Erin Andrews on the NFL Vaccine Conversation: ‘We Want to Give People a Break’
Erin Andrews has a bet. It's a bet, really, you could've won a decent amount of cash on a year ago. Or two. Or four. Six, too. We could keep going, back and back and back, but you already know who I'm talking about, right?
"I don't care what anyone says, that you can't go back to back: I would never bet against Tom Brady," Andrews tells me over Zoom when I ask her if she has an early Super Bowl pick for this year. "It's a reality show. You don't know what's going to happen from Week 4 to Week 12. Anything can happen."
But that's not her actual Super Bowl prediction. She doesn't have one. Too early. TB12 is just never a bad bet, which Andrews would know. Following eight years working for ESPN, Andrews is going into her 10th season as an NFL reporter for FOX Sports, where you'll see her most often during the "America's Game of the Week" broadcast with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. When she's not manning the sidelines, Andrews recently launched a talk-about-anything-and-everything-style podcast called Calm Down with Erin and Charissa, and is working on making her fashion line with the NFL, WEAR, the reason why you'll be tempted to never put on an oversized jersey again.
Since there are few veteran reporters as deeply embedded in the league as Andrews, we picked her brain on the biggest storylines surrounding the 2021-22 NFL season—from vaccinations in the league, which players are advancing the conversation around mental health, and why the NFL is the greatest reality show in sports.
ESQUIRE: I listened to Calm Down and it's my favorite kind of podcast—banter between friends.
Erin Andrews: Oh wow. Thank you very much. Yeah, we're just doing it for fun, hoping somebody gives us a listen, but I really appreciate it. We've been told it does take a minute for it to catch on. I think we're getting more comfortable on it. Just doing word vomit and saying what's on our mind, we wanted to call it Keep Up because I think you have to keep up with us because you'll get whiplash, but we love saying calm down too.
ESQ: Since I'm sure your life becomes more nonstop during the season, do you have anything you do that's like training camp to gear yourself up?
EA: It's actually a good question. No, I think I try to enjoy all the things that I won't be able to do during the season. And we try to hit all the restaurants because going out to dinner is a big deal in our house when the season starts, because my husband as well starts NHL at the same time. So it's kind of crazy that do you have a game that night? Do I have a game? Am I home? Are you home? No, not really. I said to my assistant yesterday, "God, I got to really start studying." And I usually start studying for my first five games just so I can have a base to start from. I definitely have the NFL Network on all the time, just to have a feel of what's happening, what the top news is in the camps and so forth.
ESQ: Is around now is the time you’re getting deep into obscure camp storylines?
EA: It's still kind of hard, right? Because it's not like Rogers is with his receivers—you're reading more about Jordan Love and the cuts that they're making. So yeah, I'm glossing over the NFL as a whole, and we get these daily updates and blurbs. And I obviously follow a ton of writers on Twitter and I see what they're all saying, but it's within this week I start getting heavy into my first five games and really the league and just what's going on. I listen to NFL Sirius in the car all the time because they're at the camps, they let you know and things like that. But it's not until they really get through cuts. You are seeing, reading the real stories that are going to happen during the season.
ESQ: I feel like there's this culture war going on with vaccinations in the league. You have rules for the unvaccinated players. The Raiders offering shots at the gate. Has this become more of a political thing than a health concern?
EA: Yeah. To be honest with you, I don't know, and I don't really want to step into things like that. I stay really far away from politics because listen, I'm paid to talk about sports and that's where my love and my allegiance lies. I don't know. I understand there's a lot of people that don't want to be told what to do. They can deal with that. I know what I want, how I want to live my life, and how I want my family to live my life. What I've been told is expected of me to be on the field for the NFL. So whatever the players decide to do, that's their business and their team and their organization's business. I just want to be safe. I want my family to be safe. That's where I am with all of it. We actually at Fox don't even talk about it, in terms of the broadcast, because we want to give people a break. So we've stayed away from politics and Covid and all the things. We are here to talk about football, and that's what I'm educated to talk about. I don't know anything else.
ESQ: Even from players and coaches you've talked to, is this something that weighs on them as heavily as stories in the media have made it sound? Is this something that's as hot-button as you would think?
EA: We talked to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys because we did that preseason game. It didn't come up at all. We were breaking down the secondary issues and Dan Quinn being the new defensive coordinator and what's going on with Dak's shoulder. The time that it came up last year is we did a 49ers game and they were all wiped out in terms of contract tracing.
That's the only time I think that for us, it'll be a conversation. You saw with the Minnesota Vikings and their entire quarterback room was out for a preseason game, or what we saw in Denver. But in terms of us and our research, and our interviews and so forth, I think the only thing we are planning on mentioning about what everybody's going through in terms of Covid is what they missed last year. That was a big conversation. I hadn't met CeeDee Lamb in person because last year we were doing it all on the phone. This year I got to sit down on the field with him. Mike McCarthy didn't get to have preseason games because of what happened last year. So that's really the only conversations that we're having with them.
ESQ: I love how you've called the NFL one of the best reality shows in sports. Maybe it's the way people have covered it, but I feel like it's gotten more reality show-like every year. You have Aaron Rogers saying something every week. What has made the off-field storylines more Bravo-y?
EA: Oh, it's everything. Well first of all, it's the best unscripted reality there is out there. You never know what's going to happen from week to week. You never know who's going to not show up, who's going to be in a bad mood, who gets in a fight in camp. We didn't know for the longest time [if Aaron Rodgers is coming to training camp]. Is he not coming? I was doing a virtual draft-a-thon with the NFL and there was that talk that day that the 49ers were going to trade for him. And my whole body went in shock. I was raised a Packers fan. I also know how big the Packers are on our network. I know John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan and what that would mean for Aaron to go there. I'm sitting on this draft-a-thon, and the number three pick is happening, and Russell Wilson is on it with me and that would impact Russell. And so I was like, Holy shit, this is awesome.
ESQ: Another bigger thing I want to talk about is the conversation around mental health lately, and what we've seen with everything Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles have done. Compared to what's happening in other sports—I don't see, from the outside, that conversation happening as much in football right now.
EA: I disagree. Dak [Prescott] was very vocal about it in the summer that his brother committed suicide. Then Dak came out and said, "Look, I've needed to take care of my mental health." … Aaron Rogers talks about mental health all the time. That was a big thing he came out about when he emerged from the summer was that he really took some time. And he's been pretty vocal about that over the last couple of years, about just meditating and taking some time for yourself. Tom [Brady] is very vocal about mental health. And he talks about how he has to have his mind right and so forth. So I do think that there are some big players within the NFL that do speak about it.
ESQ: Do you feel like the league is a comfortable space for the players to open up and talk about [mental health] with the press and each other?
EA: I'm not a player, so I don't know. I know where I am in my life and where I am with my relationships with guys and I hope I always make them feel comfortable about it. I know for me personally, I've been really vocal about mental health for myself lately. We've been dealing with some things in our family that I've been vocal about and look, it's hard, right? I would never claim to know what NFL players go through. When you are trained to be one of the best out there, I'm sure it's hard to get vulnerable with people. When Dak came out, there were people judging him. I was like, How could you even do that with what he's been through? He lost his mother in college to cancer. His brother took his own life. Then Dak went down with a season-ending injury [that] could have been a career-ending injury. I don't feel like anyone has the right to speak against anything that that man has been through or anybody else.
ESQ: Are there any storylines this season that just, as a fan, you’re hyped about?
EA: We cover the NFC a lot. The Tom story, what's going to happen? It's so hard to go back to back, but he brings a different element. He brings a different mojo. He brings a different belief and leadership. Can they do it? Can they stay healthy? Can he stay healthy? They weren't happy with where they were really until they went to the bye week that second half of that Kansas City game, they were just like, Fuck it, let's let it fly. So now they have the system in place. They signed everybody back. What are they going to do with it? I think that's freaking huge. I can't wait.
ESQ: Of the games you've started preparing for, is there one that we should be looking out for?
EA: All our games are pretty fantastic. Right off the bat, we have Aaron Rogers going to New Orleans, which we're excited about. Our Thursday night matchups are exciting. We have Tampa Bay at LA. Remember LA is where the Super Bowl is going to be this year, and Tom Brady is playing for the first time in Los Angeles, and could this be a preview of his coming here for the Super Bowl? He's going up against Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey. Just beasts. And how is Matthew [Stafford] going to do? It's just awesome. All of them, every single week.
ESQ: Do you have an early Super Bowl pick?
EA: I don't. It's hard. It's hard for me and I don't care what anyone says, that you can't go back to back: I would never bet against Tom Brady. That defense is freaking awesome. But again, it's a reality show. You don't know what's going to happen from Week four to Week 12. Anything can happen.
ESQ: I wanted to talk about WEAR quickly—I know it's designed for women, but I'm not someone who can put on a ginormous football jersey. I would absolutely buy the colorblock sweater.
EA: Our dream is to unveil unisex clothes because I feel like that's the way the world is going anyways right now. Why should we just be limited to women? Unfortunately, that's what our license is right now, but I'm going to put it out there. My husband looked at our stuff and was like, "I would wear that." That's our goal moving forward. We want to start making stuff that is unisex so guys can wear it as well. Why not?
ESQ: Is there anything I missed, or anything you wish we had talked about?
EA: I just got pumped up and also a little anxious that I need to study a little bit more for football. We didn't even talk about the Giants. Is Saquon [Barkley] going to stay healthy? That's just the NFC. What about the Chiefs? How's Josh Allen? The fans are going to be back. So yeah, I got a lot to study for. I'm getting nervous.
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