History continues to be made by women in football.
First, it was Sarah Fuller kicking for Vanderbilt against Missouri last Saturday.
Then, Callie Brownson filled in as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Browns against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Now, a time that should have come long ago. Beth Mowins will become the first woman to do play-by-play on an NFL game on a major network when she calls Sunday’s Jaguars-Minnesota Vikings game on CBS.
(Note: Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer called the 2018 Vikings-Rams game on Amazon Prime.)
.@bethmowins will become the first woman to call a regular-season Vikings game on broadcast TV Sunday when she joins analyst @jayfeely for @NFLonCBS.
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 3, 2020
Per Vikings.com:
Q: You will be the first female to provide play-by-play for a TV network in Vikings history – what does it mean to you to be able to break these barriers?
A: “It’s really rewarding and humbling at the same time to be able to pursue a career that you love and to be able to remember that little girl who dreamed about doing this and now being able to let it play out, and to be a part of the NFL on CBS and to call games in a place like Minnesota. When I was coming of age back in the late ’70s, early ’80s, [I was] watching the Purple People Eaters and Fran Tarkenton and Chuck Foreman, so it means a lot to be in a place that has such a rich tradition and history. And to be able to couple that with the excitement and the feel you get walking into [U.S. Bank Stadium] – the newness of it and the promise of the future. I was actually there for [Super Bowl LII], so it’s going to be real exciting for me to be able to go back there and call a game with Jay Feely.”
Q: When you called your first NFL regular-season game in 2017, Chargers-Broncos for ESPN, what were your emotions like during that experience?
A: “Oh gosh, it was really emotional. It was really exciting. To be honest with you, the build-up to the game from my perspective – my day-to-day has always been calling games and doing the research and preparing my game boards – so all of that was very much similar to any other game that I’ve done. You want to have everything ready to go and be prepared for anything so that when you get there, you can just relax and finish up your last-minute preparations and have a lot of fun with it. So that was the way that I approached it. There obviously was a lot more going on around the game with interviews and such, but I really didn’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about that until after it was over, and [I was] just feeling really good about the job our entire crew did and hoping that wouldn’t be the last time – and fortunately it wasn’t. So that was a great experience.”
