Beth Mowins will call Oakland Raiders preseason games

This piece of news broke last night. ESPN’s Beth Mowins will become the second woman to call NFL play-by-play next month. Steve Corkran of RaiderBeat.com tweeted that Mowins will join Tim Brown and Matt Millen in the broadcast booth to call the games that will be produced in-house by the Riaders:

.@bethmowins will handle play-by-play duties for #Raiders exhibition games. Former #Raiders WR Tim Brown also part of broadcast team.

— Steve Corkran (@CorkOnTheNFL) July 29, 2015

From the official press release from the Raiders, Mowins will call three preseason games with former Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown:

Veteran announcer Beth Mowins will handle the play-by-play duties and will be joined in the broadcast booth by Tim Brown, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015, and former Raider and veteran television commentator Matt Millen. Nicole Zaloumis will provide sideline analysis, and JT the Brick will return, serving as host and sideline reporter for the telecasts.

Since 2005, Mowins has called college football on the ESPN family of networks and has worked with a number of analysts including Joey Galloway. Some of the conferences she has called have included the ACC, Big 10, MAC and the SEC. From 2005 through 2011, Mowins and Pam Ward both called college football for the ESPN family, but since the 2012 season, Mowins has been the only woman to call play-by-play on the sport.

While this is for preseason only, it’s still a big move. Mowins joins former Tampa news anchor Gayle Sierens who called one regular season game for NBC in 1987 (Seattle at Kansas City with analyst Dave Rowe).

In addition to college football, Mowins calls college basketball, the Women’s College World Series and was one of ESPN’s announcers for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany.

It’s a big opportunity for Mowins to move to the NFL to call preseason games. And while  she’ll only call three games, perhaps this could mark a move into calling the second game of the Monday Night Football opening week doubleheader sometime down the road.

[Oakland Raiders]