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BEHIND THE STRIPES

Maria Taylor

By Atlanta United FC

November 3^rd, 2022

It’s not often that Maria Taylor gets to come home, but when she does, she makes the most of it.

The famous national sportscaster hails from Atlanta, Ga. Her career, which involves covering high-profile sporting events like the NBA Finals and college football, has taken her all over the country – and all over the world. This past summer, she worked her first Olympic Games in Tokyo for her current role at NBC Sports.

Assignments covering SEC football brought her home to Atlanta in the past, but there was one thing she’d never seen before: an Atlanta United match. So, when the opportunity arrived for Taylor to visit Mercedes-Benz Stadium to watch her hometown club, the Georgia sports fan jumped at the opportunity.

“Sports in this city are amazing, so I'm excited to see it, from the MLS standpoint, to see a team that's been so successful in the past in Atlanta United – and just be here at the stadium for a different reason that’s not football,” she said.

On May 7, Taylor served as the honorary Spike Hitter for Atlanta United’s 4-1 win over Chicago Fire. It was her first time attending an Atlanta United match in-person. Her friends, including three who are season ticket holders, would often tell her she needed to come out to watch the 5-Stripes, but a demanding, high-profile career made it difficult.

“They’ve been trying to get me here and I've always been working, whether it’s been the NBA Finals or whatever,” Taylor said prior to taking the capo stand. “So, this is my first time being able to come, and I'm so excited for the opportunity to be the Spike Hitter too.”

As a sports journalist, Taylor’s schedule is hectic. Her job requires lots of travel, working nights, weekends and long hours. Time off to visit friends back home and take in a game as a casual fan doesn’t happen often. So, for Taylor it meant a lot to finally have the chance to support her local MLS team.

“Even for this to work, going through the scheduling and making sure that we had time for this, this was important to me,” she said. “Normally, I travel almost every week, especially during football season, going back and forth to New York. So, it's good to be home and be able to celebrate sports in my hometown.”

About stepping up to the capo stand, Taylor was powered by the energy of the Atlanta United supporters. Even though she’s at sporting events all the time and surrounded by fans with deep love for their teams, she revealed being in Atlanta feels different. As a reporter who’s covered some of the largest, most prominent sporting events in the world, that’s a testament to the passion of the 17s – and how important it is for Taylor to feel a part of it.

“Number one, Atlanta is my home. Period,” she said. “I've been everywhere. I've traveled and done the Summer Games in Tokyo, I'm going to the French Open. I've been from the West Coast to the South, up North, everywhere covering sports. And to me, there's no more genuine fan than in Atlanta.”

"I’ve been from the West Coast to the South, up North, everywhere covering sports. To me, there’s no more genuine fan than in Atlanta.”

Although it’s not often that Taylor makes it back to Atlanta, when she does she seeks to stay involved in the city. She likes to visit Chastain Park, and the restaurant The Chastain nearby is among her favorites. Taylor also enjoys going to concerts and inviting friends into town to show them around. Now, she can add going to an Atlanta United match to her list of things to do whenever she comes back to visit her beloved hometown.

“There's a crossroads of people. There's people that come from all over to live here and it's genuinely a great melting pot,” Taylor said. “Not only that, it's still the South, so there's a kindness and a genuine heart here that I love. So, that's why I love this. I’m a sports fan that lives and loves Atlanta.”

As a former athlete herself, Taylor is a natural at speaking the language of the sports she covers. She was a multi-sport athlete at nearby Centennial High School in Roswell, Ga. At 6-foot-2 with a long frame, Taylor possessed a natural athleticism that made her an imposing presence on the court. Her athletic career carried over into college, and Taylor earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Georgia. From 2005-2009, she played two sports as an athlete for the Georgia Bulldogs, volleyball and basketball. To this day, she ranks third in University of Georgia volleyball history in total attacks (4,517) and fourth in points (2,020.0).

While she takes great pride in her athletic background, she also attributes her Georgia education as helping pave the way for her career. She stayed in-state for her entire education, going to middle school and high school locally in Atlanta. For college, she went up 316 to Athens to attend the University of Georgia. She graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism in 2009 and received her MBA in 2013.

“I always say the University of Georgia was everything,” she said. “I played sports there. You can see, I have a former teammate here with me. Some of my best friends were made there. But not only that, going to journalism school at Georgia. When I graduated, I worked at Georgia and did the University of Georgia Athletic Association website. I called women’s volleyball matches and women's basketball games. I'm not here, doing sports at the level I'm doing them at, if I didn't go to a top-tier, D1 school and I'm just so lucky that it was in my backyard.”

After a stint working as a reporter University of Georgia athletics, Taylor got a job working as a sideline reporter at ESPN. There, she covered college football, college men’s and women’s basketball, and college women’s volleyball. Her work at ESPN extended to the SEC Network, where she covered high-profile college football games like the College Football Playoff. She also appeared regularly on College Football Gameday, the weekly show that airs on ESPN on Saturday mornings.

"There’s a kindness and a genuine heart here that I love. That’s why I love this. I’m a sports fan that lives and loves Atlanta.

Although she’s analyzed a wide range of sports throughout her career, it wasn’t until her coverage at NBC with the Tokyo Olympics that she learned more about the state of soccer – knowledge she was finally able to apply as a fan at her first Atlanta United match.

“It's funny because the most soccer I've ever done was the Olympics, so being out in Tokyo covering women's soccer and men's soccer, that’s kind of been my first foray into it and that was this past summer. So, it's interesting because I've learned a lot about it. And this is even better to be able to be here for MLS, so this is my first time dealing with it stateside,” she said.

At 35 years old, Taylor serves as an example to aspiring young journalists – especially women. Whether covering a match as a sideline reporter or working in the front office, sports can be a challenging field for women to advance and succeed. With her hard work and acumen, Taylor has made a way in a male-dominated field. This fall, she made history becoming the first female full-time host of Football Night in America on NBC. Hosting the most-watched studio show in sports has proven that Taylor is a not just a successful woman in sports but also an illustrious, respected journalist.

To young women who want to do what Taylor does, her most important piece of advice is to believe in yourself, believe that you can occupy a space in the sports world and have a voice. It’s a topic that Taylor is passionate about, one she speaks on with substance and clarity. As a leader in the industry, she's proudly taken on the mantle to help other women find their voices in a field traditionally dominated by men.

“The key is having confidence in your ability to speak on sports, tell the truth about sports, research sports and know that you know what's happening,” she said on her advice to women who want to work in sports. “Don't let anyone tell you that you don't belong. Don’t even tell yourself. A lot of times, you can be your own worst enemy, believing that maybe you don't belong in a certain group because there's a bunch of men that might be there.”

“Believing in yourself is number one,” she continued. “Have confidence and demand respect with everything that you do. The way you conduct yourself, the way that you show up at work, the way that you research and know what you're doing. Demand respect with your position and believe that you can do whatever you want to at the end of the day.”

Story by Sandy McAfee / Photos by Brandon Magnus / Layout by Dakota Williams

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