Courtesy USA Today

(March 30, 2010) Erin Andrews is in negotiations for a new contract with ESPN. Her current pact expires in July. Despite her high-profile participation on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Andrews says she wants to continue as a sideline reporter for ESPN's college football and basketball coverage.

Of her career goals, she says: "I just want to grow. I want to continue to get better. I want to continue to gain respect from coaches and athletes. I've always said I want to be the person, whenever there's a big game on ESPN, to say, 'Oh, so-and-so's in the booth and Erin's on the sideline.' That's how I've always been."

The potential TV free agent, who's been with ESPN since 2004, talked to USA TODAY's Michael McCarthy about her contract negotiations, her participation on ABC's Dancing with the Stars and the incident that resulted in stalker Michael Barrett being sentenced to 30 months in prison:

Will you stay in sports after your contract expires or will you try to jump to entertainment?

I would say right now I have a love affair with sports. It's where my passion is … I still want to be on the sidelines. I'm also interested in potentially working with an outlet on women's safety and security. And crimes against women.

Want to re-sign with ESPN?

This is where I've always wanted to be.

Should ESPN put you back on college sidelines after DWTS?

They didn't have a problem putting Kenny Mayne back on TV did they?

One thing I have to say about doing this show: I have never gotten so much support from my network, coaches and players. Chris Berman wrote me a text message after the sentencing that said, "I'm so sad every time you're brought up in the news because I know how it hurts you. I'm so excited you're doing this show because we want our girl back."

Mike Tirico left me the most emotional message on my answering machine after the sentencing came down saying, "If this is what's going to get your smile back, go do this and win this thing so our girl comes back."

Everybody at ESPN knows I need to get happy again, I need to find my smile again, I need to get excited. I had the wind knocked out of my sails. I didn't get a choice about it at all. The other thing: I'm going to have to live with this forever. These video images are going to be on the Internet forever. And I don't have a choice about that. So what I choose to do is go back to work and I smile and I act like nothing happened when I know every single day people are looking at those images.

Something like this has never happened at ESPN before. They've been so accommodating, and so sympathetic and so passionate and compassionate about everything I've gone through. I think everybody just wants me to be OK. They think if this is a way she can go have a bit of therapy and go have her fun and try to find her smile again, go do it.

What else do you want to do at ESPN?

I'm in love with college football. I have such a blast with it. I would like to be included in the (BCS) national championship coverage. I really, really wanted to be there last year. It's a big deal to me. I really want to be a part of it. I think it would be kind of cool to be part of hosting something. I'm not sure what it is. I feel like I have such great chemistry with coaches and players … I think that would be kind of fun to do. Whether its maybe more Sunday conversations with people. Or coming up with a new creative format. I love just sitting down and having a conversation with these coaches. I think I'm able to bring out a different side of them. Which I really enjoy.

What kind of support have you received from college coaches after the stalking case?

Over the past nine months of my life, when I've been forced to be on the front page of newspapers, the respect and support from coaches I look up to has been incredible. I got phone calls and text messages from guys like Mack Brown, Urban Meyer, John Calipari, Roy Williams. It was amazing. When everything happened in my life nine months ago, they had no idea if I was coming back to sports broadcasting.

These men were calling me and saying, "We don't know what to think but we do not want to lose you on the sidelines of our games because you're what is right about the sport." These are men who I hoped at one point in my career they would be comfortable with giving me information, comfortable that I could just call them up. And they were calling me and begging me to come back to their sports.

How have you changed personally after the stalking case?

Everybody that was close to me at ESPN over the past nine months, they knew it was kind of an act on the sidelines. They knew I was I wasn't OK. I've been very upset. I wasn't me the last nine months because I've been dealing with so much … My dad's just heartbroken for me.

Why did you agree to go on DWTS?

I wasn't going to do this. I was very against doing this. I was in a hotel room and watching college football and watching Larry King Live. They had the three finalists on. Kelly Osbourne was up there and she just said, "I got so much confidence in myself doing this show that I never had, and it gave me confidence and I'm such a different person now."

I called up my family and said, "I'm doing it." My dad said I got the wind knocked out of me. It hit me hard. I don't think any of knew how hard it was (until the sentencing). I lost it.

It's been a lot. And I've suppressed all of it. I haven't really allowed myself any time to heal. I just went back to work and tried not to think about it. Now, I'm worrying about me. I'm trying to get better for me … It's good to put my mind on something else … It's a lot of things that I have to worry about other than the Internet, the videos won't come down, the stalker's not in jail yet, or what disgusting websites people have put up about the video. It's nice to put my mind on something else.

Is dancing a sport or entertainment?

It's not like I'm doing an obstacle course and jumping into green slime or something. This is a sport. People compete. People do this for a living … I'm not on it to help evolve my career. I'm not looking at it to try to sell books. Or to get on Entertainment Tonight.

I've been through a really awful year. It's not going to go away. This is kind of my therapy. I'm trying to get back and find myself. I used to be a very happy-go-lucky person. I used to smile and laugh all the time. It's really been hard to do that the last nine months. It really has. If this is the way I can get my smile back, and my happiness back, I think this is the best move for me.

I'm not trying to make a mockery of myself. I'm a very competitive person. A perfectionist. My sister's a dancer. I've been working with dancers; this is their life. I've been talking to Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) and Mack Brown about how to balance having fun and being competitive at the same time. I'm not looking at this like a joke. I guess there are people do but I certainly don't.

I can tell you (Chad) Ochocinco is not looking at it as a joke. And neither is Evan Lysacek. That kid just won a gold medal. You think he's going to make a mockery of himself? Probably not … I can tell you Evan spends six hours in the dance studio. So do I. So does Ochocinco … We're all so competitive. We all want to do such a good job.

I mean, I haven't slept in two weeks. I have so much anxiety. I wake up in the middle of the night going, "How do I fix this step? What do I do?" So this isn't a joke to me.

How did ESPN react?

They said yes within an hour. There was no discussion, no discussion with me. Everybody from Norby (Williamson, ESPN's executive vice president, of studio & remote production) to all of my bosses have been like, "Go win this thing."

How demanding is DWTS?

The dancing side of it is as physically and mentally challenging as I thought it was going to be. My sister's a professional dancer. So I don't minimize what these people do for a living because I see it day in day out with here. The only thing I didn't really realize was going to be so time-consuming was the (media duties surrounding the show). It's a really long day. The days of the shoots, the live show, we start getting ready at 7:30 in the morning. And we're there throughout the night. It's certainly different from working a college football game which I feel like is the biggest event I get to do all year.

Do you want to stay a sideline reporter or move on other things?

I hear people say that a lot, people that I work with, they'll say, "This is going to lead to a bigger, better thing." I'm like, "I don't care. I want to do the national championship. I want to work Saturday night college football."

I think it's funny when people think they know you but have no idea. You can talk to Babette (Perry, her agent at IMG). There has been a lot of opportunity. After my whole ordeal we had tons of people calling. "Hey, can we talk to her?" I would say to her, "No. I have college football."

That's where my focus has been. That's where my passion is. I put a lot of work in, traveling to two college football (a week). I'm the only sideline reporter who does it for college football. It is a grueling, grueling schedule. With all the work and the time and the relationships that I have with coaches, and all the time and effort I put in, do I want it to be a little more rewarding than a 15-second sideline report? Sure. That's why Norby has been very open about, 'Hey let's talk about other things. Let's talk about maybe hosting something … I'm very interested in that. But my passion, what I get so excited for, is being on the sidelines. I love it. I get jacked up. And I get excited talking about it.

Yesterday, are you kidding me? What I would have done to be in the huddles with John Calipari and Bob Huggins. I twittered about it and I hate Twitter. I wrote, "I'm so sad right now I'm not working this game ..." I get so jacked up about those things. It's awesome … Sports is me. It's my passion, it's what I love to do.

What if ESPN lands TV rights to NCAA basketball tournament?

I'd be fooling myself if I didn't say I want to work big, big events like a national championship. If we got the (NCAA) basketball tournament, are you kidding? I'd want to be at every single site.

Do sideline reporters have future as other networks like CBS Sports phase out the job?

It scares me … But one of the reasons why I know we should have sideline reporters, and an example I always bring up, we did the Arizona-Oregon game (in 2007). Dennis Dixon (quarterback for Oregon) was in the running to win a Heisman. I'm on the sideline. We kind of knew something was going on with him injury-wise going into that game. And goodness gracious, five minutes into the game, he's done. For the rest of the year.

While we had to continue covering the game, I basically stood behind that kid, I read the trainer's lip, I reported on the trainer who was getting tears in her eyes because he knew the kid was done … Those were things we were able to get to the viewer right away.

If there's not a sideline reporter there, you're not getting it … Or (Texas quarterback) Colt McCoy's injury in the (2010 BCS) national championship. I just wanted to hear from Lisa (Salters) the whole time. I was like, "I don't even care right now. Just tell me what is happening with this kid." I think sideline reporting has evolved from the bubbly, pre-produced stories to what's new, what's now, what's happening that the guys upstairs can't see.

What about pro leagues placing more restrictions on sideline reporters?

That would be my big fear about going to the pros. I'm so thankful for the NCAA realizing that the better access we get, the better the game is … You hear things in huddles, you obviously have to censor that. Because it's a privilege to be in the huddles. But it's important to give the information. I would never give plays because, again, it's a privilege to be in the huddle. But when you hear a coach saying, "Please, I need you to believe, believe for 20 more minutes," you're like, gosh, this is great stuff … The access I'm very thankful for with college. I've heard that about the pros and it would just be so frustrating to deal with."

blog comments powered by Disqus