In a pretty in-depth piece over at RANDBALL, Michael Rand explores the latest explosion & controversy regarding Erin Andrews‘ recent conversion from news reporter to actual news story herself, and gets a nice quote from Andrews herself in the process. In short: Erin Andrews doesn’t want your attention.

Rand begins with a brief summary of the outrage, starting with the recent print hit job by Mike Nadel for the GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE and the ensuing explosion on the blogosphere.

Andrews’ reaction to the Nadel piece, and our own exploration of the phenomenon, after the jump.

From RANDBALL:

“I think my overall reaction is that it’s really sad that in 2008 … I have people watching every single move I make,” Andrews said. “When there’s a big game between the Cubs and Brewers going on, it’s sad that that’s what their focus is on. … And the last thing I had heard is that when you want to do a story on someone, you contact them.”

It’s tough not to see Andrews’ point of view: She’s an attractive woman in a profession that is not only populated by 99% men, but big burly manly men who think of any woman in any setting as easy prey. Kinda like Mad Men, but on a much larger scale. For her to have risen to the heights that she has deserves a decent amount of respect and admiration.

On the other hand, if the following section in Nadel’s column is to be believed, than perhaps she’s just the Paris Hilton of sports-reporting, falling back on her ample God-given gifts instead of doing actual work:

Still, the Brewers’ claims of being unaffected by this series’ results were as unbelievable as Erin Andrews’ work clothes. “Good for you, Rammie,” Andrews said three hours before the game, bending forward to shake Aramis Ramirez’s hand. “Good for you.” Ramirez, who had three doubles in the Cubs’ 7-1 victory the previous night, sheepishly accepted Andrews’ congratulations. She didn’t ask him any questions because he was sitting on the players-only sofa; she seemingly just wanted to show “Rammie” her support. Weird. Moments later, the blonde reporter was chatting with Alfonso Soriano. At one point, she placed her hand suggestively on Soriano’s left bicep. “Hey, hey, hey! Look at this!” [Lou] Piniella said, loudly and excitedly. “Are you doing a baseball game today or a modeling assignment?”

(To be fair, Andrews disputes the above claims in the Rand piece: “*On Soriano, Andrews said she touched his hand, not his bicep, and was trying to gauge where the bone was that he broke earlier this year.”)

If that is how she’s getting her interviews, then she’s made her bed (so to speak) and now she has to sleep in it. There are times when a female using her sexuality to get a story is a worthwhile thing (for example: getting Joe Torre to finally admit where he hid Jimmy Hoffa’s body), but if it’s just a matter of getting athletes to give her their standard post-game quotes before anyone else, then it’s just being lazy.

We’re not going to take a side here (We report, You decide!) but it’s worth pointing out that for someone who doesn’t want the story to be about her, Andrews isn’t exactly shunning the cameras. If she was so anti-people looking at her, she would have chosen a less TV-friendly profession. Say, a sports blogger.

The main thing to take away from all of this is, as Rand points out, Erin Andrews isn’t going away anytime soon, especially in the sports blogosphere.

Not when you can get post a photo of her eating a sandwich and get 142,000 page views.