Pam Oliver on being replaced by Erin Andrews: ‘That hurt’

Pam Oliver won’t be the sidelines for Fox’s “A” broadcast team for NFL games this season. After nearly two decades with the network, she had to talk her bosses into allowing her to join the “B” team this year for a 20th and final season before moving to the Fox Sports 1 channel to work on specials and in-depth reports.

In a first-person account told to Essence magazine, the 53-year-old Oliver addresses the situation for the first time, saying she felt “humiliated” when Fox hired sideline reporter Erin Andrews, now 36, away from ESPN two years ago.

“Even before my bosses told me what was going on, there had been rumblings that my days as a sideline reporter were coming to an end,” Oliver said. “But I let the rumors roll off my back. Without official confirmation about a change in my position, I decided I was going to do my work like I always had. Still, I was humiliated.”

Those rumors finally came to fruition in April, Oliver said, when the honchos at Fox informed her they wanted to “change direction within the company.” They wanted to switch her to Fox 1 immediately but she dug in her heels for one last year on the sidelines.

“It was important to me to have a 20th season — to end on 19 is wack!” Oliver said. “I wanted 20.”

She got that final season, but not with longtime broadcast partners Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth. That is now Andrews’ gig.

“I kept my composure during the meeting,” Oliver said. “I thought I’d handled it pretty well, but when I left the restaurant, I got into my car and noticed my hands were shaking. I was like, Okay, that hurt.”

Oliver makes it clear that she feels the move had nothing to do with race, although she thinks age might have been a factor.

“The business is very demographic-oriented,” she said. “As one executive said to me, Fox Sports will look radically different in the coming years. I assume that means they want to look younger. It’s not difficult to notice that the new on-air people there are all young, blond and ‘hot.’ That’s not to say that Erin isn’t capable. I think she’s very capable.”

After two weeks of feeling miserable, Oliver said she snapped out of it after turning to prayer and meditation. And now she’s ready to “savor every moment” of her last year on the sidelines before focusing on her new role.

“At times I’m ashamed of how tragic I was making things out to be,” Oliver said. “It’s just a job change. I’m not out on the streets. I’m not unemployed. Everybody wins.”