For Rebecca Lowe, the dynamic studio host of NBC’s Premier League coverage and the recent World Cup coverage on FOX, there is nothing better than talking about the global game.
But between the time of the World Cup final on July 19 and the start of the EPL season this weekend, Lowe decided to take some well-deserved time off and, in the process, shock her husband and 10-year-old son by toiling for hours in her new hobby: boogieboarding. It is much more dangerous than her other guilty pleasure, watching "trashy reality TV," but equally as fun.
The waters of the coast of Del Mar in Southern California were no match for when Lowe hit the seas.
“My husband could not believe his eyes because most women of my age, we don't like to go underwater. He doesn't
have hair to wash,” Lowe told USA TODAY Sports. “We've got a whole situation going on here. So, I think a little bit of an LA Olympics 2028 boogie boarding could be in my future. Even though that's not an Olympic sport.”
Whether it was her documented misadventures in trying to get to the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, or the comical banter between the World Cup analysts, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas, Lowe’s calm, steady approach to the job and in life in general is a breath of fresh air in the constant world of media criticism.
While viewers saw the “drama” and uncomfortable tension between Ibrahimović and Lalas, Lowe says it was funny, but it never got as serious as the perception that the two would ultimately come to blows if the ribbing continued.
“A lot of the stuff that was written wasn't true,” Lowe said. “There was no beef to talk about. They’re friends, you know, they are pals. Would they go out for a drink together? Sure, yeah, they would. I mean, are they best friends? No, that’s fine, we were witty, everyone got on board, and it was kind of funny and a little weird to be in the middle of this."
There was drama of another sort when Lowe had an issue getting to that World Cup final, from a set in Brooklyn Bridge Park to MetLife Stadium for the game, which started with a ferry ride, to a car, and a 30-minute helicopter ride that circled the Hudson River and the East River, and a police escort that could rival what most professional teams receive. Lowe and her crew made it to the stadium with about 25 minutes to spare before the final between Argentina and Spain.
When asked on a scale of one to 10 how afraid she was that she would not make the broadcast on time, Lowe said, “probably only a 2 or a 3.”
“I was more worried that we would just, I knew we would get there, but it was a question of ... you know, at what point would we get there? But we got there, and all was well, and it was a great story," she said. "It was certainly one of those moments where you just thought I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life.”
Premier League: Can Arsenal repeat?
This season, which starts Aug. 21, coincides with NBC’s coverage starting at 2 p.m. ET from Emirates Stadium in London as the EPL defending champions Arsenal host Coventry City (3 p.m. ET, USA Network and Universo). Lowe and her co-hosts for Premier League Live, Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe, and Tim Howard, will be on-site in England the entire weekend.
The teams in the English Premier League are chasing Arsenal, who vanquished a two-decade championship drought by winning the league by seven points over Manchester City. Lowe says she thinks it would be hard for the Gunners to run it back and repeat. No team has won back-to-back EPL titles since Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City squad ran off the last of their four-peat during the 2023–24 season.
“Doing it again, not only because you've got to dig in and find that hunger that is a different type of hunger, a kind of hunger that these players have never had before because they've never won it before,” Lowe said. “Now they've got a sort of dig in. The target is on their back even more so. They didn't play brilliantly last season, so everybody else was going to be doubling down to try and beat them.”
But Manchester City and Manchester United, who finished second and third, could be there at the end. In May, Guardiola stepped down as manager of City after 10 years, and Enzo Maresca, who previously managed Leicester City and Chelsea, was hired to fill those enormous shoes.
“I think the question is that City is a really good team, but are they a great team? It looks like they're going to lose Rodri, and that would be a huge departure for them,” Lowe said. “They have got Elliot Anderson, who is the England star from the World Cup, one of the top players for England at the World Cup. But they've got Erling Haaland, so you know, obviously, you never write off any team with Erling Haaland."
While Lowe doesn’t think a team will emerge from nowhere to compete for the championship, she does believe Tottenham Hotspur could make strides. They finished 17th in the standings last season but made big-money acquisitions, including Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, to strengthen their midfield.
“They could actually surprise everybody and go from 17th to the Champions League,” Lowe said. “And there are still a few weeks left in the transfer market, so I would say Spurs could be a bit of a dark horse for a really good teaser.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rebecca Lowe talks World Cup, makes Premier League predictions
