Kay Adams Knows How to Make Game Day Into a Fashion Moment

Joshua Martin

If there’s anyone who knows how to perfectly blend fashion and football, it’s sportscaster Kay Adams.

For example, there was her perfectly on-trend and seasonally appropriate fire-engine-red dress that she wore to host the NFL Christmas GameDay Live show last year. The dress caught everyone’s attention and went instantly viral, something that Adams tells Glamour she did not see coming.

“I wanted to wear pants.… And then I was like, Do I want to be red?” remembers Adams. “Because you think about those things like, Do I want to be so Christmas-y? We just tried it on and it got no tailoring, and it worked.… I definitely questioned it a little bit and I thought, Maybe I’ll be more comfortable in pants.… But yeah, it popped off. It was a cool moment.”

Adams hosted Good Morning Football on the NFL Network from 2016 to 2022, and then left the show to start her program Up & Adams, which airs from Monday to Friday at 11 a.m. ET on FanDuel TV and YouTube. She chatted with Glamour on the morning of Super Bowl LIX about her approach to game-day styling.

Glamour: We are loving all the fashion coming out of Super Bowl weekend so far. What’s your style philosophy?

Kay Adams: I love versatility. I like to throw a haymaker in there once in a while and put on a really feminine outfit for a red carpet. I love to be tailored. Tailoring is really important to me. I love an interesting pant, an interesting detail. I like an inverted denim look. Or a JW Anderson pant that has a pocket that an NFL Hall of Famer is going to be like, What are you putting in there? It’s a conversation starter.

I like to look professional, but I like to have fun and also not take myself that seriously. I don’t even know if those two things oppose each other, but it works for me.

Well, I think one of the coolest things about this era of sports broadcasting is people are changing the definition of what “professional” dressing is. Women like yourself (and men) are having fun with fashion and not sticking to any rulebook.

Yeah. I do like variety. So for my show looks this week, I wanted potentially a dress and then I wanted one denim outfit, and then I wanted something from a Marni or a JW Anderson that would just be a little more tailored and put together. And I am five feet tall and I’m chasing these NFL players around for quotes, so I need at least a five-inch heel. So that has to work into the equation as well.

There seems like there’s been a huge influx of fashion in sports, especially football, these past few years. What have you observed?

There’s so much: social media, red carpets, brand deals. We’re seeing athletes and talent and personality around the NFL.… Everybody cares what everybody’s wearing. I think it has been a really nice way to have us all be able to express ourselves. Even on my show, it’ll be: Who had the best outfit getting on a flight? It’s a conversation starter.

Who’s your vote for best-dressed athlete for the 2024-2025 season?

I would say Geno Smith [the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks] is my favorite. I know he just takes a lot of time on it, and he also has a lot of range. Sometimes he’ll throw a suit in there, then sometimes it’ll be a sweatsuit. And I just really, I like how he styles himself. I think he’s undervalued for his style sense.

Do you have any advice for dressing for game day as a fan?

Comfortable shoes. You can wear heels, I do it all the time, but that’s probably my biggest thing. I got down on my knees thankful when I got to wear boots this week. Boots versus heels. As for advice…don’t lose your ankle straps. I walked out yesterday, we had a mile walk to where I needed to be. There was a parade in the middle of it, and I had my heels in my hand and my Tom Ford strap went right down the shaft. So then I was just really glad that my feet were so swollen that they actually didn’t come out of the shoe, and it all worked out the way it was supposed to.

That is tragic! Your poor shoe. You have such an impressive career in a male-dominated industry. What have you observed since you started?

I think the biggest difference I see now from when I started my career is that there’s a lot more women. The network matters so much. Men have had a built-in network for a very long time. So now to see the support and the connectivity…I think social media has something to do with that. It used to be that I, even in my Good Morning Football days, which is not that long ago, you didn’t really get to see other women because there’s one woman on each show. It’s very rare to have multiple women on a football set.

Netflix, for example, was an amazing experience for me this year because it was this huge moment on Christmas Day, and it was me and amazing NFL analysts and one of them was a woman, Mina Kimes. I can’t say that I’ve ever had that. So that to me was a huge step in the right direction.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To see all of Glamour’s Super Bowl LIX coverage, click here.

Originally Appeared on Glamour