Erin Andrews hopes to avoid 'frozen snot' Feb. 2
Fox Sports sideline reporter Erin Andrews during a Thanksgiving Day game between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Nov. 22, 2012) Credit: Getty
Terry Bradshaw famously eviscerated the idea of a New York-area Super Bowl on WFAN last month, lamenting that “because they overpaid for that stupid stadium in New Jersey’’ the NFL awarded the Jets and Giants the big game.
“It’s friggin’ outside in New York!’’ Bradshaw said. “Are you kidding me? Not even New York – New Jersey!’’
But Bradshaw certainly does not speak for all of his colleagues at Fox, which will broadcast the game. That includes sideline reporter Erin Andrews, who has lived in Manhattan for several years.
“I think it’s going to be awesome,’’ she said Monday, “when you think of New York and think we’re going to be down in Times Square [during the week] and just everything that goes into it. I hope we have snow. I hope it’s cold. I want all of it. If we’re going to do it let’s do it big. That’s what Fox’s whole slogan has been: Biggest, Boldest, Coldest.
“I mean, c’mon, we’re not going to have a cheesy little Super Bowl in New York. Let’s go big. We’ve got the best defense going against the best offense. We’ve got some great headline names. I’m still waiting for Bruno Mars to ask me to be in the halftime show. I hope it’s as big and as crazy as everybody is expecting it to be.
Andrews got some valuable experience in cold-weather reporting in the divisional round in Green Bay, where temperatures were in the single digits. “Pretty awesome,’’ she said.
Still, she would prefer the temperature be not quite that low come Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium.
“The whole frozen snot thing just does not look good on me; I’ve got to be candid,’’ she said.
Andrews spoke from Southern California, where her boyfriend, Jarret Stoll of the Kings, is based. (Her colleague Michael Strahan also is bicoastal.)
She said the first person she called after the interview was Stoll. “I said, ‘It’s all over [the Internet], isn’t it?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s everywhere.’’’
Andrews further discussed the matter on the plane back to Los Angeles with Strahan and Fox Sports president Eric Shanks.
“We sat there on the flight back and said we really hope this doesn’t taint him or change him for Super Bowl,’’ she said. “You don’t want that.’’
Andrews agreed to interviews with select media outlets, including Newsday, to defend Sherman publicly.
“I was like, this is going to blow up; I feel bad and he’s a good guy,’’ she said. “I really enjoy sitting down with him. He’s the one guy who’ll say it like it is. He’s a gem for everyone in the media because you don’t [usually] get that.’’
