Pam Oliver will be replaced by Erin Andrews for the upcoming football season.
According to Sports Illustrated, Oliver has been part of Fox’s No.1 NFL team (which also includes Joe Buck and Troy Aikman) for the last two decades. This season, she’ll be working with the No.2 team of Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch.
After this season, Pam Oliver’s career on the NFL sidelines will come to an end.
So why the change? The official answer comes from Fox Sports president Eric Shanks who said that Fox is just trying to keep things fresh and exciting.
Shanks said: “I think in the last five years we have made a lot of changes with the NFL crews. We have made changes to keep our coverage across the board fresh, including the addition of Burkhardt and Lynch -– which has been one of the more exciting pairings we have put together. This is kind of the next move in that evolution.”
Of course, some people believe that Fox decided to demote Oliver because she’s not an attractive young blonde. Regardless of the reason behind the decision, Twitter wasn’t too happy with the news.
Not a fan of sideline reporting but Pam Oliver is great at the job. Erin Andrews, while she looks good, talent wise? Ehhh..Bad job, FOX.
— iKenRochford™ (@iKenRochford) July 14, 2014
Y’all got Pam Oliver fired and now they replaced her with ‘Blonde No. 3’. Don’t be surprised; y’all dragged her every time she got onscreen. — Rusty Redenbacher (@rustymk2) July 14, 2014
There’s no reasonable justification you can give for taking Pam Oliver off her NFL sideline reporting role https://t.co/CFcPuvV6YJ
— ryan van bibber (@justRVB) July 14, 2014
Replacing Pam Oliver with Erin Andrews is roughly equivalent to replacing Jon Stewart with a loaf of zucchini bread. — Matt Terl (@matt_terl) July 14, 2014
While I was never a huge Pam Oliver fan she knew her stuff and was as well respected as any reporter in NFL. Terrible decision.
— Judd Zulgad’s Hoodie (@JZHoodie) July 14, 2014
Oliver said that she was surprised by the network’s decision to demote her to the second team. Still, she’s happy with the deal that she worked out with Fox. Pam Oliver will now focus on more in-depth pieces and major interviews.
Oliver said: “Disappointment is not really a word I’d use right now because I’ve had some weeks to process it … I think my emotions during the season will be sadness because I had been around that group for a decade. I will miss all the little things, just from Joe’s impersonations of people and Troy’s bad impersonations of people and all of the running jokes — that was the hardest part of hearing the news. But you have to move forward and deal with what is on your plate. I went through a range of emotions, but as I speak with you today, disappointment has passed me and I have reached a point of trying to move forward with some sadness.”
“Erin Andrews at USC Oregon game 2010” by Neon Tommy – Flickr: 1366. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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