In Today’s Version of “Movin’ On Up”, the NFL will have its first woman announcer in 30 years when ESPN broadcaster Beth Mowins will be doing the play by play for the September 11 game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. The game will be the late edition of a Monday Night Football opening week doubleheader. According to reports, former NFL head coach Rex Ryan will be her game analysts.
Rex was hired by ESPN in April and the Monday Night Football assignment would be his debut as an NFL color commentator. Mowins and Ryan called the Florida State spring game together in April.
The last woman to call play-by-play for an NFL regular season game was Gayle Sierens, who retired in 2015 after a long career as a news anchor in Tampa, Fla. Her first and last game was between the Seahawks-Chiefs on Dec. 27, 1987, a game played on the final week of the regular season that year. Sierens was offered six more games the following season, but her local NBC station did not want her to call more games and miss work, so Sierens never called another NFL game.
For the past two seasons Mowins has called the Raiders exhibition games in addition to her college football schedule.
Beth Mowins has excelled as play by play announcer for the Raiders preseason football, demonstrating unmatched professionalism, work ethic and passion for her craft, said Vittorio De Bartolo, the executive producer of broadcasting for the Oakland Raiders and the team official who recruited Mowins for the Oakland broadcasting job.
As executive producer I appreciated Beths enthusiasm for studying and preparing for each game. She took advantage of every opportunity during training camp to watch practice and chat with Raiders players, coaches and personnel in the days leading up to kickoff, all of which helped make for a better Raiders Preseason broadcast. Its no coincidence that in her first year as play by play announcer in 2015, the Raiders preseason football broadcast received a Northern California Area Emmy nomination.I am more than confident Beth can call an NFL game for a national audience. Her resume and body of work speaks for itself in addition to the seamless transition she made from the college game to the NFL game.
