Kris Budden Abby Alonzo interview on ESPN prep and Pat Summitt

The Kris Budden Abby Alonzo interview for MILLIONS covered an ESPN workload that Budden says keeps roughly 95% of her football preparation off air, why she over-prepares as a woman in sports broadcasting, and what she learned covering Pat Summitt. Budden also discussed finding sports reporting at the University of Missouri, taking her daughter to work and reaching a career milestone at Wimbledon.

Why did Kris Budden become a sports reporter at the University of Missouri?

Kris Budden became a sports reporter after arriving at the University of Missouri intending to work in news. Early assignments in the sports department gave her a way to tell people’s stories without spending her working days at fires or crime scenes, which she knew she would find difficult to leave behind.

From the local ABC station to sports at Mizzou

Budden grew up visiting the local ABC station where her godfather was the main anchor. She always wanted to report, but more than 20 years ago, she said, she saw few women working in sports and did not realize it could be a career for her.

At Missouri, she could work at the news station as a freshman. She shot Friday high school football, helped produce sports segments and found that she loved the department’s work. Sports offered her a larger platform for the stories she wanted to tell.

Her father’s concern about the job market

After Budden told her parents about the switch, she overheard her father tell her mother he was unsure it was a good idea. She took the comment as a reason to prove him wrong. Years later, he explained that he believed in her ability but worried about how few sports jobs were available to women compared with opportunities in news or finance.

Budden said she did not doubt her ability to pursue the career, even when some of her decisions were not the most logical ones. Her father’s concern was about the available jobs, not her capacity to do the work.

What did Kris Budden say about women in sports broadcasting, her daughter and Wimbledon?

Kris Budden said messages from women and students remind her that her visibility in sports broadcasting matters. Having a daughter made that role more personal: her daughter can watch her on television and visit her at work. Budden also called her first trip to cover Wimbledon a career bucket-list moment.

Showing her daughter what work can mean

Travel and constant preparation can make it hard to pause during an assignment. Before a football game, or while at the US Open or Wimbledon, Budden sometimes reminds herself to look around and appreciate the opportunity. She wants her children to find something they love enough to work hard at, whether that is a job, a sport or playing piano.

That commitment brings difficult conversations at home. Her daughter notices when other mothers can attend school field trips and Budden cannot. Budden tells her that loving her work does not mean loving it more than her child; she hopes her daughter will one day understand the value of finding work she cares about.

A tennis family’s trip to Wimbledon

Budden said she has had more moments of wondering whether the career was worth its sacrifices than moments when one assignment settled the question. Wimbledon came closest. She plays tennis, her husband coaches it, and they met playing the sport, making her first opportunity to work there especially meaningful.

What did Kris Budden say about sideline reporting preparation?

Kris Budden said football requires the most preparation of the sports she covers because of its many players and season-long stories. She typically receives her assignment on Sunday, spends the week reading and interviewing people from both teams, and arrives on Saturday ready for situations that may never arise on air.

The process begins with contacts at each school’s sports information department and decisions about which players to interview. Budden tries to reserve the rest of Sunday for family. From Monday, she reads daily material from both schools and builds her game boards. On the week she described, her calls included players from Alabama and A&M.

A Tuesday production call covers storylines and graphics. The crew also speaks with both teams during the week, meets the home team in person on Friday and holds further production meetings before the game. Travel may start Thursday night or Friday morning. Budden said Saturday can feel like the easiest day because the preparation is already done.

She studies players’ backgrounds so she can respond if a story unexpectedly becomes relevant. Roughly 95% of that work, she said, never makes air. But when she has not prepared enough, she feels the anxiety; thorough preparation lets her handle the nerves that come with a broadcast.

Budden connected her approach to the scrutiny women receive for mistakes that might draw less criticism when made by men on the same show. She put the value of preparation plainly:

What they can't take away is my knowledge of the game, my prep of the game.

How does Kris Budden handle confidence and social media criticism?

Kris Budden said confidence comes from doing the work, gaining interview experience and staying close to people who support her, rather than seeking approval online. Years at ESPN have also made her more comfortable asking short, direct questions instead of packing them with facts to demonstrate what she knows.

Learning to ask simpler questions

Budden recommends reading widely and practicing interviews, even when those conversations will not be published. She said younger reporters can overload questions with statistics in an effort to impress a coach or player, leaving less room for the answer. Repetition helped her trust a direct question such as “what changed?”

She recalled Tom Rinaldi describing the pressure of approaching Nick Saban after a national championship loss. His account reinforced her view that a simple question can be the best one: it lets the coach explain events without having an interpretation placed in his mouth.

Support at home and criticism online

Budden credited her parents with teaching her hard work and her husband with supporting her through career disappointments, including missed job opportunities. She said she has questioned her path at times but believes a single hiring decision can change a career.

Instagram has made it easier to connect with people than when she started, but Budden does not treat criticism on Twitter as a measure of her work. She said viewers sometimes accuse her of favoring a team because it receives more reports. Her response is that the broadcast crew does not care who wins.

What did Kris Budden say about radio and untold football stories?

Kris Budden said a game broadcast cannot hold many of the stories she collects during the week. Radio gives her three hours on Monday and Tuesday to tell some of them, while longer stories need a different format. A recent exchange involving Florida coach John Summerall and Texas showed how a memorable detail can emerge around a game.

John Summerall’s cowboy hat at Texas

Budden described a Texas tradition for a coach new to the Southeastern Conference: before the game, the coach receives spurs and a cowboy hat at midfield. Summerall received them shortly before she interviewed him and joked, “now I'm set for Yellowstone.”

Budden said Florida then beat Texas, and she saw Summerall leave for the team bus wearing the hat Texas had given him. Because that moment happened after the game, it was not a story she could have told during the broadcast.

She also enjoys longer stories that do not fit neatly into live coverage. Budden said she gets some opportunities to tell that kind of story for basketball coverage on College GameDay.

What did Kris Budden say about Pat Summitt’s coaching?

Kris Budden said Pat Summitt showed that an exceptionally demanding coach could also be deeply kind. Summitt disciplined players, yet Budden remembered her humor, warmth and hospitality as clearly as her toughness. Covering her challenged the idea that a coach must choose between setting hard standards and caring for people.

Selection Monday at Summitt’s house

Budden recalled Summitt inviting the team and media to her house on Selection Monday. Some food was catered, but Summitt also cooked, including jalapeño corn. They gathered around her pool house, sharing a meal with the same coach Budden had seen forcefully correct a player.

From outside, Summitt’s stare could make her seem difficult to approach. Budden’s experience was of someone she described as both tough and Southern-sweet. She also pointed to Houston coach Kelvin Sampson as a coach whose demanding sideline manner differs from the warmth she has seen in his family life.