2024 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Andrea Kremer, the Journalist Who Spoke Truth to Power By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Tuesday, December 10, 2024 - 4:09 pm
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Leading up to the 2024 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame ceremony on Dec. 17 at the New York Hilton, SVG is profiling the 10 inductees in this year's class. For more information, CLICK HERE.
As Andrea Kremer stood backstage at the 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony in summer 2018, the irony wasn't lost on her. She was about to step out before the crowd as a video tribute to her played on the big screen at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, OH. The veteran reporter was being honored as recipient of the prestigious Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.
Legends, fans, and the highest brass of the National Football League filled the seats, mostly to witness Randy Moss, Brian Urlacher, Ray Lewis, Brian Dawkins, and others like them take their place in football history. It was a mind-blowing moment: a little girl from Philadelphia who dreamed of becoming a ballerina inducted into the Hall of Fame of a sport where giants crush each other.
But that wasn't the ironic bit at all.
On the videoboard, the tribute celebrated the highlights of a journalistic career built on challenging authority and speaking truth to power. Some of her finest work held football's feet to the fire: from player safety to employee work conditions. And yet, there she was, receiving appreciation from those very people she covered so rigorously.
That was surreal, Kremer reflects, because you're on the stage with all the Hall of Famers and they gave me a standing ovation. They're running the piece, and, in the piece, they run a clip of a question I asked about marijuana use in the NFL. I'm doing these stories, and you're honoring me. You don't have to listen to me, but I'm here.
She hadn't shied away from uncomfortable topics; she was drawn to them.
Andrea has a nobility about her, says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Lesley Visser, a legendary sportscaster. No matter what the assignment, she seeks only the truth. Couple that with a deep heart, and she belongs with the greats. If Andrea were a song, she'd be a power ballad.
Kremer, one of the most accomplished and widely respected journalists in the history of sports media, began her career at a small weekly newspaper in Southeastern Pennsylvania before making her first big leap: to New Jersey, as a writer and producer for NFL Films.
This Philly Girl had dreamed about being a ballerina. She also loved football and, having landed her first big break as a writer and producer for NFL Films, eventually migrated in front of the camera. Working the first of her more than 30 Super Bowls, she met with two other Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famers: Steve Anderson and John Walsh, both then in ESPN production management. Their conversation landed her at ESPN, where she became the network's first female correspondent.
During a 15-year run at ESPN, Kremer was a mainstay across the broadcaster's NFL coverage, appearing on SportsCenter, Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, and Outside the Lines. An intrepid reporter and a pro at breaking news, she established a reputation as up to the task of covering the most challenging stories the sports world had to offer. Some of her most heralded work lifted the veil on issues ranging from sexual assault and domestic violence to concussion safety and drug abuse.
One story that stands out came to her during a relatively routine assignment interviewing Minnesota Vikings star wide receiver Chris Carter. The morning of the interview, which was slated to air on Sunday NFL Countdown later that week, Carter asked Kremer if they could talk about something that wasn't about the Vikings' high-powered offense. He wanted to speak publicly for the first time about his drug and alcohol addiction.
That was very intense, Kremer recalls. I've done a lot of stories that have made people say, Why do they talk to you? How do you get them to talk to you?' I think that to tell somebody's story - to share the greatest pain they've ever experienced in their life - is because they want others to see the strength that enabled them to withstand that pain. I think that's a very, very important thing to do. You never want your subject to think they were blindsided, she adds. You just want them to think it was fair.
Kremer eventually moved on to NBC Sports in 2006, becoming a sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football. Her reporting style also made her a natural fit for iconic HBO newsmagazine Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, where she debuted in 2007. Among her many highlights with the show is a Peabody Award that she received partly because of a story she produced on abuse of the drug Toradol in football.
No person I ever worked with gave more of themselves to ensure the story was right every single time, says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Fred Gaudelli, longtime producer of NBC Sunday Night Football. She's one of the most accomplished reporters our business has ever known.
Says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Mary Carillo, reporter and sports commentator, I deeply admired her interviewing skills, her hunt for the guts of a story, the evenness of her reporting. A few decades of friendship have only increased my respect for her work, and few work harder than Andrea Kremer.
Kremer continued to spread her wings in live sports coverage at NBC, covering the Olympics along with the NFL. She served as sideline reporter for Super Bowl XLIII, when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals.
She was also along for the ride with one of the greatest athletes in sport history: Michael Phelps. A
