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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript