Michele Tafoya Reportedly Retiring After The NFL Season As Conspiracy Theory Drama Swirls

• Michele Tafoya is reportedly hanging up the mic at the end of the 2021-22 NFL season.
• Tafoya’s retirement comes as conspiracy theories, initially brought up by Bill Simmons, are making the rounds.
• Be sure to check out more sports stories at BroBible here.

Michele Tafoya is expected to step away from the NFL sidelines at the end of the NFL season, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.

While sources told the Post it is Tafoya’s decision to leave, that hasn’t stopped the conspiracy theories from coming out about her possibly being forced out of her position.

Tafoya, a staple as the sideline reporter on ‘Sunday Night Football,’ has missed the last three Sunday night games with NBC. The network has said that she’s simply been on “bye weeks,” which it claims to have given its announcers “repeatedly” in the past.

The real conspiracy theory here involves ABC’s ‘The View.’

Michele Tafoya Counters On ‘The View’

Tafoya was on the show in early November and made headlines with her remarks about the virus, saying “the flu kills people” too. She also made it clear that she doesn’t feel bad for Colin Kaepernick after all he’s gained away from the game of football nor does she believe he’s been blackballed by the league.

Tafoya missing the last three weeks on the sidelines in the aftermath of ‘The View’ got Bill Simmons thinking during a recent episode of his podcast. He thinks Tafoya could be getting forced out at NBC as a result of her comments on ‘The View.’

“There’s some good conspiracy stuff going on about this,” Simmons said. “Because she hosted ‘The View’ in the beginning of November. She was in the conservative seat, then a couple weeks later, all of a sudden, just on a bye. Taking a break.”

“It would be one thing if the show was on 52 weeks a year, but it’s only on 17 weeks a year. Do you need three weeks off during a 17-week season?”

After her appearance on ‘The View’ Tafoya did go on to work the sidelines for the rest of November before taking “bye weeks” the three weeks following Thanksgiving. All three of those games were bad-weather sites as well with games in Baltimore, Seattle, and Green Bay. She’ll reportedly miss Sunday night’s game in Gree Bay on January 2 as well.

It’s not clear how many more games Tafoya will spend on the sideline, but she is expected to be a part of the coverage for the Super Bowl.