Erin Andrews knows the media business can be fluid, but she found herself tearing up when her NFL broadcast partners Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, left Fox for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”
Speaking on her iHeart Radio podcast, “Calm Down with Erin and Charissa,” which she co-hosts with Charissa Thompson, Andrews said she wasn’t expecting the rapid changes and cried when she first heard the news of Buck and Aikman’s departures.
“This all happened fast,” Andrews said. “I wasn’t expecting it. I’ll be completely honest, I don’t think a lot of people were. I am known for being one tough cookie. I can deal with a lot of things, I have dealt with a lot of things, but when I had to speak to both of those guys separately when they both had officially left, oh God I cried.
“I don’t think they both expected that from me. I’ll cry right now… I told both of them I came to Fox to work with them. I just thought it would be so cool to do games with them. You [Charissa] said it perfectly, I know these people sometimes better than my husband.”
Andrews added how she and her now-former colleagues have spent a myriad of holidays together, not to mention the deeply personal conversations they’ve shared over the years.
“Every Thanksgiving I am with them. Past two Christmases I’ve been with them,” Andrews said. “They’ve listened to my fertility issues, they knew about my cancer issues. I’ve listened to them [talk about] their daughters or having their babies and things like that. It’s just crazy, they literally become your family, and they at times are closer to you than your actual blood family or husband or anything like that.”
Nonetheless, Andrews said she understood Buck and Aikman’s decisions to switch networks and was happy about their opportunities at ESPN.
“I don’t hold it against anybody for leaving, look I left ESPN after being there for eight years and came to Fox,” she said. “Like I said at the Pat Summerall Award [dinner], that was one of the best career moves I ever made. A lot of that had to do with, yes my crew, but my relationship with those two. They became my brothers and they became my [real] best friends so I’m sad but I’m so happy for them.”
The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported earlier this month that Andrews’ contract with Fox is also up. He wrote that Fox would like to keep her but that an ESPN return was not entirely out of the question.
On her podcast, Andrews expressed faith in Fox to figure out their top NFL announcing booth.
“With the change that’s happening at Fox, I do have faith in our network… I know they have obviously been an amazing network for so long. It’s just my issue (laughing), I’m the one that needs to let s–t go,” she said.
Aikman, according to sources, has signed a five-year, $90 million deal with ESPN, while Buck has inked a five-year contract worth $75 million.
