Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - Breaking the Silence： Conservative Voices in Sports Media with Michele Tafoya

00:00:00.000 welcome back to the gains for girls podcast thank you guys for tuning in make sure you

00:00:11.120 check us out at outkick.com anywhere where you get your podcasts super exciting news

00:00:16.280 because fox nation will now be running my show other outkick shows on their network

00:00:21.720 so be sure to check that out at foxnation.com today's guest is one i am super excited for

00:00:29.980 i was looking at everything going on in the world whether it was the olympics whether it was sam

00:00:36.740 ponder being fired at espn and i was thinking to myself which would be who would be a good guest

00:00:42.740 to get on and to talk about all this with and my mind immediately went to michelle tifoya i have

00:00:49.320 been a big fan of hers for a long time far longer than i have been involved in this space i remember

00:00:56.140 watching actually the olympics in 2016 and she was one of the commentators for the sport of swimming

00:01:03.120 i was actually there at the olympic trials and so been a big fan of hers for a long time

00:01:08.020 she is an american reporter sports broadcaster she's worked at cbs sports abc espn nbc all of

00:01:16.660 the acronyms she's been there she most i think notably she was the primary sideline reporter for 0.99

00:01:23.380 nbc sunday night football um covered the nfl again the olympics professional sports but she has since

00:01:30.620 departed from the sports casting world now she has her own show i encourage you to go check that out

00:01:37.540 and she is a conservative political consultant she makes tv appearances to discuss the state of

00:01:44.160 american politics sports culture and how they all intersect and so i could not be more excited for

00:01:50.980 this conversation with michelle tifoya michelle thank you so much for coming on the gains for

00:01:56.460 girls podcast uh you have been you've been someone that i have admired and looked up to for a really

00:02:03.880 long time uh far longer than i have been involved in this space and so i could not be more thrilled to

00:02:09.520 talk with you but before we get into anything i want you to uh take a little time tell us about

00:02:14.420 yourself and your illustrious career well you know what it's been a we're gaining on three years now

00:02:21.840 since i stepped away from the nfl i quit that job because i just kept looking around and seeing how

00:02:29.280 afraid people were to talk and that mortified me and even i was limited as to what i could say in that

00:02:37.160 job i was on the number one show in prime time sunday night football and you don't want to invite

00:02:41.500 controversy and that's what i signed up for i signed up to be a team player and to focus on the show and

00:02:48.020 not focus on me and my political stances but i couldn't i couldn't do it anymore i couldn't keep

00:02:54.580 quiet anymore and it was worth stepping away from what had been my dream job my entire life to to be

00:03:01.020 able to do this and to talk to people like you um and i admire the hell out of you riley for for taking

00:03:07.900 the stances that you have and being so courageous to to stand up to the mob let's face it so i had

00:03:14.660 nothing more to gain uh by staying in my job and i had a lot to lose by not speaking out so i've got

00:03:22.060 the michelle tefoya podcast um and i'm kind of traveling and doing a ton of media all over the

00:03:27.220 country whenever i can if i can change one mind or even make one person think or even encourage one

00:03:34.400 person to speak riley one person to post something that they might not have otherwise posted then then

00:03:40.260 i'm happy i love it i love how you said encourage someone to think uh because thinking has seemingly

00:03:47.140 become a lost art in today's society and you are doing just that um i mean three years ago gosh this

00:03:53.600 must have been the height of the covid stuff uh the height of the blm stuff all affecting it shouldn't

00:04:01.280 be but affecting the world of sports uh we saw how this affected sage steel uh another beautiful

00:04:08.280 overly qualified authentic genuine uh i mean really just one of the kindest people i've ever met in my

00:04:16.580 entire life we saw how this affected her at espn a similar story to to yours honestly and now uh another

00:04:24.380 wonderful woman at espn sam ponder uh she recently we saw it all over the news uh espn ultimately uh

00:04:33.740 terminated sam ponder they claimed it was for budget cut reasons we know sam ponder really was the only

00:04:39.860 woman currently employed at least by espn who was unapologetic and firmly saying that it's not hateful

00:04:48.820 to demand fairness in women's sports uh so i believe it's it's no shock no surprise uh that she

00:04:56.580 was one of two the other one was rg3 uh another christian another wonderful human i believe uh but

00:05:03.700 nonetheless this was three weeks before the start of football season and so i wanted to get your take

00:05:07.560 on sam ponder uh and what happened to her yeah you know it three weeks before the season as you

00:05:14.320 mentioned so the story could have gotten a lot less attention at which you would think espn would

00:05:21.420 want had they done it maybe during the olympics or during the middle of the summer but they waited

00:05:25.620 until the three weeks before the nfl season and that her show sunday night or sunday uh nfl countdown

00:05:32.220 was coming off its best rating season in years so i'm not sure what was going on there or why

00:05:40.080 but i think like you said i think we can guess um you've got it is interesting how they're both

00:05:46.140 christians there are still christians employed at espn i don't want to imply that they're firing all

00:05:50.980 their christians but with sam yeah uh nancy armor a writer for usa today called samantha ponder a bigot 0.97

00:05:59.540 she said it was just unveiled bigotry that she did not want biological men competing against women 0.80

00:06:06.680 this is such a an insult um and and i i just i i feel for sam that she had to go through that to

00:06:15.680 begin with but i admire her for standing up to it and saying i don't care what nancy armor says

00:06:20.620 and quite frankly i don't care what nancy armor says um she you know this it is not bigotry to say

00:06:28.240 that women have fought for fairness on the playing field for decades they finally get it through title 1.00

00:06:34.780 line and now and and what we see men boxing women at the olympics so uh this is this is absurd and

00:06:42.320 you're right she is the only uh woman who is currently employed at espn who had the guts to say it

00:06:46.780 yeah this piece uh by nancy armor uh i remember reading it when it came out gosh probably a year ago

00:06:54.540 i i think it was in may of 2023 um and i was appalled uh this was still i think at the time

00:07:04.200 i was newer to the space i knew media bias of course i knew media media bias existed uh but

00:07:11.500 reading this piece in usa today i was just i mean i was heartbroken i felt demoralized is how i felt

00:07:18.020 another woman could write this about a woman standing up for women yeah um it was mind-blowing to me but

00:07:25.920 now we've seen other uh personalities commentators analysts at espn uh one being kirk herb street who came

00:07:32.960 out and said look uh i think yeah he he's someone who i admire greatly too he came out and said look

00:07:39.220 what we're seeing is is quite frankly total bs yeah all men into women's sports i imagine he's a person

00:07:47.540 who uh has too much power at espn he's one of the greats um i can't imagine they'll they'll take

00:07:55.500 drastic measures to get rid of him um well it's interesting riley i haven't seen nancy armor write

00:08:01.260 an article maybe i missed it has she called kirk herb street a bigot or does she only attack women 1.00

00:08:06.060 i'm just i'm just wondering um for a friend listen i was so happy when kirk said that on outkick uh to

00:08:12.880 our friend dan dockage and he said i don't give two you know what's anymore i've got to say it

00:08:17.600 and um i've been in touch with kirk and my hope is that he's sort of you know poking another hole in

00:08:25.500 the dam and we start to see a flood of these uh expressions come out from other men but you and

00:08:32.940 i've talked about this in the past and i believe this to be the case we can't want it more for them

00:08:38.340 than they want it for themselves these women who are dealing with this have to stand up for themselves 1.00

00:08:44.140 as well we can say and shout all we want but some of these women have to be willing to say you know 1.00

00:08:51.700 what i'm withdrawing from this race or i'm withdrawing from this boxing match or i refuse

00:08:56.100 to compete in this cycling uh velodrome race because there are biological men in the women's 1.00

00:09:02.520 category i'm not going to do it and uh you and i both know jennifer say and she has started a fund

00:09:08.260 through xxxy athletics that will help support the courage of these young any women who are willing to

00:09:16.100 say screw it this is not worth it to me totally uh and similarly to how you mentioned with your job

00:09:24.060 um with mbc you know you were at this point where uh you didn't have a whole lot to gain but you had

00:09:30.620 a whole lot to lose that's these women too they have so much to lose so i think it's crucial in

00:09:37.160 incentivizing look if you don't compete we have a fund for you if you're worried about losing out on

00:09:43.560 prize money don't be it's right here i i think it's so important you mentioned that again everyone

00:09:48.180 should go to xxxy athletics and check out that prize fund it's a courage scholarship for for women for 0.96

00:09:55.160 young women uh what have you people who are five bucks chip in five bucks just to help easy that's 1.00

00:10:01.760 a starbucks drink yeah totally you mentioned men too i think another important piece we talk a lot

00:10:07.980 about women and and where are the feminists but i think we should be asking ourselves the question

00:10:12.660 of where are the men we talked about kirk uh there was another story going around about dan orlovsky

00:10:18.600 yeah which let me start by saying again i'm a fan of his he seems like a wonderful family man again

00:10:24.700 another person who is strongly convicted in his faith but he put out a tweet that said protect our

00:10:31.420 daughters short sweet seemingly uncontroversial wrong uh it was rumored that this was deemed controversial

00:10:40.260 by espn standards uh orlovsky he then deleted the tweet he got tons of pushback on social media

00:10:47.460 specifically what i saw on x uh now it's being said that he deleted the tweet because he had bad info on

00:10:55.640 uh the boxer at the olympics the boxer who who previously had been barred from world championships

00:11:01.880 because of failed uh gender sex eligibility requirement tests but regardless of the reason

00:11:07.920 why he deleted a tweet that 99.9 percent of people would not see as controversial or even political

00:11:17.540 and so what's your take on this do you do you believe that espn saw this as something that that

00:11:24.160 ultimately harmed their reputation well when you look at orlovsky's explanation as to why he deleted the

00:11:30.920 tweet he said look i work for a big company espn and what i post reflects on me and my family

00:11:36.800 but also on the company i work for and i understand that given what i've just said to you about

00:11:41.260 being on sunday night football and and knowing that you can be a distraction but espn is a massive

00:11:48.360 company and by that i mean they have tons of people on the air so it's not just like the number

00:11:55.640 one show on tell the comparison is hard to make here because dan should be able to have his own

00:12:01.780 opinions he's on there for opinions i was a reporter i was a journalist i was an objective

00:12:06.460 observer of the games it was a totally different role so but in this case to say protect our daughters

00:12:13.640 i have to believe that he was encouraged to delete that post or that he received some sort of feedback

00:12:20.780 that encouraged him to delete that post and it's it's it's such a bummer i look full transparency i

00:12:28.960 worked for espn for a long time and abc and it's just disappointing to know that any journalistic

00:12:36.940 any broadcast any media platform doesn't have room for conflicting opinions for divergent opinions for

00:12:45.460 the this diversity equity inclusion thing they don't include conservatives more often than not

00:12:51.520 and uh conservative thought and that is really really disappointing to me and i and i think that

00:12:58.080 espn has paid a little bit of the price for that and i think that most companies end up paying the price for

00:13:04.140 that i saw where steve kerr even during his um speech at the dnc uh he said he was taking

00:13:15.440 a risk to endorse kamala harris for president um which we saw even just a couple weeks ago

00:13:23.620 this week where mina kimes uh she said that tim walls ooze masculinity and was her kind of man which

00:13:31.000 is kind of masculinity yeah that's just comical in my opinion well i and i i yeah i riley i'm sorry

00:13:39.960 to interrupt you i i posted because i've lived in tim walls's minnesota for 30 years now

00:13:44.620 and um i've seen republican governors i've seen jesse the body ventura as our governor and now

00:13:51.000 i've seen uh this guy tim walls and for someone who hasn't lived in minnesota and someone who does

00:13:58.920 not know this man or his record to say this is the kind of masculinity that she champions and she she 0.87

00:14:05.000 compared it to the kelsey brothers to travis and jason kelsey um i beg to differ uh i know those two guys

00:14:14.000 pretty well and i beg to differ but masculinity and her kind of masculinity what the hell does that 1.00

00:14:21.440 have to do with what kind of job you do in governance zero and by the way i don't want the

00:14:28.440 kind of masculinity that tim walls exuded when we were sitting here for three days watching minneapolis

00:14:33.720 burn when we were under his curfews when we were locked down when our kids couldn't play hockey during

00:14:39.060 covid so kids were driving to wisconsin in order to get their hockey practices in but watching our

00:14:44.420 grade levels we have 50 of the kids in minnesota can't read or write or do math at grade level that

00:14:51.100 is despicable that's not the kind of masculinity i'm up for no way not to mention i don't know any

00:14:58.040 masculine man who feels it's necessary for other men to use tampons female menstrual products um i just 0.54

00:15:06.720 want to know where these boys are putting these tampons but according to my son according to my

00:15:12.300 son uh most boys are just throwing them around the uh the restroom of course what yeah because they're

00:15:18.400 boys high school middle school age boys to do right um but kimes i i mean i saw where outkick even

00:15:26.740 reached out to her um for comment she wouldn't give one she claimed outkick had posted horrible lies and

00:15:33.700 has caused racism and and harassment to her family which itself is a total lie uh clay travis and

00:15:41.240 others on the outkick team have have done an awesome job in calling her out uh continuing to press her

00:15:47.860 you know you say we posted these lies what are the lies of course she hasn't been able to produce

00:15:52.600 anything that would validate her story all this to say to your point uh it seems it goes one way

00:15:59.120 always at aspn if you have conservative beliefs like sage steel or sam ponder or david pollack

00:16:06.600 another example yes um you get fired but if you have far left wing opinions like mina kimes uh it seems

00:16:14.480 as if you get promoted yeah it's it's saying it's a risk uh no one takes any risk by being a left

00:16:22.380 winger in sports it seems all you get is praise i would agree with that i'm you know i can understand

00:16:28.600 a certain measure of risk because he knows that 50 percent of the country disagrees with him

00:16:34.980 and and so and he's got this very high profile position but steve kerr has has disappointed me

00:16:41.760 for other reasons not having to do with whom he supports but what he supports and his um views on

00:16:48.120 china are very disturbing to me and for him to view he has said in in a in a press conference uh

00:16:55.260 no he hasn't talked or acknowledged that the human um the the violations of human rights in china

00:17:02.820 nor has he talked with china about the violations of human rights in the united states they are not 0.59

00:17:09.400 comparable and this is by the way is another thing that tim walls has said when he was a teacher in

00:17:14.300 nebraska he taught his students that china was this great place where everyone was treated equal

00:17:19.220 well tell that to the muslim uyghurs tim tell that to the uyghurs who are shoved away in these 1.00

00:17:25.660 re-education camps separated from their families so histories can't be taught and forced into labor 0.84

00:17:32.500 and other things i might add and many just you know exterminated are they equal tim so his views on china

00:17:41.160 are are very disturbing to me and his relationship with the ccp needs to be called into question 1.00

00:17:48.580 if he and kamala are ever willing to take questions of course uh i agree that's not the only

00:17:55.840 lie that that tim walls has told or the only narrative that he's pushed along uh we've seen of course uh the

00:18:03.660 stolen valor where he has claimed that he has been in combat that he's fought overseas when that's a

00:18:09.680 total lie we saw even just recently where he said that his wife was able to uh produce children uh with

00:18:16.740 the help of ivf but then his wife came out and said i haven't done ivf um so there have been lie after

00:18:23.520 lie after lie not to mention no no plans no policies thus far at the time of that we're talking that they

00:18:31.760 have said uh here's how we're going to take action no they're campaigning on lies and the policies that

00:18:37.800 they have talked about have been directly from trump's platform no no taxes on tips

00:18:44.580 yeah it's it's it's comical um i think they're relying on their voting base being entirely

00:18:52.080 uninformed yeah which is tragic that we that we do have people who would see

00:18:57.280 what they're doing uh what this ticket is what they stand for or i guess better yet what they don't

00:19:02.900 stand for right um and still being willing to vote uh the hatred of trump as you know riley is so

00:19:10.740 extraordinary that they're willing to put the country second i mean that they will that suddenly

00:19:17.500 kamala harris is no longer the borders are that suddenly you know and and kamala harris by the way

00:19:22.200 wants to raise corporate taxes to a rate that would make us perhaps the highest corporate tax rate in

00:19:26.980 the world which uh doesn't help it doesn't help workers it doesn't help bring manufacturing jobs

00:19:33.920 back and we just this morning before you and i sat down to talk got a revised uh jobs numbers that

00:19:39.900 was exceedingly lower than the original number uh from last year or from a year ago so it's there's a

00:19:47.400 lot of smoke and mirrors going on in this notion of joy and when we campaign on hope and joy which i

00:19:53.760 noticed they're not saying hope and change anymore because they're not going to change what we've been

00:19:58.260 enduring for the last three and a half years if anything it's going to get worse and and it is

00:20:03.600 frustrating riley i share your frustration that people are willing to overlook that to overlook like

00:20:11.720 facts and real real data in order to feel happier in a in a moment and not look over what would happen

00:20:22.820 over the next four years which quite frankly keeps me awake at night and i'm not exaggerating no agreeing

00:20:29.580 they do it for vibes they say yeah it's crazy but you've spent lots of time covering the olympics with

00:20:36.760 nbc yeah what's the shift been like for you at one point of course so heavily involved you're there

00:20:44.560 you're interviewing athletes after they win gold medals to now kind of being on the other side and watching

00:20:50.700 the screen what what are some of the changes that you've seen well this this year's olympics um in

00:20:57.380 paris you know the opening ceremony was just too much for me i i some of it was very good but some of

00:21:03.600 it was just really i i'm this this whole idea of forcing this gender ideology down our throats uh time 0.97

00:21:14.920 after time after time after time after time in an effort to normalize it and just move away from

00:21:21.980 these um sort of just i guess classic norms that uh by the way propagate our species uh is is weird to

00:21:30.520 me um i there are some things i really loved watching on nbc and so i didn't really have any

00:21:36.400 complaints about about coverage necessarily uh but i don't again the the men boxing against women and

00:21:45.220 both of those men won gold medals is extraordinarily disappointing to me um and and and people sort of

00:21:52.460 tiptoeing around that whole issue and the president of the ioc saying well it's really tough to clearly

00:21:58.920 determine what is female and what is male no it's not no it's not it's xx or xy and uh so we are we're

00:22:08.680 in a really weird place and and i'm just kind of a common sense person and none of this makes common

00:22:14.180 sense to me no you know rowdy gains is my cousin right yes and i love rowdy i just i just love him i

00:22:23.580 it's so funny that you are you really cousins uh apparently we did a genealogy test and apparently

00:22:30.060 we are six cousins first removed whatever that are you're both great swimmers i mean you got some

00:22:35.760 sort of genetic thing going on there i know it uh but he's great he i always enjoy swimming of course

00:22:42.720 because i enjoy watching swimming but i think more so i enjoy listening to rowdy commentate provide the

00:22:50.340 coverage he's he's wonderful he and dan i got to do two olympics and a world championships with them

00:22:55.680 and and numbers of um usa qualifying in omaha for for the u.s olympic team with rowdy and dan and i had

00:23:03.720 some of the best times i've ever had in my life when i covered swimming in rio de janeiro in 2016 rightly

00:23:10.180 i would leave that aquatic center every night going i can't believe i get paid to do this it was a blast

00:23:16.020 that's awesome um we mentioned ivf you have a beautiful adopted daughter am i right and a son

00:23:23.420 who was born with the help of ivf you know what our son was a complete miracle riley we did multiple

00:23:28.960 rounds of ivf um we had big time infertility issues and where tim walls where the distinction between ivf and

00:23:37.640 what he and his wife did is ivf is really invasive really expensive right and it's uh it's it's difficult

00:23:46.180 to get good results and we never did we lost multiple pregnancies and i can talk about it now

00:23:52.760 without crying because ultimately we had this miracle baby in my son and then my husband looked at me and

00:23:57.980 said you know what now we get to adopt and so we went down to colombia bogota and adopted our

00:24:04.780 incredible gift of a daughter who is now 15 and um yeah so i can talk about this without crying except

00:24:12.680 so sometimes i feel tears of joy about my kids i'm so lucky uh but ivf does matter to me at the same

00:24:19.840 time that i've been through all of this that i'm so glad that my daughter's biological mother did not 0.73

00:24:26.660 have an abortion and that we are the lucky recipients of this child i remain pro-choice with some

00:24:32.520 restrictions i am not yay let's go abortion that's not the kind of pro-choice i am i like for a woman

00:24:39.480 to have opportunities in the very early stages of her pregnancy to decide if if if something a terrible

00:24:46.140 mistake happened here and by the way i would also say there are other ways to like not get pregnant

00:24:51.480 okay but um anyway i i remain pro-choice um and i could say pro-life with exceptions but i i do remain

00:24:59.840 pro-choice uh but even given all of that i will not vote for this ticket and i don't allow the abortion 0.99

00:25:06.980 um screams and the oh they're going to take ivf away i don't allow that stuff to stir up fear in me

00:25:14.500 because i've lived through all of it i've seen what's available on all levels believe me i won't get

00:25:20.000 into too many details but i've seen it i've been through it um i'm sad that some women make this their 1.00

00:25:26.740 top priority because i would say to you there are women who have been raped by people who came into

00:25:33.300 this country illegally without proper vetting so wouldn't the the first priority be a safe secure

00:25:40.880 border safe domestic policy strong foreign policy so we are you know we're strong against the enemies

00:25:50.660 within and without um all of those things shouldn't that matter first so i i i would just say to women 0.79

00:25:58.920 who have abortion at the top of their list listen i i hear your fears but i think they're using them 0.55

00:26:06.760 against you the democrats are using it against you just to ensure that you vote for them

00:26:12.200 if you can't afford groceries and you can't put gas in your car and with the children you do have

00:26:18.760 you cannot choose their school those should be bigger issues in my humble opinion totally i love

00:26:26.180 that take um yeah i agree about the portion of of them using it against you i mean you have even people

00:26:33.540 like at the dnc andy beshear the governor of kentucky who has a plethora of things to talk about

00:26:40.300 who spent almost the entirety of his speech talking about abortion um it just seems as if they're they're

00:26:47.980 making this that issue yeah it seems like abortion went from legal safe and rare to now uh on demand

00:26:56.560 unregulated and as often as possible so maybe even taxpayer funded exactly exactly and so i think your

00:27:04.580 take is strong last question for you what advice do you have for for young women who want to enter

00:27:13.540 into the world of sports journalism or sports broadcasting i would say first and foremost be

00:27:20.900 ready to work as hard as you've ever worked in your life uh put yourself second and by that i mean you

00:27:29.100 are not the story there are some reporters in all kinds of journalism who like to make themselves

00:27:35.280 the story there's activism uh in journalism don't do that be a journalist which means an objective

00:27:42.500 observer of the things around you and tell stories really really well um understand how to captivate

00:27:51.440 your your your audience by hooking them with that first part of the story but more than anything

00:27:56.760 be really good to work with you are not you know no matter how big of a star you become the less you

00:28:04.420 act like a star the more you're going to be appreciated and everyone's going to want to work with you so that

00:28:10.960 means the guys who are pulling cable behind the scenes that means the people in catering that means

00:28:16.360 the guy in graphics who's grinding away in a truck eight hours 12 hours 16 hours a day be good to work

00:28:23.380 with with everyone around you and work your ass off uh those are the things and and it's again 0.73

00:28:30.040 to be a good journalist means not making the story about you not making it all about you but telling the

00:28:37.120 story in a in a truthful solid and honest way that uh that shines the light on the story and not on you

00:28:46.240 i love it i love it well there's no one better to give that advice than you and so michelle

00:28:52.540 thank you for everything uh always enjoy talking to you it's great to talk to you riley be well

00:28:57.500 again be sure to check out the michelle to foia podcast uh she has wonderful takes as you saw in

00:29:04.340 our interview today uh thank you guys for listening this week be sure to check us out at outkick.com

00:29:11.520 again you can check us out at fox nation because fox nation will now be airing my show other outkick

00:29:17.280 shows throughout the course of their program and so we appreciate you guys and we will see you again next week

00:29:22.540 you

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - August 28, 2024

Breaking the Silence： Conservative Voices in Sports Media with Michele Tafoya

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