She's got game
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| ESPN analyst Suzy Kolber, perhaps best known as a sideline reporter for NFL games, is in town to work Sunday's Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium. "I know what I'm talking about," Kolber says.
ESPN AFC-NFC NFL Pro Bowl 2:30 p.m. Sunday, live on ESPN |
She earned her jersey and playbook before a bunch of uptight adults forced her to hang up her cleats.
"I didn't know it at the time, but that situation helped set me up for my career," says Kolber.
Host of ESPN's "Edge NFL Match-Up," Kolber, 39, has proven herself one of the most adept football analysts on TV, more than holding her own with former NFL players Merril Hoge and Ron Jaworski. Like her counterparts, she'll break down an offense with slow-motion replays and chalkboard-type analysis, pointing to why a formation was used, how a defense is disguising its pass coverage or who the unheralded blocker is who made the play work.
Kolber is perhaps best known as a sideline reporter for NFL games, where she dispenses quick-hit insights that an entire nation of Monday morning quarterbacks faithfully repeat at work the next day.
"I love covering sports, all sports, but my passion is football," Kolber says. "Football is in my blood forever."
Though it borders on the insulting, it has to be noted (and always is) that Kolber's success is particularly impressive because she is a woman working in the most definitively male environment in sports.
Earlier this season, Kolber gained some unwanted national attention when NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, admittedly drunk at the time, told her, "I want to kiss you," twice during a live interview. She received high marks for handling the situation with grace and received a public apology days later from a thoroughly embarrassed Namath.
It wasn't the first time her good looks threatened to overshadow her journalistic credibility. A few years ago, she earned praise when she (and ESPN) declined to go along with Playboy.com's "Hottest Sports Babe" poll.
And, of course, simple (and simple-minded) sexism still lingers among some football fans. Kolber adroitly defended herself when "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney kvetched that a woman's place was not on the sidelines.
"I don't mind speaking out if it's for a cause," Kolber says. "I can do the job and I know what I'm talking about. I think the coaches and players know that about me, and that's what matters.
"Everybody wants to be asked a good question. (Being a woman) has never mattered, and I've never had a bad experience."
Kolber, above all, asks good questions. A key reason she is in Honolulu this week is to work Sunday's Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium. She provides locker room insight that has typically been provided only by past beat writers such as John Clayton or Chris Mortenson. But as ESPN continues to spread its wings over the NFL, Kolber and her Prime Time counterparts have become the one-stop, all-you-need-to-know-about-your-team-and-this-week's-game's information center.
"It's my personality to be a perfectionist anyway," she says. "I'm more demanding of myself than anyone else is."
Kolber has made the qualification "for a woman" irrelevant to her work. Unlike the cleavage-bearing sports babes that populate some network sportscasts, she's sports first, babe last — dozens of breathless marriage proposals from sports chat nerds notwithstanding.
She grew up in Dresher, Penn., watching Monday Night Football the way some kids watch Saturday cartoons.
Kolber never got to find out how far her enthusiasm for the game might take her on the playing field, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
"We tried to register one year, but we were too late," Kolber recalls. "So the next year, we were right there on the first day."
The prospect of a 10-year-old girl playing football with the boys didn't stir up much controversy at first. As Kolber recalls, it wasn't a question of if she would play, but where.
"I didn't get my hand up fast enough for quarterback," she said. "The last skill position was tight end, and I figured I had better get my hand up or I'd end up on the offensive line."
But before Kolber could play her first game, a group of parents revolted, threatening to pull their kids from the league if Kolber didn't cease.
"Being a girl on a football team was unheard of at the time, and it was really tough," Kolber says. "People accused my parents of putting me up to it for publicity."
Eventually, Kolber decided to quit rather than ruin the season for her teammates.
She didn't let the experience sour her on other sports. She ran track and played tennis and basketball in high school. And though she couldn't play, she remained a devout football fan.
Kolber graduated from the University of Miami and broke into broadcast journalism with a series of producing and reporting jobs in Florida. She joined ESPN in 1993 after two years as a sports anchor and reporter for WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach.
Kolber initially was tabbed to help launch ESPN2, serving as an anchor for SportsNight and a reporter on College GameDay. She was also the host of the X Games in 1995 and 1996.
In 1996, up-and-coming Fox Sports lured Kolber over with the opportunity to cover the NFL. Kolber spent three years with the network, covering football, hockey and other sports, but was less than inspired by the network's high-gloss approach.
"Fox values very slick entertainment," Kolber says. "ESPN is more about news, and that fits my personality more. I love the X's and O's, the nuts and bolts."
When Kolber returned to ESPN in 1999, she found herself living a football lover's dream as host of "Edge NFL Match-Up," co-anchor on SportsCenter and, later, NFL sideline reporter.
During the NFL season, Kolber's life revolves around a grueling schedule of production meetings, interviews, long hours of research, and thousands and thousands of miles on the road.
On game day, the harvest of Kolber's weekly toil is delivered in tightly bound bales.
"You'll typically hear me for 20 to 25 seconds between snaps," she says. "The challenge is to try and tell stories in that time. Once I figure out my best material, I try to find the best, most concise way to say it."
On the sidelines, Kolber carries only a small notebook with facts, stats and running game notes. How she fills her 20-second reports has much to do with how the game unfolds. In a one-sided game, hours and hours of research and preparation might have to be discarded.
"She's really done the sideline bit at a completely different level than anybody else," says ESPN colleague Chris Berman. "Some people worry about memorizing their notes. Suzy just knows her stuff. She's at home there on the field."
Away from work, Kolber retreats to the companionship of her two cats and, of course, the comfort of more sports.
"I play basketball or tennis," she says. "I run, lift weights. It's unbelievably valuable for me, and it's easy because the people I work around are all fitness-conscious."
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2461.
