Michelle McMahon, aka Meesh, stands out as a media sportscaster, primarily on television. For over 12 years, she’s been providing sports coverage and analysis on the national stage for the NHL, MLB, NBA, and college football across various networks, like ESPN, CBS, Big Ten Network, and FOX Sports. 

A former Michigan volleyball athlete, Michelle leveraged her Division One athletic background and camera-ready personality to launch her unconventional career. She is a trailblazer in a male-dominated field and is currently a play-by-play sports commentator for the Tennis Channel.

I originally met Meesh at the Gentleman Farmer Bungalow, where we shared a couple of glasses of wine. We caught up and chatted about her grueling schedule, feeling crunchy, mac and cheese, and pickleball.

Joey Wolosz:

How did you become a sportscaster?

Michelle McMahon:  

I think life is a winding journey. I played sports my whole life, pretty much all of them, except football. I played volleyball at college at the University of Michigan. That was what propelled me the furthest into the sportscasting field. I saw one of my old teammates doing a broadcast for women’s volleyball, and I was like, “That’s a job? I could talk about sports for a living and make money doing it?” What a concept!

After that, I started watching sports more, I followed Erin Andrews. There weren’t a ton of females doing it when I started thinking of it as a profession. I didn’t really have a clear-cut path. Also, we didn’t have a journalism program at Michigan. I was completely untrained. If you were looking at a slate of resumes, and you had mine stacked next to most college students, you would probably pick them to succeed over me with their experience in journalism and time in front of the camera.

I had to forge my own opportunities. I took a lot of no’s before I finally got to yes. My first break was with the Big Ten Network. They offered me a very small opportunity. They told me “no” originally, so I reached out to the Big Ten Network and explained who I was and what I wanted to do: be a volleyball analyst. They said they already had hired somebody and would check in with me next season.

I asked if I could just come in and audition because if I suck at this, we can just save each other time. I went in and did well. The audition got me a very tiny, tiny role, just once a week, and paid $500 per show. I couldn’t survive in Chicago living off of this so I picked up a bunch of sales jobs to pay my bills. I was slowly, but surely, building up my broadcast resume. 

Finally, I needed to commit to one or the other. My sales company needed me all in. I made the decision, committed without any plan, making barely $500 a week, that I was going to make it work.

After leaving sales, I worked three different odd jobs when I finally got the bigger break that I was looking for with the National Hockey League. That’s really where things began. 

In 2015, I told my boss, “You have to let me host these hockey shows! I’ll produce them, cut the highlights, log the footage, and air it on the internet. It’s low risk for you, but you have to let me host it so I can show you that I can do more than just volleyball.”

I pitched this to them. At the time, social media was not as big as it is now, which is crazy to think. Hockey was a brand new sport to the Big Ten. They had just formed the conference.

I said, “Let me help you bridge the gap. You’re missing audience members on the web. You’re only capturing the games on a linear channel, where my generation does a lot of cord-cutting.”

Fox Sports plucked me from the Big Ten Network once they saw me posting reels with hockey for the Big Ten. I chose hockey because everyone wanted to do college football. I knew I was probably just one of a million girls who wanted to do that. So, I figured I’d distinguished myself in a different sport, where there weren’t a ton of females. I made it to the national level two years after that. 

I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to cover the Carolina Hurricanes, the NHL team. Afterward, I got promoted to the NHL Network and MLB Network. It was like Boom, Boom once that happened. I was still living paycheck to paycheck. It was a risk for sure. Especially because of the medical device sales job I could have had. I would be so rich right now because I had stock options. I was an original employee and the company just went public. It was a home run opportunity. 

However, I hated it. I really did. I was like, I can’t do something that makes me miserable every day. I have to do something I’m passionate about. 

I covered the Stanley Cup final in 2017. I was on the ice interviewing the Penguins after they won the Cup, which was pretty cool. I bounced around quite a bit from there and went back to the Big Ten. I was in New York at that time doing NHL Network and MLB Network, then I went back to Chicago, where they were able to hire me at the level that I wanted to be hired, a full-time post in college football. 

I actually made it to college football, at the end of the day. That was my original goal, which was sentimental because one of my best friends had passed away who played football at Michigan State, and my first opportunity to cover college football was at Michigan. That was a cool, sentimental moment.

JW: 

Which sport are you covering today?

MM:  

I’m covering pickleball! During COVID, I had a little blip in my career because all sports were canceled, which meant all of my work was canceled. My parents have a home in Naples, Florida and I spent time there. I lost everything. I lost my apartment in Chicago. I lost all my work and I only had $10,000 coming in that year. I couldn’t get unemployment because I was a freelancer. I fell on my butt and thought, “Oh my god, what am I gonna do?”

At the time, all there was to do was play pickleball and I was obsessed. In Naples, Florida, there is a pickleball community. Like the Mecca, the pickleball Mecca. They have a 65-court facility. During COVID, we couldn’t do much and I thought, I’m just gonna play pickleball every day. I got pretty good; I think if I had committed, I could have gone pro. 

I loved the community behind it, I loved the physical activity, I loved the people I was meeting, and I thought, I wish I could do broadcasting for pickleball; surely this sport is going to take off. This was right before pickleball got really crazy. My agent laughed at me when I told him I wanted to broadcast pickleball and this sport was going to take off.

Soon, I got a couple of broadcasting opportunities. There were a couple of ESPN broadcasts, and I networked with the right people in Naples. I got three gigs out of it that summer. It took a couple of years to take off, and I was still working with the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers at that time. 

Finally, pickleball picked up enough steam to where it became full-time. The PGA is the Professional Pickleball Association, which I think formed in early 2022. We were broadcasting every single tournament on the tour. I’m employed through the Tennis Channel and cover all the Professional Pickleball Association and Major League Pickleball events. These are two entities; one is for individual format and the other for team format. The Tennis Channel reached out to me during my last year with the Dallas Stars. I sent them my reel that I had done calling a pickleball match. They hired me because of that reel. I’ve been doing the Tennis Channel Pickleball since.

JW:  

What was your first connection to wine and food?

MM:  

My family is really into wine. I had my first trip out to Napa right before I got my first NHL job in the 2016 era. I’ve always had an appreciation for it, I just love it. I enjoy my time in Napa. It’s one of my happiest places in the world, especially coming to visit you guys. That was one of my favorite experiences. There’s a parallel here with food, wine, and pickleball. People can have all sorts of backgrounds and still come together and enjoy an enriching experience. I can’t think of anything better than coming together to enjoy good food and wine. There’s a commonality, who doesn’t like good food and wine? Who doesn’t like a good pickleball match?

JW:  

What are your creative outlets, what do you have a good time doing?

MM: 

I love going to the beach, getting to the ocean, going on boat rides, and walking my dog.

I love all things healing and wellness. I’m very crunchy in that way. I have an infrared sauna. I’m very passionate about healing and helping people feel their best because I had my own healing journey. I’ve gotten into finding ways to feel really good. There was a time when I felt like crap.

I had a pretty negative experience in college athletics. As a result, I had symptoms of PTSD. A slew of health issues came from that. My hormones were all over the place, my cortisol levels were really high. My doctor in Chicago said, “If you don’t get this under control, you’re gonna kill yourself. Cortisol, you don’t want to mess with that.”

I didn’t know why my body was functioning like that, I was just very stressed. It caused quite a bit of anxiety and depression, none of which I deal with anymore. I think I’m fully healed. I dealt with a lot of mental health issues in addition to physical health symptoms. I could barely get out of bed in the morning. All I would have the energy for was to work and then I go right back to bed. I definitely can empathize with people going through mental health stuff, because I went through a lot of that. I feel like a lot of it stems from your physical vessel being in a happy place. That’s a big part of my passion and also part of my purpose in this world, I just don’t know how it’s going to play out. 

My dream would be to own a little healing center where I could help people detox, feel better, and just feel more like themselves again. There was a time that I was in an out-of-body experience, I knew the real me was there somewhere, but it wasn’t resonating with anything. 

Granted, I moved four times in five years. I changed jobs, I was elevated very quickly in a very public profession. There is a lot of pressure that comes along with that, of not feeling good enough. You don’t feel you look good enough. All these things can weigh on you as a sports personality who’s on the air and has everybody, from every angle, looking at you and picking on you in some way. This profession is a blessing and a curse, for sure. That’s why I have my dog. He’s a service dog. Maverick. He has been remarkable, especially for my recovery from PTSD. I had two separate therapists tell me I have PTSD. I was like, “No way. I don’t have that. People that go to war have that.” I was in denial for quite a bit. With all that said, I’m in the happiest place I’ve ever been. I feel like I’ve created a very good place of sustainable homeostasis, despite the chaotic schedule.

The Tennis Channel is the most stable job I’ve had over the years, but are they going to renew me? If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. I’m in this limbo with work quite a bit. It is a mind game to just stay balanced and have an identity outside of it all, to just be steady and believe in yourself, that you’ll land on your feet. But it’s taken a while to get there.

JW:  

Friends and family excluded, who are two people you would like to share a long lingering meal with and what would you serve?

MM:  

My friend Mike Sadler, who has passed away, because I miss him dearly. I think that was a part of my stress and all the sadness and grief when I was 24. I would probably do some form of our favorite meal, because we were best friends from high school. He was like my brother. It was a friendship. He always came over for my Kraft mac and cheese, which is disgusting, but also so good. Noodles would have to be al dente because I’m a snob about squishy noodles. I hate squishy noodles. Extra cheese. I would do a side of homemade pizza. Those are our two favorites. 

The other person would be my mentor from college, Greg Harden. He’s a legend. He’s so awesome. He probably saved my life in a lot of ways back in college when I really, really, really needed the help. He’s just so funny and such a well-rounded guy. He has so many good stories. He brings so much wisdom to the table and I know he would love mac and cheese and pizza.

I think those two will get along quite well.

JW:   

What are your words to live by?

MM:  

Treat people well, treat yourself well, accept yourself, and love yourself unconditionally. I feel like there are so many broken people in the world. Have compassion for yourself and enjoy every part of the journey, The good, the bad, all of it, because it really all amounts to this experience and what you make of it. The quality of your relationships is directly correlated to the quality of your life. All this is fleeting and none of this is guaranteed. At the end of the day, nobody cares how much money you make. All they care about is how you treat them.