Erin Andrews has been a force in the sports world — and she is still excited and thrilled to be on the sidelines doing what she loves.
"It's a passion. It's really all I'm interested in outside of being a mom or wife. I love football so much. It's my way of life. I love it, and I'm so interested in it. I think in order to be somebody that is an example or somebody other women can look up, I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't love it as much I do," the the TV star, 45, who is the new spokesperson for the No. 1 pediatrician recommended infant formula Enfamil Enspire Optimum, exclusively tells Morning Honey.
"It's hard to be a good representation of yourself in anything if you don't feel passionate about it," she continues. "I truly, truly love it. I know I need to get better in a lot of different areas. I feel like with the schedule and how hard it is and the holidays I miss, it wouldn't be worth it unless I still found a passion. It's worked for me, and I hope other people can see themselves in me."
Though the blonde beauty is in a male-dominated field, she feels like she has proven herself over the years — from rising to fame as a correspondent on ESPN to joining Fox Sports in 2012 and then becoming a sideline reporter for the network's NFL broadcasting team.
"I could lose respect from people, but at this point they know how hard I work. Kids that are coming from college don't know me, but maybe they've seen me before. They know I go out of the way to show them how much I've studied or how much I appreciate everything they've given to the game," she shares. "I truly respect them and their respect means a lot now. I had people tweet me during the Super Bowl saying they want to see more women in sports. That's the stuff I'd like to work on now. I've worked so hard in my career trying to get the respect of players, coaches, general managers, owners, but I think it's time to be like, 'We deserve to be doing this. We should have this segment.' People want to hear from us more than just what are the players wearing. I want to make some sort of noise in this industry."
Though Andrews may be well-known in the sports world, she also has a podcast and her WEAR by Erin Andrews line, which is female fan apparel that Taylor Swift frequently sports.
"It's important to reinvent yourself and show you're more than just a one-trick pony. I have a lot of ideas," she says. "I don't want to get bored, and I have so many ideas! I've been around so many creative people. My brain is crazy."
Going forward, Andrews doesn't "have a plan" of what her career will look like in the next 5-10 years, but she's definitely thinking long-term.
"I have things I want to put into the universe," she declares. "I would like to continue on the sidelines and stay doing sit-down interviews with these guys until they roll me off the sidelines, which is pretty scary. I want to sit in one of the anchor chairs on the Today show. I have such a good time when I'm there. I'd like to do a game show at some point. I want to do more live TV."
In the meantime, the mom-of-one, who had trouble getting pregnant, in addition to going through rounds of fertility treatments, is happy to be spending time with her son, Mack, whom she shares with husband Jarret Stoll, which is why her partnership with Enfamil Enspire Optimum for their Bottle Up partnership, raising awareness for the many struggles parents face, including infertility and provide support for every family’s unique journey, made perfect sense.
"When we had Mack via surrogacy, we did a lot of research and were hearing a lot of things about formulas and Enfamil was introduced to us. It's full of lactoferrin, which is a protein found in b------ milk and colostrum. That's what they gave us at the hospital, so that's how we came upon it," she explains. "With the Enfamil Enspire Optimum, having the protein like b------- milk and colostrum was important."
"This was our journey. I had no other route to take. We had a baby via surrogacy, so this is what we were faced with," she adds. "And Enfamil makes it very, very easy for parents like me or parents that want to go the formula route, so that's been my world. It also goes well with this program they created called Bottle Up. I was bottling up a lot of my emotions and my fears and a lot of the journey that was going on with it — trying to have Mack via surrogacy and what we went through with infertility. This is a good platform for a lot of parents that have a unique journey. You don't have to bottle up your emotions anymore; you can share them and get them out there. I like that messaging a lot."