ESPN has signed senior writer and injury analyst Stephania Bell to a new multi-year extension. Bell will continue to appear regularly on ESPN’s NFL and Fantasy Football coverage, including SportsCenter and Fantasy Football Now, in addition to co-hosting ESPN’s Fantasy Focus Football podcast and contributing injury insights and analysis across ESPN platforms, including ESPN.com, ESPN Radio and more.
Video Interview: 06010 ESPN Communications Podcast featuring Stephania Bell.
Since joining ESPN in 2007, Bell has been part of the Sunday morning Fantasy Football Now pregame show and the Fantasy Focus Football podcast for which she has served as co-host since 2016. She has filed feature pieces for multiple studio shows including SportsCenter, Sunday NFL Countdown and NBA Today, and led two multiplatform projects that resulted in E60 primetime television specials and ESPN.com features. One on former NFL quarterback and current ESPN NFL analyst Alex Smith, and another on former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, which chronicled their respective recoveries from injury and return to competition.
As a licensed physical therapist, board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist emeritus and certified strength and conditioning specialist, Bell has received many industry honors and awards, including her induction into the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Hall of Fame in 2017, becoming the organization’s first female inductee. She is a two-time recipient of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery (AAOS) Media Orthopedic Reporting Excellence Award and a two-time recipient of the Newswomen’s Club of New York, Specialized Reporting in Sports Award. Bell also received the Vinci Award for Sports Medicine Journalism in 2019.
Prior to joining ESPN, Bell worked for Kaiser Permanente in San Jose, Calif., and taught at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy Fellowship. She has held teaching positions in the physical therapy programs at Samuel Merritt College and the University of Kansas, and continues to serve as a consultant for athletes and performing artists with complex conditions. Bell also lectures nationally on various topics where sports medicine and media intersect.
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