Off The Sidelines

Michele Tafoya, normally roaming the sidelines for ESPN's "Monday Night Football", is doing some sweeps-month moonlighting for WCCO, the Twin Cities-based CBS station where she got her start as a sports reporter before the networks called.

Here Tafoya did a story on infertility, briefly chronicling her own struggle with it (being that she's in her late child-bearing years) as well as interviewing some couples who are going through the same thing. Tafoya and her husband were rewarded for their efforts with a baby boy. Other couples, we must emphasize, may not be as fortunate.

(But don't take my word for it. See the report for yourself at wcco.com)

WCCO gets a big rap on the head for misleading advertising. In promoting the story, they made it look like poor Michele was lost and depressed while holding a teddy bear, wondering if the baby she longed for will ever come. That's just not true. Anyone who watched the final season of "Monday Night Football" on ABC in 2005 could see how far along Tafoya was getting, before she had to go on maternity leave. The way WCCO promoted the story was dishonest and insulted the intelligence of viewers who knew the truth.

As for Tafoya (who, let's face it, could pass for co-anchor Amelia Santaniello' s kid sister), it sounds as if she's ready to ditch sports for a new gig as a lifestyle reporter. The reports she's doing now for WCCO might also be doubling as an audition tape for network executives at "Today" or "Good Morning America". If that's the case, then she's off to a good start.