Erin Andrews Bumped Up on Fox's NFL Sunday

Erin Andrews is getting Pam Oliver's job on Fox's NFL Sunday. 

Oliver confirmed the news to Sports Illustrated that she will move to the network’s No. 2 team for her 20th NFL broadcasting season. Erin Andrews has been elevated to the No. 1 sideline spot, joining the team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Oliver’s last season working as a reporter on the NFL will be spent with the No. 2 Fox team of Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch.

And after this coming football season, she will no longer be a sideline reporter at all.

After a painful couple of months, Oliver said the disappointment of that news has subsided and that she has accepted her new professional reality. But it was a shock last April when Fox Sports executives traveled to Atlanta, where she is based, to tell her in person that she would no longer hold the job that has been her professional life for two decades. Oliver says that while she respected Fox Sports president Eric Shanks and executive vice president of production John Entz delivering the news in person, she was stunned when they initially informed her that not only was she being removed from Fox’s No. 1 NFL team, but also that she was being taken off the NFL sidelines completely in 2014.

“To go from the lead crew to no crew was a little shocking,” Oliver said. “I said I wanted to do a 20th year [on the sidelines]. I expressed to them that I was not done and had something to offer. 

It was refreshing how honestly Oliver handed the news. 

After the story hit Sports Illustrated, Fox quickly put out a press release that said that Oliver was staying on at Fox Sports and was being elevated to the role of  senior correspondent, FOX Sports, effectively immediately. 

In Oliver’s new position, she expands her influence beyond the NFL to include the wide breadth of sports and events covered by FOX Sports year-round, with her exclusive interviews, commentary and essays featured on a variety of FOX Sports programs and platforms, including FOX NFL SUNDAY, FOX SPORTS LIVE, AMERICA'S PREGAME, FOX SPORTS 1 ON 1, college football and basketball and FOXSports.com.

Let's go to the obligotory quote made up by Fox's PR department:  “I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to expand my contributions to include a wider variety of sports and programs at FOX, while still getting to report from the sidelines on NFL Sundays,” said Oliver.  “I’ve already spoken with Kevin and John, and I’m really looking forward to being part of their team this season.”