Michele Tafoya Mysteriously Disappears From NFL on NBC Weeks After Blasting Colin Kaepernick

Michele Tafoya has not appeared on NBC's Sunday Night Football coverage in over three weeks. Tafoya's absence drew the attention of NFL viewers because it's hardly common for an A-team NFL sideline reporter to randomly miss a month of work in a season that lasts just 17 weeks.

The timing is also particularly suspicious. In early November, Tafoya guest-hosted The View in its token conservative chair. Could her absence be related to this appearance? Bill Simmons wonders just that.

“There’s some good conspiracy stuff going on about this,” Simmons said on his podcast about NBC's claim that Tafoya is just on a bye. “Because she hosted The View in the beginning of November. She was in the conservative seat, then a couple weeks later, all of a sudden, just on a bye. Taking a break."

On November 4, The View's main cast invited Tafoya on to discuss Colin Kaepernick's Netflix special, Colin in Black and White, which, among other things, compares life in the NFL to slavery.

“No one pressures . They’re not forced to go into the NFL,” Tafoya said after Sara Haines, a very shallow woman, asserted that Kaepernick's comparison was accurate.

“I’ve been covering the NFL for 25 years," Tafoya goes on. "Nobody forces these guys to play. I thought comparing it to the slave trade was a little rough. These guys enter willingly, they are the most well cared for people. Yes they play a hard sport. And every one of them — black, white, Latino, whoever’s playing the sport — will tell you how much they love it and they’re willing to do it and they make a damn good living.”

Then, Sunny Hostin stepped Tafoya's way and claimed Kaepernick “lost everything” by kneeling for the national anthem. To that, Tafoya responded that Kaepernick gained “a whole lot” of money between his Netflix special and his Nike endorsement deals because he knelt.

Tafoya's points are so wise, yet so many in sports media circles continue to disregard them.

Tafoya violated an unwritten rule that no sports pundit shall ever question Kaepernick or claims of racism against white people.

NBC Sports is by no means an apolitical institution. In fact, it shares many of the same political views as ESPN. So whether or not NBC retaliated against Tafoya for voicing a dissenting opinion on Kaepernick, as Simmons theorizes it did, I can assure you people at NBC Sports took offense to Tafoya's commentary.

Honestly, Tafoya is far too independent and valuable to work the sidelines for NFL games anyway. Here's hoping Tafoya soon gets into a verbal bout with her new colleague Maria Taylor and someone catches it on camera. Imagine how quickly Taylor would crumble...

NBC plans to have Tafoya back from her "bye" or suspension this weekend.