the 32-year history of ESPN’s Sunday morning NFL pregame show.

Jamie Erdahl is originally from Minnesota, as she was born and raised in Bloomington. She went on to graduate from the Breck School in 2007. Jamie is currently a reporter for CBS Sports where she’s the lead sideline reporter for The SEC on CBS, teaming up with Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson. Jamie also covers the NCAA basketball during the season and March Madness for CBS/Turner. She joined the company in 2014 and still contributes to CBS Sports Network as a studio host.

Kathryn Tappen hails from Morristown, New Jersey. Growing up, she played baseball and basketball on the boy’s team because there were no teams for girls at her school, and she wasn’t going to let that stop her. In her senior year of high school, Kathryn focused solely on track, and as a result, she received academic and athletic scholarships to attend Rutgers University. While studying at Rutgers, Tappen majored in journalism and was a member of the cross-country and track teams until she graduated in 2003.

Amanda Balionis has become a household name to golf fans who tune in to TNT and CBS Sports broadcasts. Amanda climbed her way up to the top, starting her media career at Hofstra University, where she majored in Broadcast Journalism and worked at the student newspaper. She interned for several stations, and from there, she started her professional career at a local newspaper in Lancaster. In 2011 she began as a reporter for the PGA Tour, then went to Callaway, eventually working her way to CBS Sports in 2017.

Gone are the days when false beliefs about women participating in sports dominated society. Nowadays, many women have become notable personalities on and off the pitch, and some have even successfully done both, like Alanna Rizzo, who was an accomplished athlete before she started working as a sports journalist.

Jill Arrington attended the University of Miami and graduated with a degree in Broadcast Journalism; she then began her broadcasting career as a producer for five years for the entertainment show called Main Floor and a year producing for Paramount’s Real TV. She was previously a sports anchor at KCBS-TV and KCAL 9 in Los Angeles. Jill Arrington has since married Dean Panaro, a four-time NCAA Champion diver. Together, they have a daughter named Presley Kate Panaro, born in 2004.

Many recognize Shannon Spake for her work with Fox Sports, where she handles all anchor duties for the NASCAR Cup Series as well as NASCAR Series races and pre-race shows. She was also a college football and basketball reporter for Fox Sports. Previously, she worked for ESPN, where she contributed to SportsCenter and also worked as a sideline reporter for SEC on ESPN basketball games as well as college football games. In 2017 Spake was the voice of Shannon Spokes in the Pixar film Cars 3.

Melissa is a television personality and sportscaster, probably most well-known for her three-year term as a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football. She’s currently a reporter for the NFL Network and has previously had worked with NBC, primarily at its MSNBC subsidiary. Melissa began her career at WMAR-TV in Baltimore in 1991 as a news intern working on the assignment desk. Melissa was a news intern for the CBS Evening News, where she wrote scripts and assembled background information on investigative pieces for health correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot.

Jennifer Dell Middlebrooks, publicly known as Jenny Dell, is an NFL reporter for CBS Sports. She is about as versatile as sideline reporters get, need her to do baseball? Done. Want her to do some football? No problem, she’s done it all! After growing up in Connecticut, Jenny Dell attended college at the University of Massachusetts and earned her degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management. Back in 2012, Dell started dating Will Middlebrooks, at the time the third baseman for the Red Sox. The two became engaged in July 2014 and were married in February 2016.

Charissa Thompson was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and she always knew she wanted to be a broadcaster from an early age. However, she graduated from UCLA with a degree in Law and Society. She has been the host of many sports programs including, NHL on Versus and the NFL on Fox Sports. Charissa was also one of the hosts of Ultimate Beastmaster, and for three consecutive years, she was a co-host on the entertainment news show Extra.

Melanie Collins is another example of a Broadcast Journalism graduate who has worked hard to achieve her dream as a reporter at the top of her profession. She is currently working as an NFL sideline reporter for CBS Sports and the host of the show Big Break. Melanie was the face of Yahoo! Sports, where her assignments included reporting from all major sporting events across the globe. Melanie also served as the host of the weekly show Fantasy Football Live.

Amanda Pflugrad currently works as the reporter for the 17-Time World Champion Boston Celtics. She conducts pre, and post-game interviews with both players and coaches, delivering live game recaps/analysis as well as providing daily updates from the practice. Her duties also including hosting the Celtics live pregame show during every home game. In 2015, Amanda was a sideline reporter for ESPN, covering women’s gymnastics. She continues her duties as an analyst and sideline reporter for the PAC-12 Network; covering college football, track and field, and gymnastics.

The Texas native graduated from Texas A&M University and worked in College Station after graduation for TexAgs.com, where she took on multiple roles, including radio personality, stand-in host, and producer. Smith has a passion for and an extensive background in sports talk radio. Kayce Smith is currently located in New York, New York, where she is a personality at Barstool Sports and SiriusXM. Before relocating to NYC, she lived in Boston in 2017-2018, where she was a part of NBC Sports Boston.

Sara Carbonero Arévalo is a Spanish sports journalist. When Sara was in the third year of her Journalism degree from the Complutense University of Madrid, she began as an intern at Radio Marca, and six months later she was hired as a paid employee. In April 2009, she signed with Telecinco as an editor and sports presenter. Telecinco is a free-programming Hispanic channel know for it’s myriad of programs. A notable event was her coverage in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the unexpected Swiss victory over the Spaniards.

Brittany May McHenry is a former ESPN personality. Nowadays she works as a commentator on Fox Nation, Fox News’ 24/7 streaming service. Soon after graduating from the Medill School of Journalism, Brittany began her illustrious career working as a sports reporter and fill-in anchor for ABC Television’s Washington affiliate, and its sister station NewsChannel 8. She spent two weeks at Fox Sports San Diego as a sideline reporter on the San Diego Padres telecasts, and she then returned to ABC 7.