Charissa Thompson opens up to Jalen Rose about overcoming painful incident

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This week’s guest on “Renaissance Man” is someone I’ve grown up with in the biz, as they say. I’ve known Charissa Thompson since the early 2000s, when we were both on “The Best Damn Sports Show Period,” and it’s been a pleasure to see her grow into one of the premier sportscasters. She hosts “Fox NFL Kickoff,” and is a dynamo of a broadcaster, a human and a friend. One thing she is not: a phony.

I asked how she has been able to maintain her professionalism and be so damn good at her job. Instead of giving me fluffy career platitudes, she was incredibly candid about a painful episode in her life. She bravely talked about the 2018 incident when intimate photos of hers were leaked online and the fallout.

“Being real, I haven’t had a sterling reputation … I had my privacy violated. I had something really bad happen to me,” she told me. “And those comments still to this day I have to delete off my Instagram.”

Then she did something I haven’t had a guest do. She cried. And she recalled how her employer Fox Sports gave her a hug instead of a tongue lashing.

“When that all happened to me, I’ll never forget this. My bosses put me on a plane to the NFC championship game, it makes me want to cry, into Philadelphia to be with all the guys,” she said.

“I’m already crying because they were like, ‘Hey this bad thing happened to you. But, like, we want you to be with your family’ … They were all on the road for the NFC championship game. So anyway, I flew there and I wasn’t even working. I just was with them and they were so wonderful to me. And so I’ll never forget that, that even though most people, like people make comments like, ‘Oh, how are you still employed after that’ … Instead, my employer wrapped their arms around me and they’re like, ‘We got you.’ So I don’t even know what your initial question was because now I’m crying. But it’s just about remaining authentic … even if it’s a crappy thing that happened … I think it’s just frustrating that you can be a victim of something and then have to defend your position.”

When Thompson started tearing up, the incident made me angry all over again. We are in the public eye, but we are still entitled to privacy. However save your pity. She is one step ahead of you all. And she is stronger than the average bear. Her superpower is humor. She said she is the first to make a joke at her expense, “taking the power” away from someone looking to do emotional damage.

“Oh, cool. You guys seen the videos, seen the pictures? Well, you know everything about me … I just say it because now it’s like, all right, what do you have? What else do you got? If that’s all you had, then we can keep it moving … But that still doesn’t negate the fact that, like, it hurts or doesn’t feel good to be looked at differently.”

The Seattle native and Sonics superfan talked about how close she is to her parents. As humiliating as it was, she leaned on them, and took her dad’s advice when he said, ” ‘You’re the author of your own story’ … That’s embarrassing. You don’t want your parents to know that stuff or be a part of a Google search. But he goes, ‘Look, your book just got a little bit more interesting. That chapter is part of your story.’ “

What a best-selling biography in the making. Thompson always dreamed of working in sports and found any way to get into the building. She took a job in human resources at Fox Sports and would sneak into the highlights department after-hours to learn the trade. She became a production assistant, moved to smaller markets like Denver. She even tried working in entertainment — something she realized she wasn’t passionate about. It helped her focus on sports. Now she is hosting the biggest NFL pregame show and is as much a part of America’s Sunday rituals as bishop T.D. Jakes.

But for all of Thompson’s career glory, I had to confront her on something that her partner in crime Erin Andrews told me when she was on “Renaissance Man” in March. While working at the Big Ten Network as a 25-year-old, Charissa had a chance to interview Larry Bird and Michael Jordan at the same time. She said no to Larry Legend and the Goat.

“I was peeing down my leg. I was so nervous about. I said I got to go change my clothes. I can’t do it,” she said. Classic Charissa, she has no regrets.

“And I’m still OK with the decision because in my mind, I didn’t mess it up. So that’s all that mattered.”

This was the first time I have ever heard of Thompson backing down from a challenge. During one Super Bowl that we attended together back in the day, she tried to go tequila shot for tequila shot with Eddie George and Antonio Pierce. Let’s just say she didn’t beat two former NFL players in a drinking contest. And in her own words, she “got so drunk.” Her punishment was that she had to sit next to the company lawyer.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I got in so much trouble, but we had a great time.’ “

Thompson is highly skilled at fun. It should be on her résumé. That’s why I am excited for her new pop-culture podcast “Calm Down” with Andrews, which is more unvarnished and raw than we are used to seeing them on television. The pair have a solid friendship and rapport. Thompson noted that they’ve been “through different but similar situations as it pertains to [invasion] of privacy. And I think that Erin and I have gotten very comfortable with saying and doing things that we wouldn’t have before … So I think “Calm Down,” comes at a perfect time in our lives, where we’re both very comfortable with who we are. Good, bad. I mean, we get it. Not everyone likes us. We’re cool with that. But we are who we are.”

And they are fearless. I am just waiting for my invite.

Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA, before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is currently an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book, “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker, and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.

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