Are Erin Andrews and ESPN breaking up? Say it ain’t so!
Could Erin Andrews be on her way out at ESPN?
Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch tweeted Monday that ESPN confirmed Andrews' last assignment was the ACC tournament this past week and that she has nothing else scheduled. Andrews' contract with ESPN is up on July 1 leaving her free to pursue other opportunities.
Andrews, ESPN's superstar female sideline reporter, has been with the network since 2004 and in that time has become fantasy girlfriend of many male sports fans and the standard by which their wives and girlfriends were measured (she's hot and she knows sports!). But beyond the beauty, Andrews actually knew what she was talking about and brought an intelligent female voice to a male-dominated network.
So if Andrews is leaving ESPN, she's going to have no shortage of offers for her talent. Perhaps "Sunday Night Football" on NBC, the "Today" show or it wouldn't be all that surprising to see Andrews try to finagle her own talk show on one of the major networks.
She's already branched out from sports in the past couple years as a correspondent for "Good Morning America" and working the red carpet for the Oscars last year. And her work with ESPN's "College GameDay" has shown the public that her skills stretch far beyond a few minutes of sideline interviews.
But Andrews' fame hasn't always been a good thing. In 2008, voyeur Michael David Barrett filmed Andrews in her hotel room and published the video, which included nude scenes, on the Internet. In 2010, Barrett was sentenced to 30 months in prison for interstate stalking and will be released in July.
When Andrews renegotiated her contract in 2010, she reportedly had many suitors but decided to stay with ESPN because of the spot with "College GameDay" and other options with ABC. Those things don't appear to be enough to keep her around for another two-year stint.
Even though there's enough talk about who Andrews is dating, what she's wearing, and which athlete or coach did or said something inappropriate to her to saturate the Internet, true sports fans appreciated and will miss what she brought to the various sports she covered, especially college football. If she leaves the business, she will be missed.
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