NFL players regularly risk serious injuries on the field, just like former reporter Lisa Guerrero.
The current “Inside Edition” investigative reporter revealed in her new memoir, “Warrior,” that she once suffered a miscarriage while covering a game on live TV, according to People.
In 2003, Guerrero worked on the sidelines of “Monday Night Football” for one season. It was a stressful time, she wrote, in part because she was confronted with what she calls an “ugly misogyny that rules the sports airwaves — and I was their perfect target.”
Guerrero said she was attacked for her clothes, her long hair and even for wearing red nail polish. Adding to the difficulty, she discovered that the reason she hadn’t had a period since starting her job at MNF wasn’t because of stress: she was pregnant.
Guerrero said she and her then-husband, Scott Erickson, agreed years ago that they didn’t want children, but she admits to “fantasizing” what their child might be like.
But one night, while working on a game, she said she “felt a little wet” between her legs. At first, she thought she had just had her period before she remembered she was pregnant.
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“I had a miscarriage! I could feel the blood flowing,” she wrote in the book.
Guerrero told her nurse she was going to the bathroom, and he told her, “I’m going to throw up on you.” After broadcasting the report live, it was dizziness and nausea “but remembered to sit down.” The pain was excruciating, she said.
“I heard a player’s name mispronounced and I knew I would hear about him later,” Guerrero said. “As soon as I finished, I ran to interview a coach. Then I headed to the bathroom. As I sat on the toilet, I couldn’t believe the blood that was pouring out of me. It was soaked in my pants. I stuffed a bunch of paper towels on top of my underwear.
Guerrero admitted that it never occurred to him to tell someone he had a medical emergency or that he should go to the hospital instead of playing.
“The only thought that crossed my mind was that I could get through the rest of the game as long as I kept my long winter coat on. That way, no one would see the blood,” he said.
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After the match, Guerrero opted not to return production trucks to talk to producers.
“Instead, I headed for the plane. In the bathroom [on board]I changed and threw my underwear and pants in the trash,” she said. “I looked in the mirror and did not recognize the pale, emaciated, frightened and very tired woman looking back at me.”
Guerrero faced a lot of criticism when he started on “Monday Night Football,” with commentator Keith Olbermann suggesting at the time that announcers John Madden and Al Michaels were resigning in protest of his hiring.
“I was terrified,” Guerrero told the New York Post in 2021. “People back home probably looked at her like, ‘She’s afraid for her job.’ She’s intimidated by “Monday Night Football.” I was not afraid of work. I was scared [executive producer Fred Gaudelli]. I was afraid he would yell at me after every game and during the game. I cried every game. It was terrible.”
“Warrior” will hit stores on January 23rd.
