Playing Ball with the Boys

Female sideline reporters are the fastest-growing trend in broadcasts of professional and college football: names like Suzy Kolber, Erin Andrews, and Andrea Kremer are now as well known as any of the men in the booth. But even more has been going on. In recent years women have garnered spots as sports columnists and reporters, talk-show hosts, and even coaches and team administrators. Yet there has never been a book about this phenomenon. Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this gap with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting, as well as in the business of sports. Ross interviews a number of the biggest names from Kolber and Kremer to USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, Lesley Visser, and many others delivering firsthand accounts of the struggles and triumphs of women succeeding in what has long been a man's game.