Erin Andrews’ Rise to Fame in the Sports Industry

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Emma Stark, Staff Writer

You may have heard the name Erin Andrews once or twice before. Maybe when watching an NFL football game or reading an NFL article on Fox Sports. Andrews, a sideline reporter, and journalist for Fox NFL has climbed the sports industry totem pole one step at a time, reaching new career milestones as a woman in a male-dominated field. 

Beginning in her home state, Andrews graduated from the University of Florida in 2000 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunication. Shortly after she graduated, Andrews was first employed by Fox Sports Florida as a freelance reporter. In 2001, she served as a reporter for the National Hockey League (NHL) Tampa Bay Lightning on the Sunshine Network. Andrews then turned to baseball and basketball. For the next two years, she covered the Major League Baseball (MLB) Atlanta Braves, the NHL Atlanta Thrashers, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) Atlanta Hawks as a studio host and reporter on the Turner South network.  

In April 2004, Erin took a further step in her career and began working with the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) as a reporter for ESPN National Hockey Night, College World Series, Little League World Series, and Great Outdoor Games. She then served as a sideline reporter for ESPN College Football Saturday Primetime and Big Ten college basketball games, and then for the MLB and ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime in 2005. Five years later, Andrews began hosting the first hour of ESPN’s College GameDay on ESPNU.

However, in June 2012, Erin left ESPN to join Fox Sports, becoming the first host of Fox’s College Football studio show. Andrews covered a variety of major sporting events as a field reporter, including the MLB All-Star Game, the World Series, the NFL Playoffs, and the Daytona 500. She became a guest host on Fox College Football Kickoff and Fox College Sunday, while also contributing to Fox NFL Sunday and the daily studio show Fox Football Daily. College football was only the beginning for Erin. At the beginning of the 2014 NFL season, she became a sideline reporter on Fox’s lead NFL broadcasting crew. Shortly after, she re-signed with Fox Sports in 2016 to report exclusively with the network’s NFL crew where she continues to work today.

Most recently, Erin began working on projects such as her clothing line, Wear, which launched in October 2019. She says the line “focuses on comfort, subtlety, and fashion for women who also happen to love the NFL.” Although she is highly experienced in the sports industry, her occupational field is becoming more and more competitive. She serves as a role model to women around the world aspiring to get into the business.