Female ESPN NFL Analysts and Commentators

Sarah Barshop is one of the Los Angles Rams ESPN NFL female reporters for NFL Nation. Previously, she worked for Houston Texans from 2016 to 2022.

Sarah began her journalism journey as an intern at 540 ESPN Milwaukee, ESPN, and the Milwaukee Bucks, at 620 WTMJ.

From 2012 to 2013, she worked as the Client Production Director with on and off-campus clients to produce, shoot, and edit sound and video as needed for special events like lectures, commercials, and promoting videos.

Before joining as Los Angles Rames reporter in 2022, she covered the Houston Texans and the Green Bay Packers for ESPN. She has contributed to various ESPN platforms, including ESPN.com, NFL Live, SportsCenter, and ESPN Radio.

Barshop has been part of the ESPN family since joining in 2016. Previously, she served as an editor and writer at Sports Illustrated in New York.

Moreover, Sarah graduated from Marquette University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts, Broadcast and Electronic Communication.

Lisa Salters is one of the versatile, Sports Emmy-winning reporters for NFL’s Monday Night Football and NBA games on ESPN and ABC.

Since 2000, Salters has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC. Previously, she covered the O.J. Simpson case for ABC and served as a reporter at WBAL-TV in Baltimore.

Salters joined ESPN as an assignment reporter and servers as a sideline reporter and co-producer for Monday Night Football and the lead sideline reporter for ESPN’s newsmagazine show.

As the MNF sideline reporter since 2012, Salters has the longest tenure. She works on weekly games, the NFL Wild Card game, and a divisional playoff game beginning in the 2023-24 NFL season.

In 2020 for the first time, she was assigned to work in Super Bowl LIV as the sideline reporter for ESPN international broadcast in Australia and New Zealand.

Lisa also played basketball for a year for the Lady Lions team, where she was the shortest player ever at the school at 5’2″.

Olivia Harlan works for ESPN college football, NFL on Westwood One Sports, and Big Ten Network Basketball. 

Harlan is the host and media personality for BetMGM, a sports betting platform, and the former sideline reporter for Atlanta Hawks on Fox Sports Southeast. Similarly, she is also part of the college football game coverage and NBA game for ESPN and Fox Sports.

20-year-old Olivia Harlan, also known as Olivia Dekker, joined ESPN in 2015. However, her professional career began when she graduated from the University of Georgia in 2014.

She was mainly associated with famous people; her father, Kevin Harlan, was a play-by-play announcer, and her grandfather was former Packer’s chief executive officer Bob Harlan while her husband was a renowned basketball player.

Recently, she made history with her father as the first father-daughter duo to call an NFL playoff game on a national broadcast when they covered the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022.

Laura Rutledge is the female host and reporter for ESPN and SEC Network and also the former beauty pageant titleholder Miss Florida 2012. 

She has been working as a sideline reporter for numerous NFL games at ESPN NFL, including the first-ever ESPN+ exclusive NFL game at Wembley Stadium in London in 2022.

Since joining ESPN in 2014 as a reporter, Rutledge has reported on SEC Network and ESPN and has grown her role. She started hosting NFL Live in June 2020 and also hosted her sixth year of SEC Nation in 2022.

Rutledge was a sports anchor for CNN’s New Day and Early Start before she came to ESPN. In addition, she worked for HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade and Fox Sports.

Rutledge has a broadcasting journalism degree from the University of Florida, where she won the 2011 Red Barber Award for Excellence in Broadcasting at UF.

ESPN NFL female commentator Samantha Ponder is known for being a former reporter and host for college football and basketball on ESPN and ABC.

She has hosted Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN since 2017, becoming the third person to hold that position in the show. Besides hosting, Ponder also provides ESPN with NFL interviews and features.

After completing graduation from Liberty University in 2009, she worked as a sideline reporter for Fox Sports Net and Fox College Sports for Pac-10 and Big12 college football and basketball games.

Then, in 2011 she joined ESPN as a reporter and host for college football and basketball on various platforms including College GameDay, College Football Live, and ABC Saturday Night.

Mina Kimes is a female ESPN NFL analyst who has covered numerous NFL games for ESPN since 2014. Currently serves as an ESPN senior writer and NFL Live analyst.

Mina was born on September 8, 1985, and is native to Omaha, Nebraska. Kimes has been active in the field of journalism for more than one decade now.

Kimes started her career as a business journalist at Fortune Small Business Magazine in 2007 and received awards from the New York Press Club, the National Press Club, and the Asian American Journalism Association.

Apart from ESPN, she also co-hosted with Amanda Dobbins the Ringer’s “Big Little Live” after-show about the HBO series Big Little Lies and worked as a color commentator for the Los Angles Rams’ preseason football games.

American Sportscaster Kimberley A. Martin began her career as a Sales assistant at the U.S. Trust and then worked as a sports staff writer in 2005.

Martin has covered the NFL as a national writer, columnist, and beat reporter for over a decade and now working as an NFL reporter for the ESPN News Channel.

Kimberley worked as a sports Columnist at The Buffalo News and a Washington Redskins Beat Writer at The Washington Post. She also received the Emerging Journalist of the Year award 2011 from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Martin got a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and African-American Studies from Wesleyan University and then a master’s degree in magazine, newspaper, and online journalism from S.I. Newhouse School.