Alex Flanagan

Alex Flanagan (née Wystrach;born 1973) is the Vice president of Broadcasting for the Montag group, a Wasserman company and a former American sportscaster.

She is a graduate of the University of Arizona.

She began her career as a news reporter and anchor and began covering sports in 1998.

She has worked for networks including, NBC Sports, NFL Network, ESPN, and Fox Sports.

In 1998, Bruce Fraser, a friend and former teammate of Flanagan's husband, helped her get an interview with a neighbor who worked for Fox.

During the interview she met executives at Fox Sports, who had recently launched Fox Sports News (now Fox Sports Networks).

Flanagan was hired as a reporter for the National Sports Report and as a producer/reporter on the Emmy-nominated weekly sports investigative magazine show Goin' Deep, hosted first by Joe Buck and later by Chris Myers.

While working for "Goin' Deep," Alex was introduced to former Fox Sports anchor Keith Olbermann, whose office was next to her desk.

A year or so later, Olbermann was given his own weekly show, "The Keith Olbermann Evening News."

He picked Alex To be his only full-time reporter.

Flanagan left Fox Sports in 2000 for ESPN.

She spent five years reporting from the college football sidelines for ESPN.

First teamed with Rod Gilmore and Steve Levy on Friday night football and the trio called the Rose Bowl for ESPN Radio on Jan. 1, 2003.

In 2004 she was part of ESPN2's College Football Saturday Primetime crew first teamed with Mike Tirico, then Dave Barnett, Bill Curry and Mike Golic and then with Sean McDonough and Mike Gottfried.

She also served as a sideline reporter for the College World Series, the Women's Tennis Association's tour championships, NCAA men's college basketball, and the NCAA Women's basketball tournament.

Flanagan worked both in the remote division and the studio for ESPN.

As a reporter for SportsCenter, she frequently filed reports on the Lakers, Dodgers, Angels, UCLA, USC and the Chargers.

She covered spring training, the NBA playoffs, college football bowl games, the NCAA Men's basketball tournament and did a weekly segment for NFL Monday Night Countdown.

She also launched an entertainment-themed segment for SportsCenter called “Hollywood Highlights”, served as co-host of the Home Depot College Football Awards and ESPN Classic road shows.

Flanagan was hired by the NFL Network as a host and reporter in 2006.

She was the network's first full-time female studio host.

She covered twelve Super Bowls and hosted a variety of studio programs including NFL Total Access.

Flanagan became the Sideline reporter for Notre Dame Football on NBC in 2007 while pregnant with her third child, who was born in December 2007.

Flanagan had roamed the South Bend sidelines for NBC since the 2007 season and also appeared on FNIA every Sunday reporting from the big NFL games of the day.

In 2008, Steve Bornstein, president and CEO of NFL Network, announced Flanagan would be part of a new two-hour Sunday morning football show called NFL GameDay Morning. Flanagan served as cohost with Spero Dedes.

The Irish went 3–9 during her first year, and the following seasons, which saw Charlie Weis lose his job in 2009, again fell short of meeting expectations in South Bend.

Her 2009 on-field post-game interview with an emotional UConn coach Randy Edsall remembering one of his players who had died was cited as the best interview of the weekend.

In 2009, along with Al Michaels, John Madden, and Andrea Kremer, Alex Flanagan was part of the broadcast team for Super Bowl XLIII from Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.

In the final game of John Madden’s historic broadcasting career, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Arizona Cardinals, 27–23, on February 1, 2009, to become the first team to win six Super Bowls.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed a game-winning six-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes – who was named Super Bowl XLIII MVP.

In 2010, Flanagan joined play-by-play announcer Bob Papa and analysts Matt Millen and Joe Theismann when the NFL Network added her as its first sideline reporter for Thursday Night Football (TNF).

She was also featured on the pre-game and post-game shows.

From 2011 to 2013 she was part of the TNF broadcaster team with Play-by-Play announcer Brad Nessler and analyst Mike Mayock.

Flanagan worked for the Chargers as the team's preseason reporter with Spero Dedes and Dan Fouts.

In a surprise move in 2014, it was announced that NBC's Alex Flanagan would no longer be the sideline reporter for Notre Dame football games.

Flanagan covered the East West Shrine Bowl game and the Reeses Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama from 2015 to 2018 for the NFL Network.

She emceed of the NFL draft for the league with Michael Irvin in 2016 and Maurice Jones-Drew during the 2017 NFL Draft on Friday, April 28, 2017, in Philadelphia.

Her 2018 interview with one-handed UCF standout linebacker Shaquem Griffin during the fourth quarter of the Senior Bowl started trending after teammates and coaches interrupted him."Oh, lord!"

Griffin exclaimed, before running to grab his helmet.

He was supposed to be on punt team duty.