Latest news with #MicheleTafoya
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ex-NFL sideline reporter and Trump fan Michele Tafoya responds after being accused of cringeworthy lie
NBC sports sideline reporter Michele Tafoya insists she wasn't trying to deceive anyone with a self-flattering and suspiciously familiar social media post. The sports media personality and outspoken Donald Trump supporter came under fire for recently posting a photograph of a lengthy note she claimed was given to her by a flight attendant aboard a plane. The hand-written message concluded: 'On a personal note, I want to thank you for the work you do. I always enjoyed your work with the NFL, but listening to your podcast is wonderful too. Your voice of reason is [sic] brings me a little hope in what seems a dark world. Again, thank you!' Tafoya also added a caption. 'Thank you to the flight attendant who handed this to me in flight,' she wrote in the July 8 post on X. The problem, according to a community note later added to the X post, was this mysterious flight attendant and her note were making a second cameo on Tafoya's timeline. Critics were quick to find a similar 2023 post from Tafoya featuring the exact same image. The problem, according to a community note later added to the X post, was this mysterious flight attendant and her note were making a second cameo on Tafoya's timeline But as she has now explained online, Tafoya wasn't trying to pass the note off as a new, but rather came across the message and simply decided to share it again. 'I ran across the photo of the note while cleaning out my photos,' she wrote on response to some online criticism over the confusion. 'It still means a lot to me. And I'm still grateful to the person who wrote it. But you're entitled to perceive it any way you like. Have a great day. 'And thanks again to that flight attendant.' The 2023 post had a different caption promoting her appearance on Fox News' show 'Gutfeld' as well as her own podcast. Tafoya wasn't trying to pass the note off as a new, but rather simply shared it again 'While on a flight to NYC to appear on @Gutfeldfox I was handed this note by a flight attendant. I won't reveal the person's name, but this made my day to say the very least!!!!!,' the 2023 caption read. Tafoya concluded with a link to her program and the words: 'Maybe this will inspire you to SUBSCRIBE.' A 60-married mother of two, Tafoya revealed her conservative political believes during her sports media career. Speaking with Sports Illustrated in 2015, Tafoya described herself as 'a pro-choice conservative.' She remained with NBC's Sunday Night Football coverage through 2021 and now hosts an eponymous podcast focusing on a variety of topics.
New York Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Michele Tafoya reponds to airplane letter drama after social media eruption
Former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya responded to those who trolled her Tuesday for reposting an old tweet that showed a complimentary note she received from a flight attendant back in 2023. Upon re-sharing the note this week, Tafoya — who left her job as a veteran NFL sideline reporter with NBC in 2022 to enter politics — was called out by fellow sports media personalities and X users, with a community note being tagged alongside her message to make it clear it wasn't a recent post. 'I will forever be grateful to the flight attendant who handed me this note back in 2023,' Tafoya wrote on Wednesday. 'It meant the world to me then, and it still does. So in honor of all the people who think it's strange that I would re-post a meaningful photo, here it is again.' 3 NBC reporter Michelle Tafoya works on the sideline before an NFL football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, December. 8, 2019, in Los Angeles. AP 3 Michele Tafoya stirred buzz after re-sharing an older note from a flight attendant this week on X. X The fallout from Tafoya's re-share on Tuesday was swift, as some believed the note was presented as new. 'The welpiest WELP I ever did welp,' sports reporter Sarah Spain posted on X in response to a tweet to Tafoya that read, 'Michele, how many times is this exact same flight attendant gonna hand you this exact same note.' Trey Wingo remarked, 'The receipts,' while former ESPNer Mike Wise commented, 'I love it when absolute frauds like @Michele_Tafoya get found out.' Tafoya explained Wednesday that she recently came across the note while cleaning. 3 Michele Tafoya looks on during Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California. Getty Images 'I ran across the photo of the note while cleaning out my photos, @ChrisOrlandoHS … It still means a lot to me. And I'm still grateful to the person who wrote it. But you're entitled to perceive it any way you like. Have a great day,' she wrote. When one X user remarked, 'Are we really going to start calling out all the times people repost things???' Tafoya replied Thursday, 'Apparently some people are just that petty.' Tafoya left her post at NBC Sports for politics after Super Bowl 2022. 'I got to a point in my life where I wanted to try other things, and there are some things that are really important to me,' Tafoya told The Athletic at the time. 'This is not to say that sports isn't an important field, that my job isn't an important job. But in my position, I was not as free to be as vocal about world events that I'm concerned about. 'It's not because I was told to shut up. I want to be very clear about that. But look, if you're on a show like 'Sunday Night Football,' which is the No. 1 show in prime time for 11 straight years, unprecedented, the last thing they want to do is invite controversy.'
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Former NFL reporter turned right-wing pundit Michele Tafoya caught red-handed recycling years-old photo
Michele Tafoya, the former NFL sideline reporter who has rebranded herself as a conservative firebrand, was called out for unsportsmanlike conduct this week when she was caught recycling an old letter from a fan calling her the 'voice of reason.' Tafoya, who ended her NBC Sports career in 2022 to jump headlong into GOP politics and right-wing punditry, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon an image of a note that she had ostensibly just received while she was traveling. 'Thank you to the flight attendant who handed this to me in flight,' Tafoya captioned the photo, which showed her holding a handwritten letter personally thanking her for being a 'voice of reason' and bringing the attendant 'a little hope in what seems a dark world.' It didn't take long, however, for social media sleuths to discover that Tafoya had shared this same exact note in a previous post. And when she first tweeted it out, Tafoya used it as an opportunity to promote her podcast, which supposed flight attendant had praised as 'wonderful.' 'While on a flight to NYC to appear on @Gutfeldfox I was handed this note by a flight attendant. I won't reveal the person's name, but this made my day, to say the very least!!!!! Maybe this will inspire you to SUBSCRIBE,' Tafoya noted in May 2023, making sure to highlight her appearance on Fox News host Greg Gutfeld's panel show. As soon as it was revealed that Tafoya had reused the exact same note in an effort to juice social media engagement – her post on X now contains a Community Note linking back to the original photo – the mockery over the MAGA commentator's stunt came flooding right in. It also led many critics to express doubt that the letter was ever written by a star-struck flight attendant in the first place. 'You should at least delete the old one before you tell the same totally real story again. At least you used a slightly different photo,' attorney Damin Toell quipped, acknowledging that Tafoya had posted an image of the letter from another angle. 'Michelle, you lying **** of a stunt queen. At least get a new letter!' film critic John Rocha tweeted. 'Sure feels like you wrote it yourself if you could produce the exact same letter and handwriting in 2023 AND 2025. Pulling a William Hurt in Broadcast News with your manufactured emotion here.' 'This did not happen when you posted it in 2023 and it did not happen today. No one wants to subscribe to your dumb s***,' internet personality Tony Posnanski snarked. Amid the onslaught of online ridicule over her clout-chasing reposting of the fawning in-flight letter, Tafoya has done what many others before her have tried when they've become the main character on social media – tweet through it. On Tuesday evening, she posted a short clip captioned 'Why Communism Fails Every Time,' only to find that the majority of respondents were still poking fun at her for using a recycled photo. One social media user also flagged one of Tafoya's tweets from last year in which she blasted Kamala Harris' campaign for posting a clip of a four-year-old JD Vance interview. 'They are lying and they don't care that they are lying,' she noted at the time. As of publication, Tafoya has yet to publicly address or acknowledge the repeated posting of the note. The Independent has reached out to Tafoya's representatives for comment.
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Former NFL reporter turned conservative political activist caught in cringeworthy lie
Either the same people keep staffing flights that former NBC sideline reporter Michele Tafoya takes or she likes to keep posting the same image repeatedly. Tafoya worked on the sidelines at the company from 2011 to 2022 before leaving to pursue a career in conservative politics and starting her own right-wing podcast. On Tuesday afternoon, Tafoya posted a picture of a handwritten note that she says was handed to her by a flight attendant, saying, 'Thank you to the flight attendant who handed this to me in flight.' The note read at the end, 'On a personal note, I want to thank you for the work you do. I always enjoyed your work with the NFL, but listening to your podcast is wonderful too. Your voice of reason is [sic] brings me a little hope in what seems a dark world. Again, thank you!' It's the kind of note that would provide a boost to anyone who deals with trolls or backlash all the time and is a sweet gesture from the flight attendant. But there's a catch: Tafoya posted this exact same picture of this exact same note two years ago. Internet sleuths did a little digging and found that Tafoya tweeted out a slightly different image of the exact same note on May 18, 2023. The image had a different caption, which promoted her appearance on Fox News' show 'Gutfeld' as well as her own podcast. 'While on a flight to NYC to appear on @Gutfeldfox I was handed this note by a flight attendant. I won't reveal the person's name, but this made my day to say the very least!!!!!,' the caption read. She then concluded, 'Maybe this will inspire you to SUBSCRIBE' before adding a link to her show. Once this post was discovered, the internet went off on Tafoya and called her out for being caught in a lie. 'Michelle, how many times is this exact same flight attendant gonna hand you this exact same note?' one person asked. Another said, 'You should at least delete the old one before you tell the same totally real story again. At least you used a slightly different photo.' 'Dang. Same exact note two years apart. What are the odds,' joked another. Another reply read, 'No person who ever appears on @FoxNews is truthful. You posted the same note two years ago. Can you exist for a minute without lying or puffing yourself up. How embarrassing to be you right now. Delete your account.'
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former NFL Reporter Michele Tafoya Called Out For Photo
Former NFL Reporter Michele Tafoya Called Out For Photo originally appeared on The Spun. Former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya spends a lot of time throughout the day engaging with her followers on social media. But one photo she recently shared got some extra engagement for what might have been the wrong reason. On Tuesday, Tafoya took to X to share a photo of a note that she claims was given to her by a flight attendant. It appeared to be handwritten by a fan who said Tafoya brings them "a little hope in what seems a dark world." "Thank you to the flight attendant who handed this to me in flight," Tafoya wrote in the message. There's one issue that other users quickly noticed: This wasn't the first time that Tafoya has shared that photo. As some social media sleuths pointed out, Tafoya has shared the exact note before. The first time she shared a nearly identical photo of the same note was way back in May of 2023. "While on a flight to NYC to appear on @Gutfeldfox I was handed this note by a flight attendant. I won't reveal the person's name, but this made my day, to say the very least!!!!!" she wrote on May 18, 2023. As a result, a slew of users on social media have called Tafoya out for seemingly trying to farm some engagement. "You should at least delete the old one before you tell the same totally real story again. At least you used a slightly different photo," one user remarked. "Michele, how many times is this exact same flight attendant gonna hand you this exact same note?" wrote another. "The real question is, did she use a different photo from the first time or does she carry it around with her & snapped a new photo?" a third wondered. "I think that's the same note. The new one has a dot in the same place on the bottom and the curve above want' looks the same," a fourth pointed out. "She was probably bored on the flight and wrote this herself." If we're giving Tafoya the benefit of the doubt here, maybe Tafoya is just fondly remembering that letter she received and felt like sharing it again. Though why she would use a photo that appears to have been taken from two years ago rather than a recent one of the letter if it's still in her possession is a headscratcher. Why do you think Tafoya shared the photo?Former NFL Reporter Michele Tafoya Called Out For Photo first appeared on The Spun on Jul 8, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jul 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
