Fans can expect to see Pam Oliver back on the sidelines this coming season and she was just as surprised as anyone else about the good news, reports Sports Illustrated.
“I was shocked, floored, monumental surprise,” says Oliver about the call that she says, “came out of the blue.”
Fox Sports president Eric Shanks and executive vice president John Entz offered Oliver a chance to consider coming back to do NFL sideline reporting for the network beginning in 2015.
Last summer Fox announced that Oliver would be replaced by Erin Andrews. The decision garnered wide-spread criticism and personal commentary from Oliver.
Following the decision, a new contract that would allow her to finish out the 2014 season was agreed to.
Oliver worked the season in her normal fashion and executives were impressed by her chemistry with Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch, prompting the new offer.
After a couple weeks of mulling over the new proposal on the table, she has agreed to pick back up where she left off.
Oliver is set to hit the sidelines again for the next two years, which is the duration of her contract with Fox Sports.
“I wasn’t that interested in just one year,” Oliver says. “So this is great. I know that for the next two years we are a true team and I am not some guest. I think we will really take it to another level next season.”
Oliver says she’s looking forward to the future.
“I don’t think it was easy for anyone and I had to learn to step back and not make it so personal and understand management has the right to do whatever it wants to do,” she said.
“Now we have come to a place where I feel so grateful and fortunate to be on the other end of a different decision they’ve come to. It is absolutely crazy that they have given me something that I least expected, and something that will give me joy for another couple of years. It really is just amazing.”