Jenny Taft (born September 5, 1987) is an American sports television personality who works as a lead

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

sideline reporter In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

broadcasts. Her broadcasting career began with the

Fox Sports North FanDuel Sports Network North is an American regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as a FanDuel Sports Network affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving ...

(FSN) regional affiliate. Taft is also a pit reporter for

BattleBots ''BattleBots'' is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled ...

on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

and served as the moderator on

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (branded on-air as FS1) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 airs an array of live sporting events, including Majo ...

's '' Undisputed''.

Early years

Taft was born on September 5, 1987, in

Edina, Minnesota Edina ( , ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous ci ...

. She attended

Edina High School Edina High School is a four-year public high school located in Edina, Minnesota, United States, a suburb of Minneapolis. The current student population is 2,720. Edina High School was ranked as 428th best public high school in the United States ...

, graduating from the school in 2006. Taft then attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, where she played lacrosse. She majored in Broadcast Journalism and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2010.

Broadcasting career

Fox Sports North

Taft's broadcasting career began with Fox Sports in 2011. This early period of her career saw her fill a "Fox Sports Girl" role, as she served as a

for the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team won the WNBA ...

of the WNBA. During her time as an FSN Girl, she was also a

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

contributor for Minnesota's Timberwolves,

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

, and

Wild Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to: Common meanings * Wilderness, a wild natural environment * Wildlife, an undomesticated organism * Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed Art, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Wild ...

sports teams, as well as an in-stadium/arena host at Twins and Wild games. Taft attributed her success later in her career in part due to getting on-camera repetitions at FSN.

Fox Sports

In August 2013, she was promoted to join FS1's news and highlights update team. She served as a track reporter for a 2013

Supercross The AMA Supercross Championship (commercially known as Monster Energy AMA Supercross) is an American motorcycle racing series. Founded by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) in 1974, the AMA Supercross Championship races are held from ...

event, which was her debut assignment at FS1. She also served as a reporter for the U.S. women's national soccer team (USWNST) at the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the f ...

. Taft got her start in

reporting in 2014, as part of FS1's game coverage. In 2017, Taft was elevated to lead college football sideline reporter, alongside play-by-play commentator Gus Johnson and analyst Joel Klatt. Her role at FS1 expanded considerably, as she has additionally covered the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, and the

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an all-breed conformation show, held annually in the New York metropolitan area. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is one of a handful of benched shows in the United States. Dogs are required to be on ...

. In 2018, she served as a fill-in host and moderator on various FS1 programs. That summer, it was announced that Taft would be succeeding Joy Taylor as the moderator of '' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed'', hosted by Skip Bayless and

Shannon Sharpe Shannon Sharpe (born June 26, 1968) is an American former professional football tight end who played 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Denver Broncos. Regarded as one of the greatest tight ends of all time, h ...

. Shortly after, on September 5, FS1 debuted ''CFB: Inside Slant'', a weekly college football show hosted by Taft. In addition to taking on these new positions at FS1, she retained her college football sideline reporting duties for the 2018 season. In 2020, she was a sideline reporter for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

' coverage of XFL games. In 2022, Taft signed an extension at

but left '' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed'' after going on maternity leave in February. Taft also got into a verbal dispute on air with Skip Bayless after Bayless made critical comments about

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

' coach

Mike McCarthy Michael John McCarthy (born November 10, 1963) is an American professional American football, football coach who most recently was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) from 2020 Dallas Cowboys season, 2020 t ...

based on his body weight and appearance. She again served as a reporter for the USWNST for the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

s. She also served as a reporter during the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

Personal life

Taft is the daughter of John Taft, a former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

and member of the

United States men's national ice hockey team The United States men's national ice hockey team represents the United States in men's international ice hockey. The team is controlled by USA Hockey, the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United States. The U.S. team is currently ...

at the

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 (), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 4 to 15, 1976. The games were awarded to Inn ...

. In 2015, Taft married

Matt Gilroy Matthew J. Gilroy (born July 20, 1984) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who last played for the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers of the National League (NL). Gilroy played in National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Ranger ...

, also a former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

defenseman and a fellow BU alum. On December 4, 2021, Taft revealed that she was pregnant with a due date the following March. Subsequently, she welcomed a baby girl named Georgie “Gigi” James Gilroy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Jenny 1987 births Living people American sports announcers American sports journalists American television reporters and correspondents American women sportswriters Boston University Terriers athletes College women's lacrosse players in the United States College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Edina High School alumni Fox Sports 1 people Fox Sports announcers Lacrosse players from Minnesota Major League Baseball broadcasters NFL announcers Sportspeople from Edina, Minnesota Women's National Basketball Association announcers Women baseball announcers XFL (2020–2023) broadcasters