After a high profile exit from ESPN, Allison Williams is set to take on a new challenge as Fox Sports’ NFL sideline reporter, stepping into the role left by longtime Fox veteran Laura Okmin, who is leaving after 23 years.
While Okmin was offered a contract renewal, she opted to walk away from television, prompting Fox to move quickly in naming her successor. And according to FOS’s Michael McCarthy, Fox’s new NFL sideline reporter will be Williams, who previously worked as a sideline reporter for Fox’s college football broadcasts.
SCOOP: Fox Sports is promoting college football sideline reporter Allison Williams to Laura Okmin’s NFL sideline reporter role.
Williams went through a contentious split with ESPN in 2021 over parent company Disney’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.https://t.co/O8zYVjuyzH
— Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV) July 14, 2025
Okmin spent the 2024 NFL season alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and color analyst Daryl “Moose” Johnston. It remains unclear whether Williams will fill that exact role in the upcoming season.
Williams’ own Fox tenure began in 2022 after being benched at ESPN for refusing to comply with their COVID-19 vaccine mandate. At Fox, she worked with Jason Benetti and Brock Huard. With Huard stepping away and being replaced by Robert Griffin III, Fox’s No. 2 college football broadcast team will look quite different in 2025, although Benetti remains a constant.
Williams spent more than a decade at ESPN before her departure in October 2021. ESPN’s vaccine mandate required all on-site employees to be vaccinated to align with league, conference, and stadium protocols. While some unvaccinated employees were allowed to work remotely, a sideline reporter couldn’t perform her duties from home. One month after explaining her absence from the sidelines, Williams resigned from ESPN and quickly embraced a new role with Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire.
On DailyWire+, Williams hosts BreakAways, an eight-part original series featuring interviews with athletes, coaches, and sports figures who “stood firm in their convictions.” Her guests have included Tony Dungy, Cole Beasley, Jonathan Isaac, Dana White, Nick Rolovich, and Enes Freedom (Kanter).
The show originally premiered in September 2022, but several episodes — including those with Beasley and Dungy — carry release dates of June 2025. It’s unclear if those were re-releases or delayed drops of previously recorded interviews, or whether Williams plans to continue the series moving forward.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.