Laura Rutledge was talking about gratitude when the conversation suddenly became about her grandmother. The ESPN host appeared on Chris Childers’ podcast on October 1 and explained how she has been trying to deal with the “anxiety” and “negativity” that can come with her work. Her solution was just thinking of her grandmother.
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“I’m gonna try not to get emotional telling the story,” Rutledge said. “My mom texted me. My grandma is 97, and she is my heart and soul. She lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But she sits there all day long and watches anything that I do.”
Rutledge calls her “Emmy.” And she has followed Rutledge’s career from the beginning. When Rutledge appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show, Emmy would reportedly sit through the four-hour program to watch her granddaughter. Four hours is a long time to spend watching a television program, especially when the reason for watching is one person who may only appear for a fraction of it.
Rutledge has since moved well beyond those Finebaum appearances. She has become one of ESPN’s prominent studio and sideline hosts and has also appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Her television schedule now stretches far beyond the SEC world, where many viewers first came to know her. Her grandmother has kept watching. That was the part that affected Rutledge the most.
“She’s everything good in the world. She’s so incredible,” Rutledge said. “So anyway, my mom texts me, and she was like, Emmy always said she hoped that she could live long enough to see you on TV.”
“And now she gets to sit here and watch you all day long from Good Morning America all the way through the night.”
For years, Rutledge’s work was closely tied to college football. She joined ESPN in 2014 as a reporter for the SEC Network and became the host of SEC Nation in 2017.
For nearly a decade, Saturday mornings meant Rutledge traveling to another campus, standing in front of another crowd, and helping ESPN build the television story around the day’s SEC games. That chapter ended this year.
Rutledge announced in May that she was stepping away from SEC Nation after 10 seasons. In her farewell, she called the show one of the most meaningful chapters of her career and described it as much more than a weekly television program.
She specifically thanked the colleagues and fans who had become part of that routine. The timing makes her grandmother’s story more interesting. Rutledge is not stepping away from television. She is moving further into the NFL side of ESPN. It’s a lucrative career climb many would want in broadcasting.
But Rutledge’s story about Emmy complicates that idea. From the network’s perspective, the assignments have become bigger. From her grandmother’s perspective, the basic picture has barely changed. It is still Laura on the television.
“I thought. Oh, my God,” Rutledge said about her conversation about her grandma. “Even if all I’m ever doing is just like a gift of entertainment to my 97-year-old Grandma, which she’s probably the only one that’s really entertained by me.”
Thinking of her grandmother and her adoration is also a way for her to block out the negative noise in the media. Because, as a female sports commentator, Laura deals with plenty of criticism and unwanted opinions online
Her years at ESPN have taught her how to tune out the noise. She now tries to ignore the constant comparisons and parenting advice that often come with being a mother and keeps her attention on what is best for her family.