Samantha Ponder

Sam Ponder was named host of Sunday NFL Countdown in March 2017. She is just the third person to occupy this position in the 32-year history of ESPN’s Sunday morning NFL pregame show. In addition to her role as host, Ponder also contributes NFL interviews and features. A former contributor to College Football Live and the six-time Emmy-award winning College GameDay Built by The Home Depot (2012-16), Ponder also served as a reporter for the ABC Saturday Night Football telecast with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit in 2016. Ponder, who started at ESPN in 2011, also worked as a reporter for college football (Thursdays), as well as Longhorn Network events, studio shows and feature stories out of the LHN studios in Austin, Texas. Additionally, she served as a reporter for ESPN’s Tuesday and Saturday primetime college basketball games. Prior to ESPN, Ponder was a host and reporter for Fox Sports where she contributed to both Fox Sports Net and Fox College’s coverage of college basketball and football in the Pac 10 and Big 12 conferences. As a host, she led the pregame, halftime and postgame studio shows for various events, including the Pac 10 Basketball Tournament and “Paradise Jam,” a preseason tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands featuring teams from the ACC, Big East, and other various conferences. Ponder also joined radio shows around the country during the college football and basketball seasons to discuss the latest news in college sports, and she was a former weekly columnist for FoxSports.com.