NFL gamers generally threat critical harm on the enjoying subject ― and so did former sideline reporter Lisa Guerrero.
The present “Inside Edition” investigative journalist revealed in her new memoir, “Warrior,” that she as soon as skilled a miscarriage whereas overlaying a recreation on dwell TV, in keeping with People.
Back in 2003, Guerrero labored the sidelines on “Monday Night Football” for one season. It was a aggravating time, she wrote, partially as a result of she needed to take care of what she calls an “ugly misogyny running rampant through sports radio airwaves — and I was their perfect target.”
Guerrero mentioned she was attacked for her garments, her lengthy hair and even for carrying purple nail polish. Adding to the problem, she found the rationale she hadn’t had a interval since beginning the “MNF” job wasn’t due to stress — she was pregnant.
Guerrero mentioned that she and her then-husband, Scott Erickson, had agreed years earlier than they didn’t need youngsters, however admits “fantasizing” about what their baby may appear to be.
But one night time whereas working a recreation, she mentioned “felt a dampness” between her legs. At first, she thought she had simply gotten her interval earlier than remembering she was pregnant.
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“I was having a miscarriage! I could feel blood leaking,” she wrote within the e book.
Guerrero instructed her assistant she was going to the toilet and he instructed her, “They’re about to throw to you.” After she delivered the dwell report, she was dizzy and nauseated “but reminded myself to stand up straight.” The ache was excruciating, she mentioned.
“I heard myself mispronounce a player’s name and knew I’d hear about it later,” Guerrero mentioned. “As soon as I finished, I raced off to interview a coach. Then I headed to the bathroom. As I sat on the toilet, I couldn’t believe the blood pouring out of me. It had soaked through my pants. I shoved a bunch of paper towels in my underwear.”
Guerrero admitted that it by no means occurred to her to inform somebody she was having a medical emergency or that she ought to have gone to a hospital as a substitute of doing the sport.
“The only thought that crossed my mind was that I could get through the rest of the game as long as I buttoned up my long winter coat. That way, no one would see the blood,” she mentioned.
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After the sport, Guerrero determined not to return to the manufacturing truck to speak to producers.
“Instead, I headed to the plane. In the bathroom [on board], I changed clothes, and dumped my underwear and pants in the garbage can,” she mentioned. “I looked into the mirror and didn’t recognize the pale, gaunt, scared, and so very tired woman who stared back at me.”
Guerrero confronted a variety of flak when she started at “Monday Night Football,” with commentator Keith Olbermann suggesting on the time that announcers John Madden and Al Michaels resign in protest of her hiring.
“I was terrified,” Guerrero instructed the New York Post in 2021. “People at home probably looked at it as, ‘She’s scared of the job. She’s intimidated by “Monday Night Football.”’ I wasn’t afraid of the job. I used to be afraid of [executive producer Fred Gaudelli]. I used to be afraid of him screaming at me after each recreation and in the course of the recreation. I cried each recreation. It was terrible.”
“Warrior” hits shops Jan. 23.
