NBC's Kremer a first wherever she went

Andrea Kremer has reached nearly every pinnacle of sports broadcast journalism.

In 17 years at ESPN, she was a correspondent for Sportscenter, NFL Countdown and Outside the Lines, working every Super Bowl since 1985

The two-time Emmy award winner left the ESPN in 2006 to become a sideline reporter for NBC's Sunday Night Football. (She also works for HBO's Real Sports.)

Recently, the DP caught up with the Penn alumna to talk about her good looks, Penn bars, John Madden - and, of course, her successful career.

Daily Pennsylvanian: What are your most embarrassing career moments?

Andrea Kremer: Live television can be a very scary place.

I'm 5-foot-2 _' - and that extra _ is very important - and my height is always of great amusement to people. And a lot of times when I was doing interviews, I'd stand on a box. I was interviewing Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills, who's a very good friend, right after they had just won another AFC Championship. I ask him a question, and he answers it, "Yeah, we're really happy to be going to the Super Bowl ANDREA-GET-OFF-YOUR-BOX." And I'm just like, "What?!?" We were just laughing so much.

One time, I was doing a pregame for a Monday Night Football game in Florida at the beginning of a hurricane. And they had sandbags on my feet to hold me down, that's how windy it was. I was literally ready to blow away.

There's also just been some very, very funny moments . I did one story with Marty Schottenheimer. He was flying with the Blue Angels. He gets off the plane, and I'm there, and he looks at me and goes, "Oh my God, it was better than sex." I'm like, "Okay, well, I don't know how to respond to that one, but I'm glad you enjoyed it."

DP: At Penn, were you in any sororities?

AK: I was in a sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma. It had been defunct; there had been a fire in the house, and we re-colonized it, so it was more like starting out with all your friends.

DP: Any favorite restaurants or bars on campus?

AK: Well, you know, everybody lived in Smokes, both the old one and the new one. That was the main one that stands out for me.

DP: What are your top Penn moments?

AK: The best memories are those absolutely gorgeous spring days, when you're walking down Locust Walk, and you're getting ogled by whatever obnoxious frat guys are there.

I'll never forget, I was walking with my best friend down Locust Walk, and someone screamed out at her, "You're a JAP!" She spins around and says to them, "Oh, well whaddya know, I'm Roman Catholic." And the guy says, "Well then you're a CRAP - a Catholic Romanic American Princess." I'll never forget that.

Great parties at Kappa Sig and FIJI [Phi Gamma Delta] and all that sort of stuff. Your first introduction to grain alcohol - Oh God. All that sort of stuff. Yes, that all is in my past but nothing to be ashamed of.

DP: When did you know that this was the career you wanted?

AK: I loved sports my whole life, ever since I was eight years old. I was at the first game at Veterans' Stadium. I've been to every single Eagles home game, and suffered through everything. But it never occurred to me that this would be something that I would be able to do.

I would like to tell you that I knew I wanted to do this since I was eight years old, but that's not the case. It never occurred to me that I could put the passion that I had for sports together with any kind of skills that I would develop.

Even when women started getting into the business, they weren't really people I was really thinking of emulating, because to me they were former models or former Miss Americas. That wasn't who I was.

Really, I've been pretty much the first woman hired at every step of the way. Not really until I was in it did I think I could make this a career.

DP: Did being the first woman every step of the way create an extra burden or responsibility?

AK: I think I most felt that way at NFL Films. I was the first female producer hired there, and that is the bastion of male dominance. For anybody who loves football, it's Nirvana. You have to take a football test before they interview you, because everybody says they know football - so they have to separate the wheat from the chaff.

After I had gotten the job, I was talking with my boss. And - I'll never forget - he said to me: "You know, there's a lot of people on editor's row that think that hiring a woman is way overdue. Then there are some people on editor's row who think we have no business hiring a woman. And I want you to be prepared for that."

I came across people - I still come across people - who just don't think that women should be commentating on sports. And they're entitled to their opinion. All we can do is do the best job that we can do to change their mind and show them that they're wrong.

DP: Do you like sideline reporting?

AK: I don't care how long I've been in the business or how old I am, I really pinch my thumb sometimes when I look at where I am. I'm on the top-rated football telecast - the top-rated primetime show on the entire network at NBC. I get that exposure. But then I also get to work on the single best sports documentary program ever, in Real Sports on HBO. And then I get to work on the Olympics, which is the single biggest event that they have. For me to incorporate those three, it's just unbelievable.

DP: What's John Madden like?

AK: Madden's tremendous. He knows so much about football, and such a small percentage of it actually gets on the air. It's to his credit that he can speak to his audience in a way that is appealing and yet enlightening as well. And the one thing that's great is we sit and watch film of both teams every week, and it's like a tutorial, like being in Football 101. You learn a whole heck of a lot.

DP: Is what you see on TV the real John Madden?

AK: Absolutely. It's funny: When we have our production meeting and you listen to him, it's exactly what he sounds like on the air. Exactly. He is on television exactly who he is in real life, and that makes him superb.

DP: You were at ESPN for all those years. Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott, Chris Berman -- is that who they really are, too?

AK: Over the years, the big names at ESPN became more personalities than anything else. They're all phenomenal broadcasters, and they're extremely well-known. But I'm not going to call any of them a journalist. None of them are a journalist. They're personalities.

But yeah, Chris is the big old guy that you want to just sit at the bar and have a beer with, watch some hoops and talk some football.

DP: Do you wish you had the celebrity status of a John Madden or of a Chris Berman?

AK: No. When people recognize you, they think they know you. One time, I was in O'Hare walking between terminals, and some guy and his wife were coming in the opposite direction. The guy sees me and he yells out, "OH MY GOD ANDREA KREMER I GO TO BED WITH YOU!"

And I was like, "Whoa, baby, you better explain that one."

"I mean, uh, when I go to sleep, you're on my television."

And those things are all nice, but I am not in this business - and I never did get into this business - so I could be recognized . I could care less about the celebrity aspect of the job.

DP: When you Google your name, the second thing that comes up refers to a similar angle as the guy who said "I went to bed with you," in unprintable language.

AK: Really? That's what it says on Google? Some guy said he went to bed with me?

DP: No. There's a discussion as to whether one should do that.

AK: Oh, I see. Gotcha.

DP: It's obviously an honor to be considered attractive by people, but how does that make you feel?

AK: How does it make me feel that people are discussing your fuckability, basically?

The only thing I could possibly think of to respond to that is that people are entitled to their opinions.

It used to be a bunch of guys sitting around at the bar, watching TV, saying "Ooooh, let's do her." Now they put it on the internet.

I must admit, I don't spend a whole lot of time Googling myself. It would concern me more than anything when my child gets older and he might Google me. That's my concern.

Nobody wants to think that they're a dog out there. But I've always maintained the same thing: A woman in sports television should be attractive, but not too attractive. If you're too attractive, then 1) Fans think you're there only because you're a woman and 2) They think that you just want to sleep with the players.

You have to be attractive enough that they want to watch you, but not too attractive that you lose your credibility.

DP: You got a decent amount of press for the way ESPN handled its sideline reporters on Monday Night Football.

AK: Yes, yes. My thing was, c'mon folks. We have a woman running for president. You're telling me we can't have women talking about pro football on network television. It is 2008.

I'm tired of the perception that women are always fighting. Women need to support each other. And I felt very strongly about this issue. I just think it was a setback, I really do. For this whole notion that should women be there at all doing it. Of course they should. Why not? If they're the best people out there, then they should be contributing to the telecast.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.