Fox Sports reporter and Dancing With The Stars host Erin Andrews, who will be on the sidelines during Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, teared up while talking about Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant‘s relationship with daughter Gianna Bryant. Byant and his daughter were among the nine victims of a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 in Calabasas, California. Andrews said their relationship “resonates with all of us,” because all of us are either a parent or have parents.
“Whether we have kids or not our relationships with our parents we it resonates with all of us and that’s it’s just so heartbreaking,” Andrews told Access in Miami Saturday.
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Andrews went on to agree that this is a moment of incredible loss that has brought the country back together for a moment during a divisive time in its history. She was reminded to enjoy the Super Bowl in light of the tragedy.
“This is my third Super Bowl and it’s a lot,” Andrews said. “Like there’s a lot of traffic there’s a lot of studying by the way we’re doing the game… There’s a lot of visiting promoting. I was thinking to myself, you know I really need to enjoy this because of what we just saw and what everybody’s experiencing emotion wise with Kobe. Then I kept thinking to myself how stupid is it that we have to have something like that remind us all. So it’s crazy and it’ is incredible.”
Andrews said Bryant’s death was the biggest sports-related death she has experienced in her caree, putting the loss on the level of Michael Jackson and Princess Diana’s death. She agreed that the one silver lining from this is it helps brings people together.
Bryant, Gianna, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Chistina Mauser, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester and pilot Ara Zobayan died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. They were on their way to a basketball tournament at the Mamba Academy.
Bryant often gushed about being a father to four daughters, which inspired the viral #GirlDad hashtag. He was also proud of how Gianna was following in his footsteps into basketball.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2018, Bryant said fans would often come up to him to say he needed to have a boy to carry on his legacy. Gianna would quickly interrupt them.
“She’s like, ‘Hey, I got this. Don’t need a boy for that,’” Bryant recalled. “I’m like, ‘That’s right.’”
Bryant’s family helped establish the MambaOnThree Fund to help the other victims of the crash.
“The MambaOnThree Fund was created to honor Team Mamba’s mantra, ‘Mamba on Three,’” the fund’s website reads. “It’s with that customary chant for togetherness, sisterhood and the ability to take on every challenge that this Fund was named.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
