Amazon Prime played a critical piece in sports history with their week four Thursday Night Football broadcast of the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings. This game was the first time a women duo called an NFL game. The duo was back in the booth for week four and five. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the longtime sports journalists Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm will be calling eight more TNF games this season despite the vociferous pushback because of their gender. I grew up listening to Al Michaels in the broadcast booth. He is a legend that provides vivid commentary, so I am not writing this to man-hate. All I am saying is it’s about time.
In 1987, Gayle Sierens became the first and only woman to provide play-by-play for an NFL game. NBC offered Sierens more opportunities but contractually required her to choose between national television or her local network. Sierens opted to stay with her local network and raise her family. Thirty years later in 2017, Beth Mowins took Sierens’ mantle, becoming the first woman to call Monday Night Football. After their success, why has it taken 31 years for a pair of women to take over the football broadcast booth?
Like in any job, the gender of the broadcaster shouldn’t matter. What should matter is their experience and qualifications. Kremer has a decorated career as a sportscaster and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year for her television contributions to the game of football. Kremer has been co-hosting an all-women sports talk show panel for four years now on CBS. Storm has experience in practically every sport you can name and was the first play-by-play broadcaster for the Women’s National Basketball Association. She has even interviewed world leaders. Their portfolios speak for themselves.
Kremer and Storm are breaking down gender misconceptions. Women can talk sports and not just about what team has the prettiest jersey or what player is the most attractive. Women can talk about trades, play calls, routes, and penalties, too. Last year, Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton laughed at reporter Jourdan Rodrigue because he thought it was funny to hear a woman talk about receiver routes. It is not a new fact that women can know and love sports. It is the twenty-first century. Women have been excelling in a wide range of career fields, so why has the field of sports journalism been so exclusive?
Their first broadcast started a little rocky as the two women established their on-air chemistry, but the sportscasters were able to quickly get into a groove after the first few minutes. Their broadcast style was immediately established as personable. The commentary didn’t just focus on breaking down coverages and routes. Kremer and Storm utilized their strengths as storytellers by providing several quotes from interviews, context behind statistics, observations from previous games and player background information. The broadcast didn’t focus on the numbers put up by the player but the player underneath the pads and helmet.
At the moment, Kremer and Storm can only be heard on Amazon Prime as one of three language alternatives, to Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman and Joe Buck’s commentary. Their accomplishment is a victory for women everywhere. Amazon has not yet announced if Kremer and Storm will continue after this season. If Amazon continues to use Kremer and Storm in upcoming seasons, doors to the sports industry will be opened for generations of women. Maybe women will begin to integrate broadcast teams of other networks. For now, we should embrace Amazon’s selection of Kremer and Storm as sportscasters. I’m not advocating to give Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth the boot, but maybe we can hear some more women on the air. Hopefully soon, the all-women booth won’t be just a language option to tune into for a game. They will be the only option.
