Sam Ponder leaves gratitude note to College GameDay colleagues
By Carly Regehr
Sam Ponder exits College GameDay in classy style with a thank you note.
Samantha Ponder has left the building.
In accordance with her College GameDay departure, Ponder left a note to her GameDay colleagues. It tugs at the heart strings because she has been a regular face on not just the early morning show, but on the sidelines. Though many hints were thrown around about her preemptive exit, it wouldn’t be until this week that she officially left. And with that, Ponder had some choice words, along with some poetry at that end.
Being a good sport, Ponder mostly thanked those behind the scenes. Daily run-ins with people that offered Ponder snacks, like Bobby Stephens, the bus driver for GameDay staff, and those that handled her with professionalism, like audio crewmember Mike Madio, because Ponder’s feels “really weird about being touched on the face.” Along with support personnel, Ponder expressed her allegiance to her on-air coworkers that “not a single moment or day went by when one of you made me feel anything but equal.”
For the last 10 years, college football coverage has been a steadfast diet of Ponder’s. She’s been looked down upon as the little sister to a cast full of big brothers. Colleagues, like Rece Davis and David Pollack, teamed up with her regularly and inducted her into the brotherhood. Ponder also spent some quality time on the sideline during college football’s primetime slot on Saturdays. Throughout countless interviews with players and coaches from “Clemson to Fargo to Eugene,” Ponder has some big boots to fill on Sunday Night Countdown.
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In January, Chris Berman, who would be the poster child of NFL Countdown, left the show after 31 years of service.
Asked if she ever met him, Ponder recalled a passive encounter in an ESPN interview, saying, “I walked up and introduced myself…then I walked away.” That drive-by conversation happened when Ponder was just starting out on ESPN. Now with her new role on NFL Countdown, Ponder can not only talk about her love for the Cardinals, but her husband and NFL quarterback Christian Ponder.