The Life Of Award Winning Sports Journalist Lisa Salters

Lisa Salters

Lisa Salters, with more than two decades of experience, is an American sports journalist  for two of ESPN’s biggest sports properties – the NFL’s Monday Night Football and NBA games on ESPN and ABC. She’s also the  co-host of the company’s award-winning E:60 newsmagazine.

She has been recognized for her amazing skills in news coverage. Her social media accounts have been followed by millions of her fans. 

Lisa Salters: Interesting Facts, International Career, Early Life

Interesting Facts about Lisa Salters:

  • Salters frequently interviews NFL coaches and players as part of her MNF role. In 2018, she was widely praised for her exclusive interview with Kareem Hunt, who discussed his release by the Kansas City Chiefs after a video of him assaulting a woman became public.
  • On Christmas Day 2017, Salters accomplished the rare feat of travelling almost a 100 miles to work an NBA game in New York in the afternoon, followed by a prime time MNF game in Philadelphia. She also worked similar marquee football and basketball holiday assignments in Oakland on consecutive days in 2018.
  • Her news coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800, Oklahoma City bombing trial, the Matthew Shepherd murder is considered remarkable. 
  • She worked alongside Peter Jennings for ‘World News Tonight’. 
  • Since the year 2005, she has covered news and events for the NBA. 
  • A gifted storyteller, Salters has filed many memorable features over the past decade, including “Life as Matt” on the transgender high school track and field athlete Matt Dawkins, which earned a 2017 Sports Emmy Award. 
  • Other accolades include a Gracie Award from the Association for Women in Radio and Television for best feature in 2009 and a Sports Emmy nomination for the touching story “Ray of Hope” on organ donation in 2008.
  • She flew to China in 2019 for a story on former Baylor basketball star Isaiah Austin.
  • She also went to Haiti for a powerful story on the U17 national women’s soccer team just months after the country was devastated by an earthquake in 2010.
  • She is a former women’s basketball player and she has reported for the NBC affiliate in Baltimore, WBAL-TV. 
  • Previously, she contributed to national and international news from African countries like Somalia and Rwanda.
  • During the season of 2006 NBA Finals, sportscaster Michelle Tafoya was on maternity leave which provided a chance for Salters to host the finals. She even contributed to the NBA on ABC in 2006 as a part of the network’s coverage. Along with this, she did sideline reporting in the finals of the NBA in 2007 through radio. 

Early Life:

On 1966, March 6 She was born in Pennsylvania city of the United States of America. A high school graduate from Upper Merion Area High School, she attended Penn State University. She is a graduate of broadcast journalism from Penn State University. She has not revealed information about her family.

Personal Life:

  • A native of King of Prussia, Pa., Salters graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. 
  • She played guard for the women’s basketball team from 1986-87 and is a cousin of Heisman Trophy winner and Dallas Cowboys Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett.
  • The successful sideline reporter spends time with her adopted son, Samuel when she finds free time. 

Career:

Former collegiate women’s basketball player Salters initiated her career in journalism in the year 2000. She joined ESPN as a general reporter, and left to work for ABC later on.  

As part of her NBA coverage, her role includes the high-profile NBA Saturday Primetime and NBA Sunday Showcase games. Prior to her current NFL and NBA assignments, she was the sideline reporter for ABC’s Saturday Night Football college football games for five seasons (2006-10).

Aside from covering high-profile events, Salters is co-host of ESPN’s acclaimed E:60 newsmagazine hosting alongside fellow reporter Jeremy Schaap. She helped launch the series in 2007 as a featured correspondent before her promotion to co-host in 2019 when the program moved into its new monthly prime-time slot. 

Before becoming part of ESPN, she worked as a correspondent in Los Angeles based ABC News for five years. She even worked as a sideline reporter for ABC’s Saturday Night Football games for five seasons. 

ESPN’s Monday Night Football: 

  • Lisa Salters became a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football in April 2012. 
  • She contributes to weekly game telecasts, as well as the NFL Wild Card and Pro Bowl games working alongside analyst Jon Gruden and commentator Mike Tirico. 
  • During ESPN studio shows leading up to MNF games, Salters provides team reports from the stadium. 
  • In 2020, Salters worked Super Bowl LIV – her first Super Bowl assignment – as the sideline reporter for ESPN’s international broadcast in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Salters has been a part of the popular award winning series ‘Óutside the Lines’ at ESPN. 

ABC: 

Before arriving at ESPN, Salters worked for ABC News from 1995-2000. Based in Los Angeles, she was named the first West Coast correspondent for the ABC affiliate news service, NewsOne, in February 1995. She covered the O.J. Simpson civil and criminal trials, the Oklahoma City bombing trials, the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and the crash of TWA flight 800, among other major stories for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and other ABC News outlets.

Earlier in her career, Salters served as a general assignment reporter for WBAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Baltimore, where she covered national and international news, including the conflicts in the African countries of Rwanda and Somalia. Salters returned to Rwanda in the spring of 2012 with The Girl Effect initiative to teach young girls about journalism.

International Career: 

Salters’ journalistic assignments for ESPN have brought her major global experience as she gets to cover a varied array of performances.

 She covered the United States National Team during the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan. She reported from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and hosted ESPN’s coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. In her journalism career, Salters has provided news related to the US Central Command in Qatar for ESPNEWS and Outside the Lines, SportsCenter. 

Known for her excellent reporting,  she went back to the war zone and reported live from a US Army base, Camp Arifjan in Kuwait in 2004.  This was during the build-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom through the commencement of the war. 

ESPN reporter at the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Japan and South Korea. Furthermore, she was a reporter at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece. 

Net Worth: 

Journalist Salters has accumulated a net worth of USD 2.5 million in her life. Her annual salary is assumed to be USD Two hundred thousand. She has hoarded a significant amount due to her achievements. Her sponsorship amounts to USD fifty-two thousand.

Dating Life:

Salters is not involved in love relationships. She is a single mother as of now as she has adopted a son and named him Samuel Salters. No acute information regarding her marriage and husband has made headlines yet. 

Awards and Recognition:

  • Three Time Emmy nominee Salters has been able to earn accolades in her career due to her creative skill and talent as a sports broadcaster. 
  • She received nominations for the Sports Emmy Awards in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 under the category ‘Outstanding Sports Reporter’.
  • In 2017, Salters was honored in her hometown as a member of the Montgomery County chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. She served as Penn State’s Homecoming Grand Marshal in 2018 and during Super Bowl LIII week, she received an Excellence in Media Award at the Sports Power Brunch.
  • She was honored with a Sports Emmy nomination for the 2008 ‘Ray of Hope’ story and a Gracie Award for best feature in the year 2009. 
  • Broadcaster Salters traveled to Haiti when the country was hit by the earthquake in 2010 for reporting a story on the Under 17 national women’s soccer team. 

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