Laura Rutledge, the well-known ESPN sideline reporter, has built a remarkable career while balancing motherhood, but her path wasn’t always so clear. In a recent appearance on The Pivot Podcast, she opened up about how her husband, former MLB player Josh Rutledge, played a surprising role in her return to work after she initially quit to be a “baseball wife.”
“It’s so funny because when we met and when we got married, I was like, ‘I’m gonna be a baseball wife.’ That’s what I’m gonna do,” Rutledge recalled. At the time, she had a solid job at Fox Sports San Diego covering the Padres, but the team shared a division with the Rockies, where her husband played. “I said, ‘I’m not covering the team you’re going to be playing. That’s just weird. I want to support you, so I quit that job.'”
She gave up a well-paying role she loved at age 25, moved away from San Diego, and tried to fully commit to her husband. They got a dog and put thoughts of children on hold. But after about eight months of trying to adjust, her husband was the one who encouraged her to get back to work. “He was like, ‘You need to go back to work.’ Because I was driving him crazy, and I was driving myself crazy,” she said. “I realized I just have to do more. I love this too much. And he realized that she needs to do what she loves too. Maybe it is possible to do both.”
The couple met at a football tailgate in Alabama in 2011, dated for nearly two years, and married in December 2013. After quitting her job, Laura took a break but eventually restarted her career “from ground zero” as a “one-woman band” before joining ESPN and the SEC Network in 2014. Her rise has been steady since then.
Today, she is a key part of ESPN’s NFL coverage, serving as sideline reporter for Monday Night Football alongside Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, and Lisa Salters, after signing a multi-year contract extension in early 2025. She also hosts NFL Live and covers major events like the NFL Draft, the College Football Playoff, and The Masters. To focus on her expanding NFL duties, she stepped down from hosting SEC Nation for the 2026 season. Additionally, she is set to be part of ESPN’s broadcast team for Super Bowl LXI in 2027.
Laura and Josh now have two children: daughter Reese (born October 2019) and son Jack (born May 2023). She returned to work quickly after both births, driven by her passion for sports journalism. She often credits her husband as her “great encourager” and a grounding presence who helps her navigate the pressures of public life.
Her story is a powerful example of balancing ambition, family, and a career that never really pauses. As she put it, she needed to do what she loved — and her husband was the one who pushed her back toward it.
