Fox’s top NFL commentary team was in the spotlight in Week 1 as there was a lot of talk leading up to Tom Brady’s commentary debut. And while many were quite critical of Brady’s debut performance, he wasn’t the only one on the commentary team who admittedly struggled.
Erin Andrews was on the sidelines with Brady and Kevin Burkhardt for the Week 1 broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys-Cleveland Browns game.
While Brady was obviously the focus of most viewers’ attention, Andrews talked about her own performance in the Calm down In the podcast, which she co-hosts with Charissa Thompson, she says there were a number of external influences in her personal life that caused her to feel out of shape.
“It was a lot because it’s Week 1 and for some reason… I talked to my dad, I talked to you, you picked me up off the floor, there’s just a lot going on, I have a lot going on. For some reason, I didn’t feel like Stella was in her groove. I’m telling you, I really struggled with the confidence of the show,” Andrews said.
“I just have to take care of a lot of things that have to do with the baby and our house. Our air conditioning stopped working the night before the game. It’s 27 degrees in our house and I have a baby and a dog. It was just too much.”
In addition, Andrews is obviously still getting along well with the newly formed duo of Burkhardt and Brady in the locker room, which will of course take some time.
Andrews specifically mentioned a mistake during pregame rehearsal, which she actually used to give Brady some advice on how to handle problems on the air.
“We did a quick rehearsal with Tom because we’d never done this before, where they play it back to me. People don’t understand, they have stick mics and then they have to wear headphones, and then they have to get up and move and stuff. I completely messed up my show. And I thought to myself, ‘See, Tom Brady, you’re not the only one who has problems sometimes.’ Not that he had problems, but I tried to cheer him up.”
Despite all the criticism Brady has already received, it’s still important to understand that it may take some time for the entire broadcast team to, as Andrews said, “get up to speed.”
But given Andrews’ reputation as one of the NFL’s most respected sideline reporters, expect Andrews and perhaps even Brady to improve as they learn to work together.
(Calm down with Erin and Charissa)
