Pam Oliver Lays Out Fox

I don't think the NFC Title Game meant anything at all in Oliver/Andrews. Andrews is simply peaking in her career right now. She probably came over from ESPN to FOX with a quiet "promise" that she would get bumped up to the A-team after a year there.

I want to defend Pam Oliver as I've found her incredibly gracious and friendly in the years I covered the NFL. She was a pioneering female in the business -- when she started, it WAS difficult for a female sports reporter. (Now, any attractive woman who can pronounce "Krzyzewski" can make a jump from the first job to anchoring weekend sports in markets like Philly, D.C., Boston. It's crazy now.)

However, she spent 20+ years in the business. She's 53 now -- one of the few, very few, females in sports commanding a near seven-figure contract. I imagine, during her peak at FOX, she cleared a million a year for quite a stretch.

The role of the sideline reporter is now so much lower profile than 10-20 years ago. Now we care about inside information -- Ed Werder, Schefter, Mort, Peter King. THAT is where the money is.

Sideline reporters serve one purpose. Not for the audience. For the broadcast -- an attractive female sports reporter's role is to bat her eyes at an NFL or NBA player at game's end and get him to stop and talk for a couple of minutes. The attractive reporter will simply brush her hand across the athlete's forearm or shoulder and, boom, he stops and talks.

That's it. That's the role.

Some former sideline reporters realized their diminishing role and added other elements to their skill set. Bonnie Bernstein was a top reporter a decade ago but she has diversified.

I get the sense that Pam Oliver doesn't have any other marketable skills as the sun sets on her. Someday, Erin Andrews will also realize this - probably in 10 years. ESPN tried her as an anchor and she was terrible.

Not every great wide receiver can be a good quarterback.

 

SI must not moderate their comments section with stuff like this showing up:

"emu3215328 24 minutes ago

Let's see black female sports reporter replaced by white female sports reporter. This must be a blatant case of racism. Get Eric Holder off the Ferguson case and get him immediately on this."


Mile High would have already locked it up.

 

In what era of television did "the next big thing" NOT replace the older, established person?

 

Are we still going to be seeing the remains of Lesley Vissar's face this year?

 

Old Tony and I don't agree on much, but we agree on this. Who did Pam Oliver replace 20 years ago? Oliver was highly compensated for a long time and was told, in person, the network wanted to go another direction well ahead of time, and told she could transition into a different role with the network and presumably still make more money in one year than 99 percent of reporters will make in 10 years. This is "humiliation?" Um...

 

Yeah, it sounds like they handled her with kid gloves.

 

This may be the first time I've ever agreed with you. This is so dumb. Erin Andrews is more popular, more visible and Oliver even said in her diatribe that Andrews in "capable." Stop your whining, Pam.

 

”It was important to me to have a twentieth season — to end on 19 is wack! I wanted 20.”

Well, then. It was important to ME, and I WANTED . . . so obviously you DESERVED!

Some people are grateful for things they have. Others are resentful for what they don't (or no longer) have. Give me the company of the former group any time.

 

Funny exchange from comments section:

StraightDemocrat 2 hours ago

It also does not take a brain surgeon to know Fox and Faux News as well as Sports is the most racist station on the network. I don' think age has anything to do with it. It's color.

akdc76
akdc76 2 hours ago

@StraightDemocrat Yup, you're absolutely right. Every non-Caucasian that loses their job and is replaced by a Caucasian for whatever reason (performance, economics, better qualified) must be a victim of racism. Tell me, does this supposed racism work the other way too? If a white person gets canned to be replaced by a non-white, is that racism too or does it just work in one direction in your altered reality?


In media, young will always trump old. No matter the race.

 

You know what's "humiliating?" Showing up at work, just like you've done for 20 years, getting handed a packet that says you're getting let go (with zero warning) and getting told you have to pack up your desk while someone from security looks over your shoulder, and that you have 20 mins to do it and you can't turn on your computer to even get your contacts out if your email. Or, getting called at a baseball stadium and laid off over the phone.

God willing, when my time comes, I'd loved to be "humiliated" over an expensive meal with high level executives and told I could still make an obscene amount of money if I could simply swallow some of my ego and do a slightly different studio job.

 

And the next person to tune into a game to see the sideline reporter will be the first to ever do so.