Oops, he did it again … but on probably on purpose this time.
Brent Musburger, who came in for some criticism and brought an apology from his employer after his enthusiastic remarks last week about Alabama QB A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend, Katherine Webb, appeared to make another comment about a woman’s looks Monday night at the end of his broadcast of the Kansas-Baylor basketball game.
This time it was a colleague, reporter Holly Rowe.
“Once again, your final score, Kansas 61, Baylor 44,” Musburger said. “Coming up next, SportsCenter. For Fran Franschilla and Holly Rowe, who was really smokin’ tonight, I want to say ‘so long from Lawrence.’”
ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told USA Today that Musburger’s signoff had been misinterpreted and that the announcer actually said “it” was really smokin’ tonight.
It’s not clear, however, why Musburger would have said that. The game was a mismatch, with Kansas winning 61-44, and both teams shot poorly: Baylor made 23 percent from the floor, and Kansas shot 37.7 percent. Hardly smokin’.
In any case, Musburger did get some support over the weekend from the runner-up in the Miss America pageant, who was asked about his remarks about Webb during the interview portion of the pageant.
“As a football fan, and as someone who would like to be featured not so much on the stage but at a football game, I think (Musburger) has every right to point out (Webb’s) beauty,” Ali Rogers said. “She is, in fact, gorgeous, and I think this is something that we can display not only on the Miss America stage but, hey, at a football game, too.”
ESPN apologized for Musburger’s comments about Webb, made during the BCS National Championship Game, and Musburger said his comments went “too far.”
“You quarterbacks, you get all the good looking women,” Musburger said to colleague Kirk Herbstreit, as ESPN’s cameras focused on Webb in the stands. “What a beautiful woman.”
Webb herself defended Musburger during an appearance on NBC’s “Today.”
“I don’t think [the apology] was needed, honestly. Of course I appreciate it, but at the same time I don’t think I needed an apology,” she said. “I think the media has been really unfair to [Musburger] … the fact that he said that we were beautiful and gorgeous, I don’t see why any woman wouldn’t be flattered by that.”
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