Pam Oliver thought she was done. Bumped as main sideline reporter for Fox Sports’ NFL coverage, Oliver believed her run at Fox was over at the end of the season. Then the phone rang. As she told Sports Illustrated, it was Fox Sports president Eric Shanks and executive vice president John Entz, calling with a question:
Would Oliver consider coming back to do NFL sideline reporting for Fox in 2015?
“I think I was silent for a good 10 seconds and then screamed out, What?” Oliver recalled on Monday afternoon. “I thought: ‘This makes no sense. What are they talking about?'”
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Oliver and Fox eventually reached a deal to bring her back to the sidelines for an additional two years. “I was shocked, floored, a monumental surprise,” Oliver said. “The call came out of the blue.”
Last month, Oliver described the experience of being replaced as top sideline reporter for Fox as “humiliating.”