Who is Melanie Collins?
]
MELANIE Collins’ is a sideline sports reporter for the NFL on CBS and hosts Big Break and Driver vs. Driver on the golf channel.
Collins joined CBS in 2014 and was promoted to reporting on the NFL four years later.
2 Melanie Collins is the CBS sideline sports reporter for the NFL.
Who is Melanie Collins?
Melanie Collins, 35, received her Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Pennsylvania State University and attended the New York Institute of Art and Design to receive a second degree in interior design.
She has had a prolific career covering Major League Baseball for the MLB website, the NBA for NBA-TV, and working for Yahoo! Sports where she covered sports events worldwide.
Her assignments have included the Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, NCAA Football National Championship, the NFL Draft, NBA Finals, and the World Series.
CBS Sports hired Collins in 2014 to cover College Football and College Basketball before promoting her to sideline sports reporter for the NFL.
What has Melanie Collins said about her job?
Collins has worked for CBS since 2014 and she has said she is immensely grateful for the opportunities she has received.
“It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to call this my job," Collins said, in response to a question from one of her Instagram followers.
In another post on December 6, 2021, she expressed her excitement when she reported on the Seattle Seahawks versus the San Francisco 49ers.
“One of the most wild games I’ve ever covered! There’s nothing quite like being on the field in Seattle. What an atmosphere!” she said.
Most recently, Collins shared a post in which she said she can’t believe it is her fourth season as the CBS sideline sports reporter for the NFL.
“I couldn’t be more grateful for this job, for my crew, who is truly my family away from home, my health this season, and for the players, coaches, and teams who are so gracious with their time and make my job so much fun. Thank you to all of you who tuned in to our broadcasts this season.”
2 Melanie Collins started reporting for CBS in 2014. Credit: Getty
What is Melanie Collins’ advice to aspiring sports reporters?
Earlier this month, Collins made an “Ask Me Anything” post on her Instagram story, inspiring her followers to ask how to break into the industry.
“I would love to be a sports broadcaster, so what would be your best piece of advice?” one person asked.
Collins advised anyone who wants to pursue sports broadcasting to pursue internships and on-camera classes to gain experience and impressed the importance of putting together a newsreel after graduation.
A sports newsreel will show potential employers that you are serious about the position and will show them your reporting style and experience.
In her response, Collins said she was reposting her previous advice because it “still holds true.” It’s important, she said, to “always be the most prepared person in the room,” and “say yes to anything that will get you experience.”
The industry is always changing and moving in different directions and she advised to “be open-minded” about the role or the title you take on.
“Don’t have your career path set in stone,” she said. “I promise it won’t work out the way you think! But most of the time it works out better.”
Alex Rodriguez Showed Up To Packers-Niners Game With New Girlfriend
]
FOX
Alex Rodriguez appears to have moved on from JLO.
On Saturday night, A-Rod was spotted in Green Bay enjoying the Packers-Niners game with a new girl.
Lambeau is the place to be for A-Rods 🥶 (via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/0EkbDrQ3PG — Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 23, 2022
The woman Rodriguez was seen with at the game was identified as CBS NFL sideline reporter Melanie Collins.
We have an Alex Rodriguez sighting. Believe that is Melanie Collins, #CBS #NFL sideline reporter and @GolfChannel host. They have been rumored to be dating for about half a year. #SFvsGB #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/gO8RB6ffnR — Jake Kline (@JakeAKline) January 23, 2022
Update: Apparently the woman may not be Melanie Collins, who has been previously linked with A-Rod, but Kathryn Padgett, a nutritionist from Texas.
CBS Forced to Make Announcer Change for Titans-Bengals Due to COVID-19 Protocols
]
CBS Sports has a busy weekend ahead with Bengals at Titans on Saturday afternoon ahead of the Bills at Chiefs game set for Sunday evening.
The network’s top team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo is set to call Sunday’s game, but the second team will look a bit different in Nashville. Ian Eagle’s normal announcing partner, Charles Davis, is out due to COVID-19 protocols. In his place steps former NFL quarterback Trent Green, per Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.
CBS is no stranger to having to shake up its NFL booths due to the continued spread of the coronavirus.
Last year, Romo missed a late-season game between the Cardinals and Rams due to COVID-19. Earlier this month, Nantz was out for CBS’s broadcast of the Week 18 Buccaneers-Panthers game, with Tom McCarthy stepping into his seat alongside Romo.
Green is normally paired with Kevin Harlan and Melanie Collins on regular-season broadcasts.
Saturday’s Titans-Bengals game kicks at 4:30 p.m. ET.
More NFL Coverage:
Canada Post unveils stamp honouring jazz legend Eleanor Collins
]
By Melanie Nagy and Tom Yun, CTV News
Click here for updates on this story
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (CTV Network) — Canada Post has revealed its new stamp honouring trailblazing jazz singer Eleanor Collins.
The stamp depicting the “Canadian First Lady of Jazz” was unveiled at a virtual ceremony on Friday, paying tribute to her life and legacy ahead of Black History Month.
“How do I feel? I feel wonderful and honoured,” Collins said during the ceremony. “To really have someone affirm your work and life on a postage stamp, that is something. There’s only one word for that. That is surreal.”
The 102-year-old jazz legend has already been awarded an Order of Canada and has a star on B.C.’s Entertainment Hall of Fame.
“You know, at 102 years old, one doesn’t expect to be remembered. But I am grateful,” she said.
Born in Edmonton to parents of African American and Indigenous heritage, Collins got her start as a singer after winning a local talent show at the age of 15. In the late 1930s, she relocated to British Columbia and immersed herself into the jazz scene.
Throughout her career, Collins has been performing on TV and radio, working with everyone from Montreal jazz pianist Oscar Peterson to American jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
Despite opportunities to take her talents to the U.S., Collins kept her career in Canada. In 1955, she became the first Black woman to headline a TV show in North America, starring in “The Eleanor Show.”
Jazz musician Alan Matheson has long admired Collins and even had the opportunity to perform with her at a concert in the 1980s.
“The first thing that comes to mind is this beautiful vocal sound that she has but also her remarkable versatility and her sparkle as a performer,” he told CTV News.
“Didn’t matter if she was singing Broadway show tunes or folk music or jazz standards. She always sounded 100 per cent like herself.”
Singer-songwriter Krystle Dos Santos calls her an inspiration and describes her voice as “an absolute classic voice for jazz.”
“To me, she is an absolute icon, and she has broken so much ground for Black female Canadian musicians and Black females just in general in this country,” she told CTV News.
But despite her success, Collins faced discrimination both professionally and personally. In the 1940s, when Collins moved to an all-white neighbourhood in Burnaby, B.C. with her husband and kids, neighbours started an unsuccessful petition to prevent her family from moving in.
“When you’re being asked to move out of your neighbourhood, you’ve got to have a whole different sort of resolve to your character to be able to live through moments like that,” Dos Santos said.
“She has strength. She has talent. She has perseverance. She has class.”
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
Former Norwalk, New Canaan teacher dies of cancer at 46
]
NORWALK — Resident and former public school teacher Melanie Lea Fieffe, 46, died of cancer on Jan. 12.
Fieffe “is and forever will be a gentle yet strong beacon of light who was a fighter for her kids — her family and herself,” Dana Mattson, of Norwalk, wrote on the Collins Funeral Home website.
She is survived by her husband, Dale, and her children Andrew, 16, Cameron, 14, and Matthew.
Fieffe was born in Augusta, Maine, graduated from Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine, and received her undergraduate degree in biology from Roger Williams University, where she played basketball. Much of her family still live in Maine.
After earning a master’s degree in science education at New York University, “she worked in several positions in the Norwalk Public School system,” and as a middle school science teacher at St. Luke’s, according to her obituary.
She was not an active teacher at St. Luke’s at the time of her death, school officials said, and would not comment further.
“Melanie loved all her students deeply,” her obituary reads.
Prior to teaching, Fieffe worked in the pharmaceutical industry for several years, initially with Eli Lilly and then Merck Pharmaceuticals.
“Melanie was a beloved, cherished member of her community. She spent many years involved in her children’s school helping to organize events,” and sat on committees which addressed special education, the obituary read.
She also used her own experience as a basketball player to coach her son’s basketball teams in local leagues.
The family received friends at Collins Funeral Home on Tuesday and a Celebration of Life event will be held in Maine on Aug. 27.