Over the last several decades, more women have made their voices heard and brought their viewpoints and perspectives to the conversation surrounding the game of football. From those behind the microphone to behind the scenes, numerous women continue to leave an indelible impact on the sports media industry. With the culmination of Women’s History Month, Barrett Media spoke to several women working in the media business to discuss their perspectives on the current state of the profession and future ambitions to foster growth.
Throughout her career in journalism, Andrea Kremer has defied the odds and established new paradigms with persistence and determination to succeed. As one of the original cast members of We Need to Talk at CBS Sports, she has established a platform to provide her perspectives on topics in sports. In fact, the show gathered for a 10-year reunion last fall that brought current and former panelists together, some of whom include Tracy Wolfson, Allie LaForce and Renee Montgomery. The moment was indicative of augmented parity in the business and progress women have made, further demeriting elements of doubt or disdain.
“There’s always going to be a segment of the audience that does not want sports news from women,” Kremer said. “There’s always going to be that, and I respect that. That’s where there’s options, but the genie doesn’t go back into the bottle. We’re here to say, we’re not going anywhere. That’s just the way it is.”
Questioning whether or not women belong in sports is an insulting inquiry to Kremer, who has had to display a tireless work ethic and impervious demeanor to rise up and receive plaudits from industry contemporaries, let alone acceptance by others. Earlier in her career, one of Kremer’s job was to be the backup host for Up Close, a venerated longform interview show on ESPN. When the original host of the program left the job, she tried to apply for the opportunity and surmised that she had done enough to earn the spot.
“I had breakfast in Bristol with an executive who’s one of my mentors, and I didn’t have to really sell myself to him, but we were more discussing the opportunity than I was interviewing for it,” Kremer recalled, “and he looked me in the eye, and he just said, ‘They’re not going to put a woman as the host of this show,’ and I remember to this day the visceral feeling that I had that it didn’t matter how good I was, they just weren’t prepared to put a woman in that role.”
Kremer started working with Hannah Storm in 2018 on a commentary feed for presentations of Thursday Night Football, marking the first all-woman booth to call any men’s team sport, let alone NFL games. The arrangement continued through five seasons amid a proliferation of women serving as play-by-play announcers, such as Beth Mowins, Lisa Byington and Kate Scott. Through all of her career experiences and observations though, Kremer has witnessed the existence of a double standard that places more pressure on women to perform at a high level.
“I’ve always joked about this,” Kremer said. “If Chris Berman made a mistake, ‘Oh, it’s Boomer!,’ but if Linda Cohn made a mistake, ‘Oh my God, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.’ You have to understand that that exists, and the only way that you can combat it is just understand you’re going to make mistakes, just don’t make the same mistake twice and realize that you’re just going to be evaluated in a different way.”
Kay Adams Moving the Goalpost With ‘Up & Adams’
Ahead of one of these alternate broadcasts of prime time football, Kremer remembers Storm being unable to take the air because of a last-minute illness. Kay Adams, who was hosting the pregame show from the studio, ran over to the set and seamlessly integrated herself into the game broadcast. Kremer remembers seeing Adams shine in this sense, and she has continued to do so in leading her own morning show with FanDuel TV over the last three NFL seasons. In fact, many attendees on Media Row ahead of Super Bowl LIX this past February watched as Adams hosted the flagship program with a prodigious guest lineup blending information and entertainment.
Through all the fanfare, Adams remained focused on the present moment with aspirations of bigger things to come in the years ahead. With the San Francisco Super Bowl next year, she is collaborating with industry professionals to help her show continue connecting with NFL players, veterans and other personalities.
“I will say that I feel like my network of women in this industry has grown exponentially over the past couple of seasons,” Adams said. “I can tell you on my personal team, my right-hand woman is a woman, my booker is a woman, my entire marketing team is made up of strong women, so it’s just really a beautiful thing.”
Jane Slater and Jen Hale Working the Beat
Jane Slater, a reporter for NFL Network who was covering the Philadelphia Eagles prior to kickoff, was part of the contingent watching the Up & Adams show during the week. Slater used to work with Adams at NFL Network, and she has continued to provide consumers with updated information and perspectives surrounding the game. Throughout the season, Slater closely follows the Dallas Cowboys and has fostered credibility as a trusted source of information while building a professional network of sources. Even though the Cowboys were not participants in the championship game, she was still on site attending press conferences, conversing with players and keeping viewers in the know amid an inclusive setting.
“I think credit to this generation of coaches, generation of players,” Slater said. “They don’t make me feel like one, and I feel like as a woman, if you come prepared and you do the job and you carry yourself a certain way, you get that same respect in return from the players, so for me, it’s never been an issue.”
Jen Hale recently completed a season in which she worked on her 200th NFL game broadcast, becoming the seventh woman in the sideline role to attain the feat. Throughout her media endeavors, she has witnessed augmented levels of equity, but she acknowledges the need to have a thick skin. Early in her career, Hale acknowledged how she was oftentimes the only female she would ever see and that there were very few women working in positions around the league and sports media at large.
“It’s fantastic that women are being able to take advantage of these opportunities and being able to shine in their roles and in these jobs that I think before, a decade ago, two decades ago, that wasn’t considered a role for a female,” Hale said. “The important thing is when females get in those positions to make sure they do a great job, and they are. We’re seeing so many huge successes by women.”
Hale commends pioneers such as Kremer who have shattered proverbial glass ceilings to challenge traditional archetypes and encourage a wider array of voices taking part in the conversation. Even though there are more women working in the sport than in previous years, there remain ostensible stereotypes to combat and destroy.
“As a female, you’re going to be criticized much more harshly for mistakes, so you’ve got to be uber-prepared, you’ve got to be uber-ready,” Hale explained. “You’ve got to prove yourself in a different way. Every time you step on that field of play, pun intended, you’ve got to come with your game face on. There isn’t the margin for error for a female that there is for a man.”
Mina Kimes Setting a Benchmark
Throughout the NFL season, Omaha Productions taped and edited episodes of The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny podcast and welcomed a consortium of special guests at Media Row in New Orleans. Richelle Markazene, the head of audio for the company, acknowledged that it has been able to refine its content strategy to better maximize opportunities in the setting. Kimes also took part in ESPN’s Big Game coverage, making appearances on NFL Live and First Take to offer her perspectives on both teams and the league.
“You have folks doing TV, podcasting, radio, all kinds of things, and to see so many women who are not just reporters and hosts, but also giving their opinions about the game, it’s incredible” Kimes said. “Every year, it feels like a benchmark because you do really notice a difference.”
Lucy Rohden, a producer and talent appearing across Meadowlark Media programming, recently covered her second Super Bowl for the company. Rohden traveled around the country last season providing social media content in real time and feature videos delineating her experiences at different college football games.
“It’s really fun because sometimes it can feel a little isolating, and to be around a bunch of other women is always like kind of, ‘Hey, we’re in this together,’” Rohden said. “I feel like women can sometimes get pigeonholed into the same sort of role in sports of sideline reporter or host, so to see women who are doing completely different things – behind the scenes… serious content, short form, longform – it’s cool to see the growth.”
Women Continue to Make An Impact on NFL Coverage
The rise of women in sports media occurs as there is increased coverage of women’s sports. A recent study by The Collective at Wasserman, however, indicated that despite women’s sports comprising about half of total athletic competition, they only receive 15% of coverage.
There are still inequalities that exist in the business, as evidenced by a report from the University of Central Florida that estimates 14.4% of professional sports reporters out of 100 nationwide outlets were women. Although there was a percentage increase across most of the roles, lead author Dr. Richard Lapchick expressed that the business had a bad track record for having women in prominent positions.
There is evident interest in professional football among women, with brand intelligence data from Morning Consult revealing that 64% of Gen Z and millennial women had a favorable view of the NFL. Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers from Las Vegas, Nev. averaged 123.7 million viewers, which, at the time, was an all-time record. Subsequent data from Nielsen Media Research revealed that women composed 47.5% of the total audience for the game, the highest mark in its history.
The FOX Sports broadcast of Super Bowl LIX included contributions from Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson, both of whom host the Calm Down podcast together through iHeartMedia. Moreover, ESPN presented several of its studio shows from a set at Fulton Street Square a few blocks away with Laura Rutledge, Monica McNutt and Molly Qerim on the airwaves. Various professionals were also creating digital content and working behind the scenes as well, such as Dianna Russini, Leigh Mayock, Liv Moods and Annie Agar.
“Now that there’s more women in the business, I hope they still support each other,” Kremer said. “I really do, and I know that I try to do my part in any way that I can.”
Women are changing the narrative of how football is covered, supporting one another and ensuring they are part of the conversation. A common thread for several of the women covering the game came in the assortment of different roles they were executing with aplomb and a gratitude for trailblazers who disrupted paradigmatic imbalances and biases. With shrewd focus, persistence and determination to continue making their voices heard, women covering the NFL are breaking down walls and broadening viewpoints with unyielding and inexorable resolve.
“Women should be here, women should be everywhere,” said Yahoo Sports host Caroline Fenton. “Women should be anywhere where important decisions are being made and anywhere where men are.”
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Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
