It’s Christmas Morning for Erin Andrews

4 min read“Opening week is just so exciting,” Erin Andrews says, practically bouncing on her heels. “It is six months of just storylines, amazing athletes playing the sport they love and the sport we love to cover.”Erin is beaming at the thought of tonight’s NFL season opener. For some, it’s just another Wednesday. For others, it marks the beginning of months of joy or heartbreak (or both), when Sunday becomes its own kind of religion: football.For Erin, the NFL Kickoff Game is “Christmas morning.”She has been covering the NFL for well over a decade, joining Fox as a sideline reporter in 2012. In addition to being one of the most recognized faces and voices in football, she owns the clothing brand WEAR by Erin Andrews, co-hosts a podcast, Calm Down with Erin and Charissa, and co-hosts the game show 99 to Beat with Ken Jeong. Safe to say, she’s busy.Outside of her professional life, Erin is also mom to 3-year-old son Mack. Although being on the road so much can be challenging, she says, it doesn’t diminish her excitement for the season ahead. And she has naturally built long-lasting friendships with her crew, all of whom are men.“As corny as it sounds—and I swear it’s not B.S.—some of my best friends are the guys I work with,” she says. “I know them sometimes more than I know my husband, because I see them more.”Erin says the relationships she has built with her crew, as well as the players she covers, also influences how she approaches raising her son. “I’ve seen how the athletes I’ve interviewed are such outstanding men, how courteous they are, and how they treat me so well,” she says.She and Mack recently traveled to Dallas Cowboys training camp, and Mack got to meet quarterback Dak Prescott for the first time (while sporting his jersey). She says the moment was extra special because of how well she knows the Cowboys players, and how many times she has worked with Dak, starting when he was a rookie.“I’m very big that I don’t care that he’s 3 years old, I want him walking up to people, looking them in the eye, shaking their hands,” she says.After Mack told Dak the most important details—like the fact that he had just watched The Secret Life of Pets and loved the pirates at Disneyland—his mom nudged him to share one more thing.“I made sure he said to Dak, ‘Thank you for being so nice to my mom,’” she says. “I think it’s really, really important that he sees the men that I work with and how they’ve raised their children, and the men that I cover and how they’re so nice to me. I want to make sure my son follows that.”According to Erin, Mack now calls Dak his best friend.Icon Sportswire//Getty ImagesErin catches up with Dak Prescott in 2023.While she loves the men she works with, it has also been exciting for her to see other women break into football. “What’s cool about what’s going on in the NFL right now is it’s not just women in front of the camera,” she says. “It’s women behind the camera, whether that be in the production trucks or back in the studio. They are trainers, coaches, position coaches, in the front office, executives. It’s really, really cool as a female to see that happening.”Not only are women helping make the game happen, but more and more women are also falling in love with football every day. According to data from the Nielsen Lab, female fans are among the fastest-growing audience in men’s sports—56 percent of recent U.S. sports fans are women.“Listen, women have been around for a long time loving sports,” Erin says. “It’s amazing, and I think the women that do love sports are so educated. They have to be, right? They don’t want to be intimidated, they want to make sure they can hold conversations with men about sports. Girls are smart.”Her advice for anyone who feels intimidated by football is to start with the storylines. She uses Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes as an example: He is arguably one of the faces of the NFL and is returning from a major injury, meaning many fans will have their eyes on him this season. Learning more about the person behind the player, Erin says, can be a great entry point for new fans.That advice also informs her recent partnership with FanDuel. While she says she isn’t an expert in sports betting, she believes conversations around it should emphasize responsible decision-making. “I don’t know a thing about betting, but I know how to be smart, and especially smart with your money and smart with your budget,” she says.Erin is endorsing FanDuel’s new Play with a Plan program, which offers support for setting betting limits and encourages users to make thoughtful choices. “I think it’s really important to use my platform as someone that works in the NFL to say, ‘Hey, if you’re going to do it, let’s be smart about it,’” she says.For Erin, being a football fan isn’t about knowing every stat or understanding every play. It’s about finding a way into the game that feels personal—and feeling confident enough to claim your place in it.“Start simple and start how you would talk with your girlfriends,” she says. “You don’t have to worry about this stat—I do.”Alyssa Cruz is the social media editor at Women’s Health, where she drives social strategy and helps shape the brand’s voice across platforms. Prior to WH, she worked at CBS News and palabra. Originally from Toledo, she is a proud alumna of Ohio University, where she received two bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish. When she is not creating social content, you can find her trying different restaurants in New York City or planning her next trip.