AJ McCarron jokes about Brent Musburger: "He's going to have to step back next time"
Who would have thought Katherine Webb would have been the most talked about individual emerging from this year's BCS National Championship Game? The girlfriend of Alabama QB A.J. McCarron and Miss Alabama was shown during the first half and quickly became the story of the game as Brent Musburger waxed poetically about her beauty.
Brent & Herbie's excitement over Webb was a distraction from an otherwise hideous game. But as the clip went viral, Musburger's admiration in particular took a strange turn. ESPN went as far as to publicly apologize for the comments saying Musburger went "too far." (Which begs the question as to why the network didn't apologize for putting her on screen repeatedly or included Kirk Herbstreit in the apology. Also, what about ESPN pumping out articles about Webb getting noticed? If you really want to get deep in this analysis, is it solely an age factor that has created this huge rush of attention towards Musburger?)
Sure it was a little awkward, perhaps even over-the-top, but Brent's admiration for Webb didn't seem to be enough of an issue to warrant such serious public scrutiny and a public reprimand. After all, if ESPN had to apologize for Musburger's comments on Webb... what about his stalking of the Honey Badger in last year's BCS title game? That was way more overboard than anything he said about Webb.
The people with the best perspective on this just happen to be Katherine Webb and A.J. McCarron. Webb appeared on the Today Show this morning and gracefully defended Musburger calling the apology unnecessary. McCarron appeared on Waddle & Silvy on ESPN 1000 in Chicago Tuesday morning and had fun with the story as well. The short interview is worth a listen in its entirety, but at the 4:30 mark the hosts play the audio of Musburger's commentary for the Alabama QB for the first time. McCarron's reaction is pitch perfect:
"I love those two guys, they're always very helpful to me and giving me a lot of insight. I really do like them, but I'm going to have to tell Musburger he's going to have to step back next time."
[Waddle & Silvy, ESPN Chicago]
Musburger stated the obvious, and his network feels compelled to apologize? For what? Miss Webb is a beauty queen for crying out loud. Since when is it a crime to admire the looks of a beauty queen? Two things to take from this. #1, Musburger may be old, but he ain't blind and #2, ESPN;s suits need to get a life.
I have yet to get tired of the picture. Please feel free to continue covering this important story.
Incredible overreaction - did this really warrant an apology? It's not like Musburger was terribly out of line. And like they said, where was the apology for Herbie? Or the personal camera man she seemed to have been assigned. This reminded me of the the year Ohio St and Notre Dame played and they kept showing Brady Quinn's sister because she was engaged to AJ Hawk. Now THAT, I thought, was some over the line coverage.
only at espn are they more concerned with who the bama qb is sleeping with instead of the game itself.
remember during the spurs finals. the espn/abc analysts would devote more time breaking down eva longoria than the actual finals.
This whole thing has made me think about what it would be like at a bar with Brent. I can only imagine. "I'd like to be looking live at her." "I'd like to reach the top of her hour." "I'd like to eat all the Tostitos out of her Fiesta Bowl." Etc.
