Laura Rutledge, a versatile host and reporter, is one of the most recognizable faces in the NFL and college football landscape. In Rutledge’s current role at ESPN, she serves as a full-time Monday Night Football sideline reporter, a role she assumed before the start of the 2025 NFL season, working alongside Lisa Salters. She also hosts ESPN’s year-round weekday NFL news and information show NFL Live and SEC Network’s SEC Nation. Since joining ESPN in 2014 as a reporter for SEC Network and ESPN, Rutledge has steadily expanded her portfolio across the company. 

Rutledge was named host of NFL Live in June 2020 while continuing to lead SEC Nation—2025 marked her ninth year as host and tenth with the show overall. Before officially joining the Monday Night Football broadcast team, Rutledge served as a sideline reporter for numerous NFL games as ESPN’s NFL portfolio grew, and in October 2022, she worked ESPN+’s first-ever exclusive NFL game at Wembley Stadium in London. 

In addition to her NFL Live, SEC Nation and MNF duties, Rutledge plays a significant role in ESPN’s presentations of the NFL Pro Bowl Games and NFL Draft, while continuing to be part of the broadcast team for one College Football Playoff Semifinal each year. Throughout the college football regular season, Rutledge regularly amplifies highly anticipated matchups, often joining Holly Rowe on the sidelines.  

In 2024, she added golf to her responsibilities, joining ESPN’s coverage of the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga., as host of Welcome to the Masters. 

Before joining NFL Live, Rutledge was a contributor on Get Up. She has anchored SportsCenter, hosted red carpet coverage at both the Home Depot College Football Awards and the ESPYs, and contributed to extensive live-event programming across college football, basketball, gymnastics, baseball and softball. She was a fixture in ESPN’s championship coverage of the College Football Playoff, NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, and the Women’s College World Series and College World Series. 

Prior to ESPN, Rutledge was a sports anchor for CNN’s New Day and Early Start and worked on HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade as well as Fox Sports. 

Rutledge holds a broadcasting journalism degree from the University of Florida, where she received the 2011 Red Barber Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. She is also an Ambassador for the Miracle League, an organization that builds baseball fields for children with disabilities. 

She resides in Connecticut with her husband, Josh Rutledge, a retired MLB infielder and now a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker and owner of West Alabama Ford. They welcomed their daughter, Reese, in October 2019, and their son, Jack, in May 2023.