Sideline reporter Pam Oliver is a veteran and one of the greatest in the business but each Sunday as fans watched football plenty seemed to be more focused on her hair than her reports. She’s decided to finally speak out.
Oliver has been the focus of criticism as fans make memes and disparaging remarks about her hair.
*PHOTOS IN GALLERY ABOVE*
Pam spoke with Jenice Armstrong from Philly.com and gave her take on the matter:
“It’s the psychology of it that I want to understand,” she told me during a phone conversation Monday afternoon. “It’s comical. This whole thing is just comical.”
As we chatted, I asked her about a commonly held notion that all sideline reporters do is show up on game day and hold microphones.
“No, I wish it were so easy. It’s a process. I do my own hair and makeup – insert joke here,” she deadpanned. “I’m up early. I’m at the stadium about 4 hours before the game, just going over some last-minute stuff and then waiting for some players to come out, which is generally 2 hours before the game.
“You’re out there, trying a to catch players, get some last-minute stuff, get your reports turned around quickly, and I may or may not have time to put on lip gloss or powder my face,” Oliver explained, adding that she doesn’t have hair stylists and makeup artists with her on game day. “I know TV is a visual medium, but there are times when you kind of hope that people are listening to what you’re saying as opposed to judging you if a strand of hair is not in place or if you have only got one eye lined or something.
“That’s naive of me. I get it. But there are times I get so tunnel-visioned and focused on what I’m doing to the point of maybe letting that other stuff fall by the wayside. It’s not intentional. You want to look your best on TV.”
“Usually, the most important thing to me is getting my information and getting it right and hoping that everything else is going well with the hair and what little makeup I have left and go from there,” she explained. “I’m a little focused on what I’m doing. Maybe too much for people’s liking.”
