Back on Aug. 18, Fox Sports sideline reporter Pam Oliver was doing what she usually does: giving viewers at home the latest updates on the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants, who were scheduled to kick off their preseason game. Out of nowhere, while broadcasting, Oliver was hit in the side of the head by an errant pass.
The video was, of course, met with laughs, seen as nothing more than the run-of-the-mill sports blooper, which is a common occurrence among sideline reporters who have to be close to the action while reporting their stories. But in an interview with New York's Daily News, Oliver says the aftereffects of getting hit with the ball were more serious than even she initially thought.
Oliver had just finished doing an interview with referee Ed Hochuli for a piece she was doing on NFL refs for Showtime's "60 Minutes Sports," which airs Wednesday night, and returned to the sidelines. "That's all I remember," she said. "I asked the people around me, ‘What happened?' They told me I just got hit in the head with a football."
After waking up that Monday her head hurt so much she had to hold it. "The sensitivity to light started and some nausea too," she said, "my whole body was sore." Oliver went to the doctor. The CT Scan came up clean, but she was diagnosed with a concussion. Oliver spent the next five days in a dark room inside her home.
"I slept for hours on end. The minute you wake up you're reminded. Your head is pounding," she said. "I really could not take light — the light from the TV, the accent lighting. The sun was completely my enemy. My blinds were drawn. It was miserable."
Oliver is scheduled to return to the sidelines on Sunday, Sept. 8, to report on the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.
Read more at the Daily News.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.