"You really have to want it," Beth Mowins says about breaking NFL glass ceiling
Beth Mowins will make CBS history this weekend when she becomes the first woman NFL play-by-play announcer on the network and calls the Cleveland Browns-Indiana Colts game.
She has already made television history. On Sept. 11, Mowins became the first female announcer to do a nationally televised NFL play-by-play. It aired on ESPN. Mowins' debut came more than 30 years after Gayle Sierens did the play-by-play for a regional NBC game.
Mowins told CBSN's Reena Ninan that to break that glass ceiling, "the 10,000-hour rule" applies -- meaning it takes a lot of hard work to get there.
"You really have to put a lot of time in a young age," Mowins said. "You really have to want it."
The world of NFL announcers, Mowins said, is a "small fraternity and sorority." But, she said, it's an industry that requires a lot of patience and a lot of confidence. And, she added with a laugh, "quite honestly, you can't have a fallback position ... I knew this was it, and I was willing to put up with a lot to be patient and wait for my opportunity."
Mowins said "hopefully it won't take as long" for more women to move up the ranks now that she has had this opportunity.
There's been an increase in the number of women watching the NFL, something Mowins attributes to a "natural progression from Title IX."
There's a "generation of young girls that have watched their mom play sports, and their sister play sports and now they have had the chance to grow up playing sports, viewing sports, and being sports fans. That's all I've known in my lifetime and most of my friends are sports fans and played sports."
One CBS sports executive told Ninan that it's not that Mowins is a woman, but that she's "the best damn play-by-play announcer. Period."
Mowins said she has come to embrace the attention she gets as being one of the few women in this role. Mowins said she will let other people deal with the historical significance of her role, she is just focused on "doing a good job for all of the people who have been there to support me."
"Just talking with younger women out there -- moms and daughters who may come up to me before a game or just talking to other women in the industry -- that have an appreciation for what this job all entails," she said." That's been somewhat eye-opening ... But honestly, I've always looked at myself as a play-by-play announcer. I've been calling the NFL since I was about 8 years old, in my living room, so it's not new to me, it's just new to everybody else."
Mowins said she will let other people deal with the historical significance of her role, she is just focused on "doing a good job for all of the people who have been there to support me."