Starting on July 25, Jamie Erdahl will be the new host of Good Morning Football on NFL Network as she takes over for Kay Adams. It is a new challenge for Erdahl as she goes from sideline reporting to being able to voice her own opinions on a daily basis.
Erdahl was a guest on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast and she said she wanted to go for this job because she wanted this challenge of trying something different in her career:
“I like a challenge. It’s different from what I’ve done for eight years at CBS. It was eight amazing years. I did some really cool stuff, but the biggest difference is that my job at CBS was to support the broadcast as the game unfolded and this job with Good Morning Football is talent. We get to talk, we get to have our opinions. We jump off the news, we jump off everything that’s happening in the NFL. I think eight years ago, I would have thought I could have done this job, but I bet I wouldn’t be as good at it as I will be today hopefully. It just felt like time to broaden beyond sideline reporting.”
When Melissa Stark was named as the sideline reporter for Sunday Night Football on NBC, it showed Erdahl she can take this chance because she could always go back to being a sideline reporter down the road:
“I circle back to what I would have thought about this job five years ago. I think if you had told me you got to leave your sideline job to go do something like this, I would have been like you never leave the sidelines, you’ll never get back. I see Melissa do this and that felt like a huge turning point for me to see somebody go away from the sidelines and come back in such a prominent role. It really showed me that you can do new things and grow and you can go back If you wanted to….I’m really excited about how broad my voice can be now.”
One of the more interesting things that Erdahl revealed on the podcast was that she did not sit on set with Peter Schrager or Kyle Brandt until she got the job:
“We did not sit at a set together until after I had the job. I don’t know what that means in terms of their process or decision-making. I certainly spoke with a lot of executives, but the first time I met Peter and Kyle was a week or 2 after I got the job. We did one secret show that we kind of joke about now.”
As Erdahl heads into her new role, she is ready to voice her opinions about the NFL and it’s something she has done some self-work on as she transitions from the sidelines:
That was an interesting conversation I had with Michael Davies along the way. He really made sure I understood how talent-based this show is. I’ve done some self-work to make sure I’m prepared for that. I’m just really excited and happy and ready for something different….I’m very happy to talk about the NFL for three hours a day.”
“I’m still the person who bickers with their husband or his buddies about fantasy football. It’s still part of me. You can’t fake it for three hours on TV. You better be true to yourself or else it’s going to be hard to keep that facade. I’m excited and happy that it’s already a part of me. I can be opinionated. Whether or not I can support that and not make a fool of myself remains to be seen. But, it’s there. I’ve always been able to do it. I just haven’t needed to.”
