Before becoming host for Fox Sports’ ‘Fox NFL Kickoff', Charissa Thompson was an NFL sideline reporter with the network.

Her job entailed talking to coaches during games and asking tough questions about problems that teams were having. In a recent interview on the Pardon My Take podcast, she revealed that, on occasion, she would outright lie about what NFL coaches said during sideline reports:

“I, and I’ve said this before, so I haven’t been fired for saying it, but I’ll say it again,” she said. “I would make up the report sometimes because A., the coach wouldn’t come out at halftime or it was too late and I was like, I didn’t want to screw up the report, so I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make this up.’ “Because first of all, no coach is gonna get mad if I say, ‘Hey, we need to stop hurting ourselves, we need to be better on third down, we need to stop turning the ball over . . . and do a better job of getting off the field,’” she continued. “Like, they’re not gonna correct me on that.”

She justified the lying by saying that no NFL coach would have an issue with a broad statement if her made-up quote was so plain.

This isn't the first time that she's admitted to resorting to making up NFL sideline reports. In 2022 during her Calm Down podcast with Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews, she first admitted to making up sideline reports, something Andrews also said she has done as well.

Andrews is also a sportscaster for Fox.