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by Jim Sarni
The Fox TV executives grilled her with sports questions until they were convinced she knew her stuff.
Still, there was one problem.
"About your name," said one of the suits. "Tiffany ... it's a bit fluffy for football. We'll need to change your name. What do you think of Jill?"
And so, Jill Arrington, sideline reporter, was born.
"My mom was a little upset. `What, they don't like your name?'" said the former University of Miami tennis player who works more TV football games than anyone -- Arena Football for TNN, NCAA and NFL for CBS. "I was happy to get the job. I think of Jill as my stage name."
Tiffany Arrington knew about playing a new character from all the high school plays she appeared in when she wasn't playing sports growing up in Conyers, Ga.
At UM, she was a theater minor along with majors in broadcast journalism and political science.
"I went to UM because it had a great broadcast school and a great football team," said Arrington, whose father Rick played quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1970-73. "Our family came to Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach every summer on vacation, so I liked the area. If I had gone to the University of Georgia, where my father played, I would have been `Rick's girl.'"
Arrington found her calling as soon as she started working at the campus cable TV station.
"I liked playing sports and acting, but once I got a feel for broadcasting I knew that was what I wanted to do for a career," she said.
After graduation, Arrington got her first job working as a reporter and producer on Main Floor, a Miami Beach-based syndicated fashion and health show. She moved to Los Angeles five years later and got her sports break when Fox saw her tape.
From supermodels on the runways of Paris and Milan to superstars on NFL sidelines, Arrington's baptism of fire came during a 1999 Dolphins-Patriots game in Foxboro.
"J.B. [James Brown] and Terry [Bradshaw] are introducing themselves in my earpiece and I learn that Dan Marino just hurt his shoulder," Arrington said. "That threw everything off. It's my first game, I'm nervous. I'm looking in the camera, wondering if I can do this."
Arrington didn't flinch and networks started calling. TNN hired her for Arena Football last spring, and CBS took her away from Fox with double duty on college and pro football last fall. Arrington spent 40 consecutive weekends on the road during one stretch.
"It's still so new so I want to work as much as I can," said Arrington, who is expected to mix in some tennis reporting at the U.S. Open before the NCAA and NFL seasons begin. "I really want to be good at what I do. It's a lot of work, but it's fun."
Arrington, 28, had the most fun watching her alma mater upset Florida State at the Orange Bowl last year.
"I'm going to miss the UM games [CBS dropped the Big East this year]," she said. "The producers had a bet that I would call the 'Canes `we' last year but I stayed neutral. Although I did wear a green shirt on one telecast."