NAPA, Calif. (AP) – Beth Mowins has spent her accomplished career as a play-by-play announcer trying to tell the story, not be it.
That will change Friday night when she becomes just the second woman play-by-play announcer ever for an NFL game. Mowins will handle the Bay Area broadcast of the Oakland Raiders’ exhibition game against the St. Louis Rams, 28 years after Gayle Sirens broke the barrier when she broadcast a late-season game on NBC between Seattle and Kansas City.
That turned out to be the only NFL game Sirens ever broadcast and it took nearly three decades for another woman to get the chance. The game will be broadcast locally in the Bay Area and will be aired later Friday night on a tape-delayed basis on the NFL Network.
“I think most football play-by-play announcers would love to have that opportunity so certainly I’ll try to make the most of it,” said Mowins, who has been calling college football games on ESPN for a decade. “To be able to do it with the Raiders is pretty cool. I’m friends with Gayle Sirens so it’s pretty cool that it has come back full circle and the opportunity is there for me.”
Mowins was at the top of the list of potential broadcasters when Raiders owner Mark Davis decided he wanted a dedicated television crew for preseason games this year instead of simulcasting the radio broadcast.