Laura Rutledge is at the top of her game. As the host of NFL Live and a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football, not to mention many other roles that come up at ABC and ESPN, she\u2019s seemingly everywhere during football season (and beyond).<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old, who\u00a0re-signed a multi-year deal with ESPN in 2025<\/a>, has already packed a lot into her broadcasting career, from reporting and hosting at Fox Sports to hosting SEC Nation until recently. She\u2019s seemingly been working nonstop since the early 2010s.<\/p>\n She\u2019s also found time to raise a family with husband Josh Rutledge, a retired MLB infielder. They welcomed their daughter, Reese, in October 2019, and their son, Jack, in May 2023. According to the longtime reporter, it was when she became pregnant with Reese that she experienced the strangest sensation.<\/p>\n She was disappointed.<\/p>\n Rutledge explained what she meant by that during an appearance on The Pivot, where she joined her NFL Live coworker Ryan Clark. As part of a wide-ranging conversation, Clark asked Rutledge what it means to her to \u201chave it all,\u201d and the ESPN host offered a very honest and introspective answer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cFor the woman who has proven to many people, though difficult, you can have it all, what does [Mother\u2019s Day] mean for you and your family?\u201d asked Clark.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there was a long time where I thought it wouldn\u2019t be possible to be a mom and also do this,\u201d said Rutledge. \u201cWe were married for seven years, almost, before we even had kids. We kinda trying, and I was like, \u2018Alright, well, it\u2019s not happening, so maybe it\u2019s not for me. Maybe we\u2019re gonna try later.\u2019 I\u2019m chasing this career dream. I can\u2019t even visualize how it would be possible to have a child while doing what I was doing at the time in 2019 when I got pregnant with Reese. And I\u2019ll never forget finding out that I was pregnant and being so disappointed, which is, like, the worst thing.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I will tell you, Reese will know this, I will tell her when she\u2019s old enough to understand. I was disappointed because I thought that this was gonna end my career. \u2018I\u2019m building all this momentum; I can\u2019t get pregnant. I can\u2019t be on TV pregnant.\u2019 And there were other examples of women who had done it, but it did not feel like that was my story and my journey. How am I gonna do this? Even going through the pregnancy, I was, like, \u2018Okay, this is it for me. I better do every single event I can possibly do before I have this child because my career is over after that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cFast forward, both of my children have been actually key career moments where things have gotten better afterward. And listen, it is a constant battle every single day of trying to juggle it all, and make sure that they have what they need, and I can be there for them, and I can also be there for this job, and there\u2019s no balance, that doesn\u2019t exist, right? I don\u2019t feel like I have it all because I feel like I could constantly lose it all. That\u2019s actually more what it feels like. So that\u2019s the reality of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rutledge, who won the Awfulie for best in-game reporter last year<\/a>, is no stranger to speaking candidly about the struggles she\u2019s faced in her career. Last month, she spoke openly about the intense anxiety she still feels around her MNF sideline reporting role<\/a>. She\u2019s also admitted she used to defend her husband\u2019s MLB career on social media via a burner account<\/a>.<\/p>\n