Has Erin Andrews Saved Sideline Reporting?

By Brian Powell
ESPN’s Erin Andrews has been a staple of blogs for a good two years now and has been portrayed in numerous ways. Collections of photos line the internet from various schools that sing her praises at every game she attends, and she even won Playboy’s sexiest reporter competition back in November.
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While her looks and outfit choices have always been noticed by these internet hounds, mainstream media is finally noticing that she’s not just another pretty face.
In a recent article by Penn Live’s David Jones, he argued that Erin Andrews may actually be the savior for a job that had almost lost all credibility in the eyes of sports fans. It was just last year that CBS decided to rid it’s broadcasts of sideline reporters entirely and even considered doing Super Bowl XLI without them, before adding Sam Ryan to the broadcast.
So what does Erin Andrews do that’s so appealing that makes people care about what coaches think at halftime. Or what an athlete’s parents are doing in the stands? Jones explains his feelings on Andrews:
“Andrews is the ultimate sex-symbol mike-carrier. And yet she is beginning to rival Kremer as someone who can lift the much-abused sideline genre above yakking to players’ parents and yukking it up with mascots. She finds out stuff during games about injuries or huddle talk that you actually want to know. She gets uptight coaches to say something halfway revealing at those awkward halftime on-the-run interviews.”
While Erin Andrews still has to deal with the blogs of the world taking screengrabs of her eating sandwiches (that’s one of my best works), many people who have stated that sideline reporters are pointless in the past are starting to understand their necessity now, thank to E.A. Including myself.
> Erin Andrews: Officially a Star | PennLive.com↵