ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters missed her Monday Night Football assignment for the second consecutive week due to an undisclosed issue away from the field.
“We miss the heck out of Lisa Salters who is tending to a family matter,” color commentator Joe Buck said during the Monday, October 21 broadcast. “Hope to have her back next week, or whenever she gets things settled.”
Buck, 55, added, “We’re certainly thinking of her on this night, as we were a week ago.”
In addition to missing Monday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Salters, 58, missed the October 14 game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets.
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Laura Rutledge took over sideline reporting duties in Salters’ absence.
In a statement to Us Weekly, ESPN said, “Lisa is attending to a personal matter and we look forward to her return.”
A representative for the network said they are “hopeful” Salters will rejoin the broadcast crew for the Monday, October 28 game between the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Salters joined the Monday Night Football broadcast team as a sideline reporter in 2012. She is also a producer on the long-running series.
Back in 2020, Salters was forced to miss consecutive Monday Night Football broadcasts in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Lisa Salters isn’t with us tonight due to close contact COVID protocols,” former Monday Night Football commentator Steve Levy said during the December 2020 game between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills. “She continues to test negative. She’s feeling great. We send our best to you Lisa, at home.”
Salters had also been forced to miss the previous week’s game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers.
In addition to her on-air duties, Salters is mother to son Samuel, who she adopted from birth in 2013. Last year, Salters celebrated his milestone birthday with a celebratory post via Instagram.
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“Double digits!” Salters wrote alongside a photo of her son. “Happy 10th Birthday to the best son in the world!”
Salters recently opened up about being a mainstay on Monday Night Football despite a bevy of on-air changes over the years.
“It’s not lost on me that I’ve been able to hang around,” Salters told The Athletic in January. “I always try to give them a reason not to go in another direction. I try to be solid so that if they do make a change, it’s because they want to make a subjective change. I don’t want it to have anything to do with my performance or what I’m bringing to the table.
She added, “I certainly know that every year this is something that could happen. They could just decide, ‘You know what? We want to make change. We want somebody else to do it.’ So I don’t think I’ve ever given them a reason to make a change. I know that that hasn’t always saved people before. That’s why I say I’ve been lucky.”
