A few weeks ago, Richard Deitsch at SI.com did an interview with Michele Tafoya. For the millionth time, she was asked to defend the role of the sideline reporter.

She said:

“It’s a role people don’t realize is quite difficult,” Tafoya said. “You don’t know when you will get on — sometimes it is very little and sometimes you are very active. Every year I have found more and more ways to be better prepared for every game and it continues to a position where I can grow. Industry-wide, and I have to be very careful how I say this, I have seen some networks take the sideline reporter off of their broadcasts. I’ll never understand that.

They have found themselves in positions where they are missing a lot of information, lacking insight, and [losing] immediacy to their reporters because they do not have someone down there field-wise to access this stuff for them. That is mind-boggling to me.

The next time Tafoya is asked about the value of sideline reporters question, instead of launching into a long answer, she should just pull out the tape of last night’s game.

Can you imagine how difficult the Gary Kubiak story would have been to cover if NBC didn’t have a sideline reporter on the scene? And not just any sideline reporter, but one of the best in the business in Tafoya.

She was able to provide concise and accurate updates on the situation. In fact, for much of the early news cycle on this story, the various media outlets were quoting Tafoya’s reports.

You can bet NBC and producer Fred Gaudelli  were glad to have Tafoya on the scene Sunday night.