Hannah Storm has been a trailblazer in breaking down gender-based barriers during her illustrious broadcasting career. However, on Monday, she recounted the challenges that came with this path, including disapproval from her own network producers and colleagues. Now best known as the longtime anchor of SportsCenter at ESPN since 2008, Storm initially forged her way at NBC, covering male and female sports.
During her appearance on the Good Game podcast with Sarah Spain from Radio Row last week, Storm compared her vastly different experiences as a sideline reporter for male sports to her groundbreaking role as the first play-by-play voice of the WNBA in 1997. “I remember I was the first NFL sideline reporter,” Storm said. “O.J. (Simpson) was supposed to do it, but then he wasn’t able to. Not only did the teams not want me there, nobody wanted me there. My own colleagues and producers didn’t want me. It was probably the worst professional year of my career.”
Storm also faced different treatment in other sports, sharing negative experiences as a sideline reporter in MLB. “I had a lot of incidents through the years covering men’s sports, particularly baseball, where I was often the only woman. A lot of really unfortunate things happened, such as Albert Belle swinging a bat at me in the dugout — an incident that would have never occurred in women’s sports,” she recounted. “As a mom of three girls, I was covering sports at various stages of my pregnancy. During the WNBA’s first year, I had just had a newborn, and a kind woman calling Connecticut basketball games allowed me to sit by her and learn.”
“That was Doris Burke, in case you’ve heard of her. I also had Ann Myers and an all-female crew behind the scenes that first season. I remember being a new mom and feeling terrified about the assignment. I got an ulcer. I was traveling with my baby and meeting Sheryl Swoopes, who had just had Jordan. She was one of the WNBA’s initial faces alongside Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo, working her way back to play with the Comets.”
“For me, having another mom there, seeing what she was trying to do alongside my own efforts, was a blessing — so far removed from the earlier sentiment of ‘We don’t want you here.’”
Broadcast legend @HannahStormESPN remembers the rude welcome she got as the NFL’s first sideline reporter & from MLB players like Albert Belle, comparing it to the support she got from women in the business like @heydb, @AnnMeyers & @airswoopes22. https://t.co/l7o8oILqHo pic.twitter.com/tRNHWjRfZN
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) February 11, 2025
Storm eventually made historic strides alongside Andrea Kremer as the first all-female NFL broadcast team on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football in 2018, highlighting the significant changes in the sports media landscape since she began her career. Despite progress in inclusivity, there remains room for further advancements.
Lucky for future generations of female broadcasters, Storm has been open about her role as a mentor and role model, a luxury she admits she didn’t have early on in her career.
