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“Do I feel like looks open the door? 100 percent. Sure does. But let me tell you, that didn’t keep me in the door. I think it’s because I worked my a– off.”
That’s Erin Andrews speaking about how sex appeal — she was named “America’s sexiest sportscaster” by Playboy magazine in 2007 and 2008 — along with a fierce dedication to her craft have made her one of the most successful women in broadcasting,
On Sunday, Andrews will be working her third Super Bowl as a sideline reporter for Fox as the 49ers battle the Chiefs. But before that, “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” (10 p.m. Tuesday, HBO) delivers a compelling profile of “America’s first and only sports reporter to moonlight as a Hollywood celebrity.” In addition to her sportscasting duties for Fox, Andrews is a co-host on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” and has a huge social media following.
In the segment, correspondent Soledad O’Brien goes one-on-one with Andrews, who addresses some of the challenges she’s faced throughout her career, including a brutal legal battle with a stalker who posted a nude video of her online and, more recently, a struggle with cervical cancer. As she navigated those hurdles, Andrews says she found escape and solace in her job on the sidelines, which helped her get to where she is today: happily married and professionally driven.
The segment begins with a flashback to Andrews’ high school days, when she was tall and scrawny and classmates called her “Manute” — a reference to 7-foot-7 NBA player Manute Bol.
“I didn’t enjoy high school. All I wanted to do was talk sports,” she recalls. “Friday nights, when all of my girlfriends were out at movie theaters with their boyfriends, I was at our friend’s house down the street, watching the Chicago Bulls, like, on TNT or something.”
All those nights watching sports on TV helped Andrews forge a close bond with her father, Steve, a local TV newsman. And it and it paved the way to an exciting career.
“One day Hannah Storm was interviewing Charles Barkley, and Erin was sitting next to me,” Steve Andrews says. “… And she looked at me and said, ‘Dad, that’s … that’s what I’m going to do.'”
Among the subjects addressed by Andrews in the piece are:
— Her early popularity and the nickname “Erin Page Views”: “It blew up quicker than I anticipated, with the internet just going and the blogs going. … You write about me. People were clicking on it. At the time I was just so sensitive anytime anyone ever wrote or put a photograph of me up. And that really kind of controlled my life.
— The 2009 stalking incident/viral video: “I looked at it and threw my computer across the hotel room and called my parents, screaming, crying. … The first thing I said was, ‘I’m finished. My career is over.’ … And it was like, ‘Well, this is the scandal. This is what everybody had been waiting for.”
— Why she kept her cancer diagnosis a secret from her co-workers: “I don’t wanna go around talking about my vagina. I wanna talk about, you know, how’s Dallas’s defense gonna come back? Or what’s the scenario with this Giants-Eagles game this weekend? My safe place is the football field. I wanna be with the guys. I also had just come off a very public trial and I just wanted to have a normal life.”
— Where she wants to be in 10 years: “I don’t know if anyone would wanna see my old butt walking around the sidelines. I mean, I know where I’ll always wanna be. I’ll wanna be there on that field. But I get it. It’s an industry where that may not be the case. And I know I’m not gonna have this opportunity forever. But it’s where I feel the best.”
