Pam Oliver is a veteran sideline reporter for Fox in the NFL. She is one of the original faces of football television on Fox and is known for her professionalism, tireless research, and dogged reporting. “She’s the first lady of football,” reporter Lisa Salters told Yahoo Sports. “She’s The O.G.”
During a late December 2022 match between the Miami Dolphins and the Green Bay Packers, Oliver didn’t sound like her usual eloquent self – she slurred her words, sparking online speculation that she was either drunk or high. Concerned fans questioned whether Pam Oliver was ill during the broadcast.
Pam Oliver has suffered from crushing migraines since she was 25
For most of her life, Pam Oliver has suffered from debilitating migraines. Despite suffering from the migraines since she was 25, Oliver doesn’t know what triggers them. She told The Athletic:
“They’ve been a problem for a very long time. It’s caused me to miss a few games over the span of my career because I just couldn’t take the noise and the light and the sickness that comes with that, the nausea and vomiting.”
Oliver told the outlet that the migraines had forced her to abandon broadcasts minutes before they’d started. “They really do knock me out of action,” Pam added. She continued:
“I tend to get them in my sleep. Saturday night I might go to bed feeling one way and then three or four o’clock in the morning, I’m completely aware that I have a full-blown migraine. I’m running to emergency rooms and urgent care.”
The pain intensified for a period when she was hit in the face by a football in 2013, suffering a concussion. “I was getting rebound headaches is what they finally discovered,” She said. “So I was kind of having the same migraine over again.”
Pam feels she’s gotten better in that the frequency of the migraines has reduced. She told Yahoo Sports that the chronic headaches sometimes force her to hide in stadium tunnels to avoid lights, noise, and pyrotechnics.
Oliver hasn’t confirmed it, but she was probably suffering from a migraine while covering the Packers-Dolphins game, explaining her slurred speech. Pam told the outlet that she’d provided in-game reporting while in agony.
Oliver has learned to live with her condition. She relieves tension through muscle relaxation and takes monthly medication to help her body fight. Pam told The Athletic:
“They definitely are real and they continue to plague me. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. That’s just part of my health issue. A lot of people suffer migraines, but you do the best you can and try to stay ahead of it medically.”
Oliver has suffered from chronic pain due to fibroids and personal loss
Pam Oliver always wanted to have children, but fibroid medication prevented her from welcoming biological children. She was in so much pain that she took a Lupron shot, which eliminated her chances of conception. “I went into a medical menopause that my body was not down with,” Pam said.
Oliver is married to Alvin Whitney and is a stepmom to his three children. “I love being a stepmom even to this day,” Oliver told Yahoo Sports. “To me, it just all worked out.”
She has also endured crushing emotional pain. The sickness, decline, and death of her older sister, Jacque, were difficult to process. “She got sick and it just just kept tumbling,” Oliver said.
Jacque needed a transplant to resolve a kidney issue, but a cancer diagnosis took her off the transplant list. She died on 8th June 2018, aged 63. “You’ve lost your sister. One of your best friends on this planet. And your champion,” Oliver lamented.
Oliver comforts herself by listening to voicemails saved on her phone. “She was there for all of it,” Oliver added.