Prior to the Kansas City Chiefs-Chicago Bears game, rumors were swirling that Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Taylor Swift would be in attendance. Over the ensuing weeks, Swift had been linked to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who expressed disappointment that he couldn’t deliver a friendship bracelet to her during a performance on “The Eras Tour.”
As speculation around Swift’s possible appearance intensified, NFL fans and Swifties alike became curious about the details. Before the game, FOX Sports lead NFL reporter Erin Andrews was on the field with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and color commentator Greg Olsen. The broadcasters were engaging in their usual routine, meandering the sidelines to make observations and converse with players, coaches and other team personnel to enhance their deft preparation ahead of kickoff.
Suddenly, Andrews noticed that her phone was being inundated with messages, including communication from producers for the pregame show, game broadcast and on-air features. Figuring that they would want her to confirm if the gossip was true, she informed Olsen of the situation. Although Kelce was in the middle of a pregame drill at the time, Olsen grabbed his attention and informed him that Andrews had a question to ask when he had a moment.
“I really did have a football question because I really do care about football,” Andrews explained. “I’m obviously being sarcastic right now, [but] I wanted to talk football. I think he was relieved because I don’t know if he heard Greg make a joke about, ‘Hey, she really needs to ask you something.’ And then out of the corner of my mouth I said, ‘Hey, there’s this rumor that Taylor’s coming,’ and he kind of just looked at me and he hugged me and he goes, ‘Yep, but you didn’t hear it from me.’”
In confirming the news, Andrews was able to inform the rest of her FOX Sports colleagues so they could adjust their coverage accordingly. As a reporter, she has worked to foster relationships with athletes in order to develop and maintain the necessary trust to be privy to insider information. Meticulous groundwork, networking skills and a passion for the craft have engendered Andrews a stellar reputation, and she has been able to combine those bedrock journalism tenets with the demands of the incessant modern content ecosystem.
Andrews, who is a fan of Swift and her music, knew what promptly became one of the top news stories of the day, but the broadcast still remained focused on presenting viewers with the nuances of the inter-conference matchup. Shortly thereafter, the FOX Sports broadcast team spoke with Brett Veach, the general manager of the Chiefs. The discussion centered around the roster and how to improve the synergy among the offense. Extemporaneously so, Veach asked if they were aware that Swift was coming to the game, giving Andrews a chance to probe for more information.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I kind of heard, but what are the details?,’ and he told us what he knew, so then I could attribute it to I had definitely heard it,” Andrews conveyed. “I didn’t want to hang Travis out to dry, but once she was there, obviously the cat was out of the bag.”
On a weekly basis, Andrews expertly gathers information, ensures its veracity and presents compendious reports on the air. Furthermore, she will direct handheld camera operators to capture certain shots for the broadcast, assisting producer Richie Zyontz and director Rich Russo.
There are times when viewers do not realize she has provided the broadcasting booth with the latest information, and she equates some of her responsibilities to those of a spy. The job would be considerably more difficult, if not near impossible, without the connections she has fervently worked to build and her willingness to go above and beyond for the story.
Andrews is certainly a frequent flier, often traversing the United States to interview intriguing sports figures such as Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders and New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Seeing journalists at work, however, was nothing new to her since she grew up as the daughter of Steve Andrews, an award-winning investigative reporter and writer at WFLA-TV, the local NBC affiliate. One day as they were watching Hannah Storm interview Hall of Fame basketball forward Charles Barkley, Andrews informed her father that she was interested in pursuing a career in sports media. Despite advising her against it, she proceeded anyway.
Throughout her youth, Andrews was an avid fan of the Boston Celtics and watched superstar players Kevin McHale and Larry Bird vie to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the season’s end. She also consumed plenty of Boston Red Sox baseball and NFL games, closely following the teams in the New England area. While tuning in to a Monday Night Football game, she discovered sideline reporter Melissa Stark and immediately recognized that she would be a role model as she worked to break into the industry.
“She was the hot name,” Andrews said. “It’s cool to talk to her now because she really started her career when [Tom] Brady came into the league when [Bill] Belichick was with him and so forth. She was young and she was somebody – I cut my hair to be like her; I would wear the sleeveless shirts with the collars like her – so she was somebody I really loved.”
Andrews attended the University of Florida, a school that stood out to her because of the national coverage its sports teams garnered. As an undergraduate student, she had the opportunity to interview various personnel across its sports programs and also saw the entities she aspired to work for actively producing television.
Upon her graduation, Andrews started freelance reporting with FOX Sports Florida, contributing stories as needed and hoping for a big break. By the next year, she landed a role with the Sunshine Network to report on the Tampa Bay Lightning, and she followed the team as it amassed and developed the pieces to create a sustainable, winning culture.
Andrews ultimately joined Turner Sports in 2002 as a studio host and reporter where she covered a variety of events throughout the year. She displayed her skillset by reporting on the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Thrashers while hosting college football and Atlanta Hawks coverage. The job required her to move to Atlanta, Ga. and she had the intent to stand out through her peerless work ethic, shrewd perspicacity and indefatigable willingness to adapt.
“I think they signed me to a two-year deal,” Andrews recalled, “and then they got rid of me because I was terrible. I was so bad.”
Throughout Andrews’ time with the entity, Charles Barkley, who she remembered watching in her youth, was an advocate for her. Upon learning of her impending departure from the network, he knew that she would flourish and gave her a vote of confidence.
“I remember he texted me when they let me go and just said, ‘They’re going to regret this, and I can’t wait to tell them that they are,’” Andrews remembered Barkley expressing. “Listen, I was green as hell in doing what I was doing. I don’t know if I was utilized the right way, [and] I don’t blame them for not renewing my deal because I think it pretty much all worked out, but everything happens for a reason.”
Cognizant that she would be without a job if she did not take action, Andrews devised a plan to go to a hotel bar to interact with broadcasters after a hockey game. Having worked in the industry for several years, she knew the likely location and ended up interacting with various personnel. Her drive to succeed was unyielding, determined to find a role and merit sustainability and longevity.
“I said, ‘I’m Erin Andrews, and I’m going to be unemployed in a month. Who do I talk to with ESPN hockey coverage so I can do the hockey coverage for you guys for the playoffs?,’” she recalled, “and I got a name and a number.”
One week later, Andrews was assigned to the Tampa Bay Lightning playoff series against the New York Islanders, the team she used to cover with the Sunshine Network. Twelve wins later, the Lightning earned a spot in the Stanley Cup Final where the team faced off against the Calgary Flames, battling to the brink for ultimate glory.
“The Lightning ended up winning the Stanley Cup, and I was doing post-ice interviews – center ice with the team that gave me my first shot – and it was pretty awesome from there,” Andrews said. “I signed a three-year deal with ESPN right after that, and away we go.”
The network assigned Andrews to ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime where she worked alongside play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and color commentator Kirk Herbstreit. When football was in its offseason, she reported for college basketball games on Tuesdays and Saturdays, calling Brent Musburger, Dick Vitale and Dan Schulman her co-workers.
ESPN also granted Andrews chances to become immersed in all levels of baseball by reporting on the Little League World Series and College World Series. She spent four years as the field reporter for Monday Night Baseball and another season on the Wednesday Night Baseball broadcasts with Dave O’Brien and Rick Sutcliffe before moving to other responsibilities.
The network partnered with ABC to cover the Scripps National Spelling Bee, granting Andrews a chance to report on the precocious contestants aiming to prove their acuity in the English language. Additionally, she appeared as a contestant on Season 10 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and she and her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy finished in third place.
Because of her deft storytelling abilities and reporting acumen, Andrews was named the features reporter for College GameDay in 2010 and was also afforded the opportunity to host the first hour of the program on ESPNU. During that season, she balanced these roles while serving as the sideline reporter for Saturday Night Football on ABC where she reunited with Musburger and Herbstreit. Despite facing adversity and enduring personal hardship, Andrews prospered and further cemented herself as a staple in sports media.
ESPN made an offer to keep Andrews, but FOX Sports ended up signing her to a multi-year deal in 2012. Upon the announcement, she was immediately placed on the new Prime Time College Football Pregame Show and also on baseball coverage during the postseason and World Series.
Andrews recently appeared in studio for a football pregame show segment, coinciding with the MLB on FOX Pregame featuring analysts Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Álex Rodríguez, players she covered as a field reporter. A few weeks ago, FOX Sports held an event between its MLB and NFL properties, and she had the chance to thank Jeter for being accessible and kind during that time.
“Jeter made a mention to one of my bosses – ‘Hey, she’s a baseball girl; she needs to be back with us,’” Andrews stated. “It’d be a grind, but it’d be fun, and he was just being funny when he said it, but it’d be cool to be a part of that.”
Prior to the start of the 2014 NFL season, Andrews was named the new lead sideline reporter for the lead broadcast crew of the NFL on FOX. Whereas longtime announcing tandem Joe Buck and Troy Aikman departed the company to join Monday Night Football on ESPN, Andrews remained with the network. She has been working with Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen and Tom Rinaldi since last year.
Andrews values being able to follow the sport throughout the season, one of the aspects of the job that contrasted from her time on the baseball coverage. Veteran sports journalists Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci took over field reporting duties on the lead broadcast prior to the 2016 season after Andrews inked a contract extension with the company.
“It was harder for me to come on during playoffs and World Series because I hadn’t spent the whole year with them,” Andrews explained. “Kenny, obviously, just knew a lot more than I did, and I just don’t want to be put in a position where somebody knows so much more, and I don’t want to do a disservice to the sport.”
When Burkhardt and Olsen were elevated to the lead NFL broadcast team, Andrews knew that she would be able to develop chemistry with them. After all, she had worked with Burkhardt in the past during her first year on NFL coverage and knew Olsen from his time on the Carolina Panthers. Everything culminated in what ended up being a record-setting Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs that drew an average of 115.1 million viewers.
“We all get along really well,” Andrews said. “We have a really funny side text chain that’s always going off that my husband’s always like, ‘Oh god, what does the text chain say now?’ Yeah, they’re your family.”
While Andrews has been in her role for over a decade, she presumes that the last couple of years have helped her become more comfortable and genuinely evolve her broadcast style. Leading up to a game, she prepares through conducting research, having conversations and participating in various meetings, all of which are intended to present an informative and engaging final product to the viewer. Reporting the situations on the sidelines such as in-game adjustments, injury updates and other occurrences are of critical importance, along with remaining nimble and malleable to react to environmental changes.
“I know when I need to be informative; I know when I need to be serious and give the facts, but it’s also football,” Andrews said. “It’s fun, and FOX allows us to have a personality, which I’m really, really grateful for.”
In her Week 6 assignment – which ended in a thrilling upset by the Cleveland Browns over the San Francisco 49ers – Andrews was reporting during a moist, rainy afternoon. Always having an admiration for the craft of meteorology, she concisely delivered a pregame report connecting the playing conditions to the game strategy. Her relationships allow her to accurately compile and recapitulate salient points on a weekly basis, augmenting the quality of the presentation.
“I talked about the wind gusts, I talked about the rain [and] I talked about my weave getting wet,” Andrews elucidated, “and then I said, ‘This is kind of what Kyle Shanahan wanted for this defense and offense. This is the stuff they’re going to have to go through to see if they can be the team that’s there at the end.’”
Andrews showcases her personality and perspectives without a bonafide time limit as co-host of the Calm Down podcast through iHeartMedia. She and FOX Sports colleague Charissa Thompson record two episodes of the show per week, on which they have candid, friendly conversations about their lives both inside and outside of sports media.
“The inspiration was, ‘Why can’t we?,’” Andrews said. “I have a lot more to say than just the 10 seconds that I’m allotted on air. With so many girls reaching out to us asking about the industry [and] asking what it’s like to travel on the road – we have so many funny stories, and it’s been really cool to be on the field for games and coaches to be like, ‘Hey, that podcast of yours.’”
A topic of discussion recently has been the potential relationship between Swift and Kelce, something that can be traced back to an August episode of the show. Commenting on Kelce being unable to meet Swift at a tour, Andrews implored the musician to “try our friend Travis.” She proceeded to impart that although she and Swift are not friends, she should take her up on the suggestion anyway. Ten weeks later, Swift was attending her third Chiefs game in a four-week span and donned a windbreaker that was sent by Andrews herself.
The apparel, which rapidly sold out after images were disseminated from the game, is part of the “WEAR by Erin Andrews” clothing line, an entrepreneurial endeavor she launched in 2019. It now has licensed products from various professional sports leagues, including the NFL, and is partnered with online retailer Fanatics.
“We helped maybe bring Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift together and all this stuff,” Andrews said of the podcast, “so yeah, we love it.”
Following the Chiefs’ 41-10 win over the Bears, Andrews interviewed Quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Since she has spoken with him on numerous occasions and developed a professional connection, she asked Mahomes to have fun with the final question in their conversation.
“I knew what everybody wanted,” Andrews said. “I knew at the end, I wanted to ask a funny question about her being there. Listen, everybody wanted to see [No.] 87 score because we wanted to get her reaction; it’d be fun. Once he scored, that was obviously something I could ask Mahomes about, but I’m there to do a job; I’m there to talk about football, and that’s what I did.”
As a trailblazer in the industry, Andrews remains focused on the task of supporting her colleagues and showcasing the athletes and personalities within a marathon towards the “Big Game.” This weekend, she will be back on the sidelines, trying to extrapolate the information and tell the stories to set up the broadcast for success. Even though Andrews has attended many thrilling matchups and tentpole events, she looks forward to every chance to demonstrate her reporting and football expertise.
“Every single week, I try to show them and grind as much as possible – just show them how much I care; how hard I work; all the things,” Andrews said. “When I get the validation from them, that’s really what success is to me.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
