These days, FOX NFL sideline reporter Erin Andrews is famous for covering the NFL, a job she has done since 2014. Before FOX, Andrews was at ESPN from 2004-2012 covering college football among other sports. However, she had always wanted to get a shot at the NFL.
On the latest episode of the Just Getting Started with Rich Eisen podcast, Andrews discussed with Eisen why she decided to make the tough decision to leave ESPN for a new challenge in her career at FOX.
“It was time. I probably called you [Eisen], I called a lot of people about it. I felt like I had done everything I was going to be allowed to do there,” she said. “I wanted to really be a part of the NFL. I had done 3-4 championship games, I had done College Gameday. I just knew if I was going to have a shot at the NFL, it was going to be at FOX.”
Andrews has had some memorable first moments in her career. Her first college football game as a sideline reporter for ESPN was in 2004 when Virginia Tech played #1 USC, a game in which ESPN took the viewer behind the scenes.
Even though Andrews felt she wasn’t ready for it, she appreciated that ESPN threw her into the proverbial deep end of the pool for her first broadcast.
Another memorable first for her was when she worked the Seahawks sideline for their playoff game against Washington in January 2013 when Robert Griffin III tore his ACL and LCL.
Of course, on this podcast, Erin Andrews talked about her famous interview with Richard Sherman after the 2013 NFC Championship Game, an interview in which she is very critical of herself. She said the FOX crew knew about the bad blood Sherman and Michael Crabtree had, but she still hates the question that she ended up asking Sherman.
“My face is holy s***, this is the biggest thing I have ever seen in a postgame interview. I know exactly where this is coming from between him and Crabtree. What is my next question going to be because everybody is watching this. This is going to go viral. At that point, I knew he was screaming ‘don’t you ever talk to me like that again!’ I knew he wasn’t talking about me, but I didn’t think people at home knew what was going on. I wish my face hadn’t looked like that. It wasn’t my best moment, but I thought it was awesome what happened with him.”
Erin Andrews did end up interviewing Sherman for FOX’s Super Bowl coverage that year and she brought up an idea that SNICKERS never used for a commercial to the Pro Bowl corner.
“I’m going to contact MARS candy and tell them you and I need a SNICKERS commercial and we are going to re-enact it and I’m going to give you a SNICKERS and it’s going to be fine. I did and they didn’t take it.”
