Total Pro Sports
ESPN has conducted a series of talent cuts over the last two years, but longtime reporter Lisa Salters isn’t going anywhere.
Ahead of the 2025 NFL regular season, the Worldwide Leader in Sports announced they have extended Lisa Salters’ contract. Not only that, but they have promoted Laura Rutledge to the “Monday Night Football” broadcasts alongside Salters, play-by-play voice Joe Buck and color commentator Troy Aikman.
Here’s what ESPN said in the press release:
“Salters’ contract extension further cements the Emmy-winner as the longest-tenured sideline reporter in Monday Night Football history, set to enter her 14th season. Salters is one of the company’s most decorated and recognizable reporters, having excelled in several roles throughout her 25 years at ESPN, including multiple Emmy and industry award winning journalistic endeavors with E:60 and SportsCenter.
Currently, in addition to Monday Night Football, she is the lead sideline reporter on ESPN’s NBA coverage, which includes the NBA Finals each season. In 2023, she won the Sports Emmy in the ‘Outstanding Personality/Reporter’ category.”
The 59-year-old Lisa Salters emerged as a household name in the ’90s when she covered O.J. Simpson’s criminal and civil trials for ABC News.
Though Simpson was acquitted in the double murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman, he was found liable for their deaths in a civil trial and ordered to pay their families $33.5 million.
Lisa Salters joined the Worldwide Leader in Sports in 2000, and the rest is history. Aside from “Monday Night Football”, she has covered multiple NBA Finals, Olympic Games and the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
ESPN named Salters the new sideline reporter for “Monday Night Football” in 2012, replacing the legendary Suzy Kolber, who was surprisingly let go by the network in 2023. Salters worked four seasons with “Sunday Night Football” voice Mike Tirico before he left for NBC.
Salters began working with Buck and Aikman in 2022, when they left Fox Sports to sign lucrative contracts with ESPN.
Salters’ first assignment of the 2025 NFL season will come on Sept. 8, when Caleb Williams and the new-look Chicago Bears host the NFC North rival and star-studded Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.
The following week, ESPN will enjoy a Monday night doubleheader when they air the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers-Las Vegas Raiders clashes. Per the NFL broadcasting deals, ESPN will also carry one Wild Card Round Game and one of the four Divisional Round contests.
Also Read: ESPN Drops Massive News Involving Laura Rutledge & ‘Monday Night Football’
