While Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe, and Colin Cowherd might be the biggest names at Fox Sports, Joy Taylor has been making sure audiences know hers as well.
After starting with the network as a fill-in host on The Herd in 2016, she was later announced as the moderator for Undisputed. Soon enough, however, Taylor started to make a name for herself, rejoining Cowherd at The Herd before becoming the host of The Hang on Facebook Live, the Maybe I’m Crazy podcast, and The Joy Taylor Show on Fox Sports Radio. In 2022, she began co-hosting Speak as well.
During a recent appearance on the I Am Athlete podcast, Taylor admitted that being a Black woman in the sports media world meant that she felt that she essentially be perfect at all times in order to get to where she’s at today.
“So, you’re gonna get told no a lot. Sometimes it’s not even gonna be no, it’s like we’re not even listening to this,” said Taylor. “It’s not even an option for you. You’re not good enough. We don’t do that. The opportunity is not there. You don’t know how hard this is.
“I’ve been literally told how hard it is to do a daily show, while I was working on a daily show. You mean the show I currently work on? I don’t know how hard it is to do that? The same meeting I’m in every day? The same wake-up call? Same time? How would I not know how hard it is to do the show I work on?
“You have to constantly reaffirm that you are good enough, that you belong there, and always prove it.”
“You have to constantly reaffirm that you are good enough, that you belong there, and always prove it.”
Hard work and sacrifice got @JoyTaylorTalks to where she’s at today 🫡
Subscribe & watch her empowering episode 📺 → https://t.co/YjZ30EinkZ pic.twitter.com/raJSlLDNyZ
— I AM ATHLETE (@IAMATHLETEpod) March 13, 2023
While Taylor said that she’s succeeded under immense pressure that doesn’t exist for many of her colleagues, it’s also an experience that has made her who she is today.
“That’s why I’m excellent. Because I had to be. I couldn’t be average, I couldn’t be okay, I couldn’t be late, I couldn’t complain, I couldn’t say no,” Taylor said. “Now I do, but you have to do that because you can’t give people the opportunity to doubt you. So that is what the sacrifice is. There’s a lot of pride sacrificed, you gotta eat a lot of ****, you gotta listen to a lot of jokes, you gotta ignore little comments, little microaggressions.”
