Jennifer Hale (born February 28, 1978) is an American journalist working for Fox Sports as an

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

sideline reporter Sideline(s) may refer to: * Extended side, the geometric line that contains the side of a polygon * Sidelines, the lines that mark the outer boundaries of a sports field * Sideline (app), a smartphone app * ''Sidelines'' (newspaper), the studen ...

where she is currently paired with Chris Myers and Robert Smith. She also covers

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their hom ...

for

Bally Sports New Orleans Bally Sports New Orleans is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group (a joint-venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios), and operated as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local ...

and also covers college football for Fox Sports. She was a substitute host on the

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

shows '' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed'' and ''Lock It In'' before becoming the full-time moderator for ''Undisputed'' in 2022. She has covered

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-application, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States. The 2022 edition features 64 teams with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, broadcast by ESPN. TBT was founded in 201 ...

for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

as well as the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. She also worked as a sideline reporter for TNT's coverage of the first round of the

2017 NBA playoffs The 2017 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the 2016-17 NBA season, which began on April 15, 2017 and concluded on June 12, 2017. It concluded with the Golden State Warriors defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Fin ...

Early life and education

Hale is a native of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, and was raised in Alabama. She graduated from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

with honors where she was captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming queen, and Miss LSU. Hale interned for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

in their Washington D.C. bureau. She also got her Master's from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

's Medill School of Journalism and spent time in Germany on a fellowship to study the US–Germany relationship after the fall of Communism.

Career

Hale started her journalism career covering politics for

KNOE-TV KNOE-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Monroe, Louisiana, United States, serving the Monroe, Louisiana–El Dorado, Arkansas market as an affiliate of CBS and ABC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power dual CW+/My ...

, a station in

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...

, which sent her to

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

as their capitol correspondent, then she went to

WAFB WAFB (channel 9) is a television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio ...

, also in Baton Rouge. When she was a weekend anchor and reporter for WVTM in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, she wrote a book called ''Historic Plantations of Alabama's Black Belt'' in 2009. She also was a fill-in correspondent for

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

during her time in Birmingham. Prior to her Fox Sports career, she was an anchor on WVUE-DT's morning show in New Orleans. She received a call from some friends from

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

to interview former athletes and special guests at LSU football games to put on their website. This and her work with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

led to people in the Saints organization to recommend Hale to Fox Sports. She added the Pelicans job a year later. She worked as a sideline reporter for TNT's coverage of the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. During the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...

, Hale filled in for Jenny Taft as moderator for '' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed''. She took over as moderator after Taft left the show in February 2022 and was officially named to the position in August 2022. She covered

The Basketball Tournament 2020 The Basketball Tournament 2020 was the seventh edition of The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 5-on-5, single elimination basketball tournament. The tournament, involving 24 teams, started on July 4 and continued through the championship game on Jul ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

for

, staying in the bubble set-up during the Covid-19 pandemic as the only reporter on site.

Personal life

In 2015, Hale launched All Access Sideline Pass, an organization that focuses on educating and empowering young women in the New Orleans community through outreaches and seminars. She started the foundation after encouragement from former Saints running back Pierre Thomas. She also supports Alzheimer's Research, the Speech and Hearing Impaired Foundation among other causes and she's the Women's Health spokesperson for Thibodaux Regional Hospital. Hale was named one of New Orleans's top female achievers by ''New Orleans Magazine'' in 2015. In 2018, Hale revealed in a '' Women's Health'' article she co-wrote that she was diagnosed with dilated

cardiomyopathy Cardiomyopathy is a group of diseases that affect the heart muscle. Early on there may be few or no symptoms. As the disease worsens, shortness of breath, feeling tired, and swelling of the legs may occur, due to the onset of heart failure. A ...

during the

2016 NFL season The 2016 NFL season was the 97th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 51st of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 8, 2016, with defending Super Bowl 50 champion Denver defeating Carolina in the NF ...

. She wore a portable defibrillator for six months until medication she took helped get her heart rate back to normal. Since then, she has worked with the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

. She is a cross-fit enthusiast. On her social media accounts, Hale announced her engagement on July 18, 2022.

References

External links

Jennifer Hale profile
at Fox Sports
Jen Hale profile
at New Orleans Pelicans * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Jennifer 1978 births College football announcers Fox Sports 1 people Fox Sports announcers Journalists from Louisiana Living people Louisiana State University alumni Medill School of Journalism alumni National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers New Orleans Pelicans announcers People from New Orleans Women sports commentators