Melissa Stark is set to begin her fourth season as NBC’s NFL sideline reporter, 25 years after her debut on ABC’s ‘Monday Night Football.’
Stark emphasizes the importance of on-the-ground observation to find unique information in an age of social media saturation.
Despite the challenges of the job, Stark considers the sideline the ‘best seat in the house’ and enjoys highlighting players’ joy in postgame interviews.
Melissa Stark could wake up Thursday morning and walk down the stairs of her New Jersey home to an empty house, the quietness consuming her. Life as an “empty nester” has arrived for the mother of four, with all of Stark’s children already at college for the fall.
But mom’s gotta go to work, and the job is the 2025 season opener between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys – 25 years to the day from her official NFL sideline reporter debut as a member of the “Monday Night Football” crew that included John Madden at the time.
“For me, it’s perfect timing,” Stark told USA TODAY Sports by phone. “To be an empty nester and to have the quiet around the house doesn’t really sit well with me.”
Assuming Stark spent all of those 25 years between the two dates roaming NFL sidelines and interviewing the most recognizable people in the country would be wrong. After 20 years away from that vantage point, Stark returned as NBC’s No. 1 NFL broadcast team sideline reporter for the 2022 season, with Michelle Tafoya exiting. In between, Stark juggled the ultimate job title – mom – while maintaining a presence in media from being a “TODAY” show correspondent to hosting and reporting duties for NFL Network from 2011-24.
Stark doesn’t remember much from inside the TWA Dome, where the St. Louis Rams defeated the Denver Broncos 41-36, on Sept. 4, 2000. Sharper in her memory is the Hall of Fame Game from a month earlier, her first actual time as a NFL sideline reporter. The New England Patriots, coached by Bill Belichick, were playing. Belichick gave her a tidbit newspeople would die for – that he’d fined some Patriots a hefty amount for being one minute late to a team meeting. She assumed a nugget that juicy would be handed over to the broadcast booth. Her producers taught her a lesson she imparts on young people looking to break into the business.
“You’re trying to find that one piece of information nobody else has,” Stark said of her main job responsibility.
That was her scoop – nobody else’s, the producers said. Stark reported the news and unearthed something actually insightful for the viewing audience.
In the social media age, that can feel impossible. Why power of observation matters.
“Those days just feel like a whole lifetime ago,” said Stark, who has won three Sports Emmys – one as part of NBC’s most-recent NFL postseason coverage and another as a member of NBC’s 2024 Paris Olympics coverage.
She added: “I can’t believe, at 26 years old, I had that job.”Not lost on Stark was how “cool” it was for a woman her age to have that responsibility.
NBC staffers and producers will find dated clips of her from the games she worked from 2000-02 and it’s only then Stark realizes how young she was. Being part of the NFL for that long “is an incredible honor.” The Baltimore native covered players in her first act and is now chronicling their sons in her second act.
The current players are close to her kids’ ages (oldest 22, youngest 18). The parental instinct kicks in as she’s arranging postgame interview shots.
“You stand here, you stand here,” she says, “kind of like how I do (with) my own kids.”
Melissa Stark ‘2.0’: Back to football from ‘best seat in the house’
Coming back to football, Stark had her “2.0” moment.
“To come back, it’s so rare. I feel so blessed just to be able to come back and do this job. It’s not something I ever thought I would come back and do after having four kids and starting a family.”
But now they’re all gone.
“So it’s absolutely perfect,” she said.
Sometimes when she’s watching old clips, Stark said, she surprises herself with a question the 26-year-old version of herself asked. If only she had the confidence and thick skin she’s gained along the way. But she understands that anybody in her business has to both earn and learn that feeling of belonging.
It’s a career not without tribulations. For example, at Super Bowl 35 between the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jerry Rice ran right past Stark for a brief interview meant to be part of the opening segment. Rice returned, but the red light was already off. She’s been bumped (accidentally) by players, had to chase coaches down only to have them react unprofessionally to a question, felt a sweater catching fire from pyrotechnics and hit in the head with a football.
“It’s the best seat in the house,” Stark said.
Acing tests, spotlighting joy
Stark and the NBC crew spent Labor Day at “The Star,” the Cowboys’ facility, to prep for the season opener. They visited with the defending champs in Philadelphia the next day.
“It works out well to not have me sitting here absolutely devastated as a mom with everyone gone,” she said.
Armed with notes, information and plans, Stark has prepared stories and human interest angles. She loved the feeling, while studying at the University of Virginia, of studying for an exam and knowing everything once it was test time. But as a reporter, she sees her value in the senses, the observations. Being the eyes and ears on the ground for the booth. That’s her favorite type of report – what Patrick Mahomes said to Travis Kelce on the bench, for example.
Postgame interviews are her favorite part of the job, though, for the chance to spotlight some joy in prime time.
“We do have so much going on in the world,” Stark said. “To be able to bring out the joy of these players who have worked so incredibly hard for these moments, is so important.
“I appreciate that so much and I don’t overlook the position I’m in and the power to bring that out. You have to do it.”
