As you noticed in the week one blowout of Rice, Alex Flanagan is no longer the sideline reporter for Notre Dame home football broadcasts on NBC. She was replaced by Kathryn Tappen. Flanagan did not leave NBC by choice, as she pointed out in a very revealing, detailed blog on her personal website.
“Former Nose Tackle Louis Nix jokingly accused me the other day of dumping the Irish by leaving my job as NBC’s sideline reporter,” Alex Flanagan wrote in the blog entry.
“Truth be told, I had hoped to at least stay long enough so when my kids started applying to college seven years down the road, I’d have a few good connections in South Bend. It didn’t work out that way. Not by my choice, but that’s okay. Because, for the past seven years, I got to be part of an amazing community and be around an excellent football program.”
As the tone of the blog conveys, Flanagan has no bitterness at all about her departure:
“Good luck Irish and thank you, to so many people, for your many years of kindness.”
However, she makes it very clear, with graciousness, that she really wanted to stay. The blog has been widely praised, and rightfully so, for it’s class. Although she won’t be in South Bend anymore, Alex Flanagan will continue working with NBC Sports Group. She’s also continued her excellent work with NFL Network this summer.
Flanagan will continue her role as on-site reporter for NBC’s “Football Night in America” this fall, but now she will share it with Carolyn Manno, and Tappen, her replacement at Notre Dame Stadium.
Tappen (age 33) is seven years younger than Flanagan (age 40).
Last fall, NBC Sports Group replaced their Sunday Night Football introduction singer Faith Hill (age 46) with someone 15 years younger in Carrie Underwood (age 31).
So whether or not NBC’s decision to replace Alex Flanagan with Kathryn Tappen was made primarily on the basis of age, none of us can truly say. We only know the facts in front of us. No one other than the NBC Sports Executives who actually made the decision can give us a true answer; and television executives are always understandably tight-lipped on such matters.
Tappen, who is married to former NHL player Jay Leach, will continue working at the NHL Network in addition to her duties with NBC. Tappen has been with NHLN since 2011.
It might appear on paper that a conflict of interest exists between Tappen’s personal and professional life, but you have to first realize a basic truth about NHL Network (or NFL Network, Big Ten Network, NESN, all of the regional Comcast Sports Networks etc).
None of these networks are doing true “journalism” or “sports news.”
As they are all owned and managed by teams or leagues, they primarily serve as promotional vehicles for their products. Providing news is only of a secondary concern, because you can’t actually provide fair, unbiased coverage of your ownership. That’s impossible.
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world and been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)