Laura Okmin Leaves Fox Sports After 23 Years, Marking End of Era

Laura Okmin, the third-longest-tenured sideline reporter in NFL history, is leaving Fox Sports.

During an exclusive interview with Front Office Sports, Okmin said it was her choice to leave her TV job so she could focus on her company, GALvanize, which trains and mentors young women entering the sports world, as well as projects inside and outside the football world. She says she’ll continue covering the NFL postseason and Super Bowl for the Westwood One radio network.

Fox offered her a new contract, according to Okmin. But she decided it was the right time to walk away—surprising her boss.

“They sent me the contract. I printed it out. I sat there. It was just my voice saying, ‘It’s time, this is it.’ I called my boss and my friend Jacob Ullman, who I’ve known as long as I’ve been at Fox Sports. I’m happy to say he was very surprised. I would have been very disappointed if there was any other reaction. It was a really nice call, because I got to have it with my boss and my friend.”

During the 2024 NFL season, the 30-year sports media veteran worked with play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and game analyst Daryl “Moose” Johnston. 

Okmin joined Fox in 2002 as a host, anchor, and reporter. Over 23 years at Fox, she hosted the company’s digital coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and 2014 Sochi Olympics. She also founded LO Productions, where she developed the TV show, PROfiles, introducing viewers to personalities off the field. She served both as host and executive producer of the series. 

Prior to Fox, the Kansas graduate worked at TNT Sports and CNN. She also worked for SportsChannel in Chicago during the dynastic Bulls run in the 1990s. Over her career, she’s covered more than 20 Super Bowls, including the last five for Westwood One. The only sideline reporters believed to have worked more NFL games are Fox’s own Pam Oliver and the retired Michele Tafoya.

There are some things about her job she won’t miss, said Okmin, including the criticism of female sports journalists and sideline reporters and the cutthroat nature of sports media. “Honestly, it’s a tough job having to justify your job for 20 years. Having to fight for your job and having to justify it. It feels like there’s a bit of dog years with that job. There’s a wonderfulness that comes with it. But also a lot of other shit.”

One question now is who will succeed Okmin on the Fox sidelines. The network’s sideline reporters this past season included Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi, Pam Oliver, Megan Olivi, Kristina Pink, and Jen Hale. Fox could dip into its current bench of sideline reporters—or bring in new talent. After a challenging first season in Fox’s top NFL broadcast booth, Tom Brady says he will return as the network’s No. 1 game analyst alongside play-by-play partner Kevin Burkhardt, with Andrews and Rinaldi on the sidelines.

As the lead network on the NFL’s NFC game package, Fox boasts a loaded game schedule this season, including an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch in Week 2, Eagles-Cowboys in Week 12, and Lions-Packers on Thanksgiving Day. The network’s telecast of the 40–22 Eagles win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX averaged a record 127.7 million viewers, up 3% from the year before.