Former ESPN analyst and podcaster Bill Simmons doesn’t necessarily believe NBC’s explanation for why Michele Tafoya is enduring a three-week absence from Sunday Night Football.
NBC has insisted that Tafoya’s absence is no big deal and is in keeping with its ongoing policy.
“As we’ve done repeatedly, we’re again giving our SNF announcers bye weeks in 2021, and we plan to do it well into the future,” NBC recently told the New York Post.
Simmons, though, is not so sure. In fact, he thinks Tafoya is being punished because she made some conservative-leaning comments in criticism of ex-NFL player Colin Kaepernick on ABC’s The View last month.
“There’s some good conspiracy stuff going on about this,” Simmons said of Tafoya’s absence on his podcast. “Because she hosted The View at the beginning of November. She was in the conservative seat, then a couple weeks later, all of a sudden, just on a bye. Taking a break.
“It would be one thing if the show was on 52 weeks a year, but it’s only on 17 weeks a year. Do you need three weeks off during a 17-week season?” he added.
Tafoya was billed to The View audiences as a guest host who is “pro-choice conservative with libertarian leanings,” and at one point during her stint on the talk show, Trafoya blasted ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s characterization of the NFL as something akin to “slavery.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 28: Colin Kaepernick attends the Netflix Limited Series “Colin in Black and White” Premiere at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on October 28, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Netflix)
Tafoya explained that “no one forces these guys to play” football and added that “comparing it to the slave trade was a little rough.” She also waved off the idea that Kaepernick has been blackballed from the league over his year of protesting during the playing of the national anthem, saying “I promise you” he’d be in the NFL” if he could lead a team to the Super Bowl.
In her comments about Kaepernick, Tafoya faced boos from the woke in-studio audience. To that outburst, she quipped, “Bring it on!”
Michele Tafoya gleefully eggs The View crowd to "bring it on" after they groan at her Colin Kaepernick take. pic.twitter.com/46rbGgS0qJ
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 3, 2021
Over the last several weeks, Kathryn Tappen has been filling Tafoya’s shoes, but NBC claims that Tafoya will be back on Sunday Night Football next week.
Tappen’s presence also brought a theory from Simmons, who wondered if Tafoya is worried that Tappen might get a leg up over her through this three-week time out.
“If I’m Michele Tafoya, aren’t you protecting your seat?” Simmons wondered. “I don’t want anybody guest-sideline reporting for me. What if they’re better than me?”
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