Ex-Monday Night Football Reporter Lisa Guerrero Was Suicidal After Firing

In a new piece published by The New York Post, former Monday Night Football sideline reporter Lisa Guerrero revealed she was humiliated, depressed and suicidal after being fired following her lone season working on the popular primetime broadcast.

“I considered killing myself,” Guerrero told the publication.

Guerrero, who now works for Inside Edition, was viewed as the weak link on a broadcast team that also featured Al Michaels and John Madden, and was cut from MNF by ABC following the 2003 NFL season.

It was a devastating blow for a woman who had not even wanted the job but had been convinced to take it and leave her role at Fox working on Best Damn Sports Show. According to Guerrero, one of the men who convinced her to take the job was former MNF executive producer Fred Gaudelli. They did not end up being a good match.

“I was terrified,” Guerrero told The Post. “People at home probably looked at it as, ‘She’s scared of the job. She’s intimidated by Monday Night Football.‘ I wasn’t afraid of the job. I was afraid of [Gaudelli]. I was afraid of him screaming at me after every game and during the game. I cried every game. It was awful.”

Gaudelli, who is now the executive producer of Sunday Night Football on NBC, paints a different picture.

“I’ve always held the production and engineering crew, the announcers and, most of all, myself to the highest of standards on all shows,” Gaudelli said in a statement to The Post. “I believe this approach has maximized the performance of those I’ve worked with for 34 years. I like Lisa. I did my best to support and encourage her. I’m disappointed to be hearing about this for the first time 17 years after we worked together on Monday Night Football.”

Though her stint on MNF is still a pain point for Guerrero, the 56-year-old sounds as if she has moved on.

“I want Monday Night Football to be a line on my résumé, but I don’t want Monday Night Football to be the last line on my résumé, so I picked myself up, and I really started to think hard about what I wanted to do,” she said.

For what it’s worth, she is not the first person to be unfairly mocked after a rough stint on MNF, and probably won’t be the last.