Fox Sports’ Charissa Thompson Says She Used to Make Up Sideline Reports

She says she’d occasionally lie about talking to coaches at halftime.

Before becoming the host for Fox Sports’ Fox NFL Kickoff, Charissa Thompson was a sideline reporter with the network tasked with asking the tough questions and talking to coaches during games. In a recent interview on the Pardon My Take podcast, she revealed that, on occasion, she would blatantly lie about what coaches said during sideline reports. 

“I, and I’ve said this before, so I haven’t been fired for saying it, but I’ll say it again,” she said. “I would make up the report sometimes because A., the coach wouldn’t come out at halftime or it was too late and I was like, I didn’t want to screw up the report, so I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make this up.’

“Because, first of all, no coach is gonna get mad if I say, ‘Hey, we need to stop hurting ourselves, we need to be better on third down, we need to stop turning the ball over . . . and do a better job of getting off the field,’” she continued. “Like, they’re not gonna correct me on that.” 

Thompson, who also serves as a host for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football’s studio coverage, would make up broad quotes when she didn’t talk to a coach at halftime. She justified the lie by saying that no coach would deny such a broad statement if her made-up quote was so plain. 

Fox Sports and Amazon host Charissa Thompson admitted to making up bland reports in her previous role as sideline reporter :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

In 2022 during her Calm Down podcast with Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews, she first admitted to making up sideline reports. 

“I was like, ‘Oh coach, what adjustments are you gonna make at halftime?’ He goes, ‘That’s a great perfume you’re wearing,’” Thompson recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh f---, this isn’t gonna work.’ I’m not kidding, I made up a report.”