Fox Sports NFL sideline reporter Erin Andrews has climbed the ranks to become a key part of FOX’s NFL coverage, but the start of her career is something that she says was “horrific” as she reflects on her career.
Andrews, 44, started covering the Atlanta Braves for Turner Sports on TBS, and admits that she was “mispronouncing names” and was “awful” at the beginning of her journey, during an interview with Marchand and Ourand Sports Media podcast on Wednesday.
“I was awful, I was horrific,” Andrews said (h/t New York Post).“I didn’t know baseball at all to be hosting a desk. I didn’t have the tools to host at that time. I didn’t have the confidence.
“I was a mispronouncing names I wasn’t keeping up with the highlight…everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It was just bad. I appreciate Turner giving me the chance.”
“They threw me up on that set and I was horrific. I was awful. I remember going home every night calling my dad from Atlanta just saying I was a joke, I shouldn’t have this gig.”
“I remember Charles Barkley telling the bosses at TBS, ‘You guys are going to regret this,’” Andrews said, adding that Turner “was right to move on from me.”
“I knew I was never going to get ‘Monday Night Football.’ That role was just never offered to me,” she continued.
“I called Mark Shapiro, who had hired me at ESPN, and I just said, ‘What’s next? I have this opportunity at Fox. The NFL seems glamorous, cool, it’s something I haven’t done.’”
Andrews said that if she could have one do-over, it would be her infamous sideline interview back in 2014 with then Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman when he began screaming at San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree into the mic.
“I wish I hadn’t had that look on my face… I wish I hadn’t looked like such an amateur. Because I knew it was so cool and I’m such a sports fan and I was like ‘holy sh-t my follow-up better be good because this is going to be everywhere.’ I turned into a 5-year-old,” Andrews explaind. “I just turned into a superfan in that moment.”