Bad call by Musburger
Broadcaster needs to go after defending Mixon
Brent Musburger once was a very good sports broadcaster. He sensed and captured the moment as well as anyone of his era. As someone who has known Musburger for many years through our alma mater, North- western, I always appreciated his contributions to the big event. If Brent was there, you wanted to be there, too.
Today, sadly, Musburger no longer is that man. Monday night on the Sugar Bowl broadcast, he repeatedly and aggressively minimized a college football player’s brutal attack on a woman, a punch so devastating it broke four bones in her face.
Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon’s assault on Amelia Molitor in the summer of 2014 was captured on video and has been seen hundreds of thousands of times online. One would hope that just hearing the news about this appalling act of violence would be enough to bring condemnation from a play-by-play man when it came time to discuss Mixon’s extracurricular activities, but Musburger had more information than that. He had the video.
Excuse me if I break out a fa-
miliar phrase: You are looking live, Brent, at one of the worst things a college football player has ever done.
And this is what you did: After calling the video “very troubling to see,” you charged right into the kind of full-throated defense of Mixon one would have expected from his attorney.
“We’ve talked to the coaches,” he said. “They all swear that the young man is doing fine. … Folks, he is just one of the best, and let’s hope, given a second chance by Bob Stoops and Oklahoma, let’s hope that this young man makes the most of his chance and goes on to have a career in the National Football League.”
There was no mention of Molitor — how she’s doing, if she’s OK, what her own career might be like. There was no tirade against the scourge of violence against women. There was no discussion of whether Mixon should even have been on the field in our post-Ray Rice world.
No, it was all football, all boys will be boys, all business as usual. The man who used to know exactly the right thing to say at the right time was embarrassingly out of his element. After hours of preparation, the 77year-old Musburger was still so unprepared that he addressed a vital 21st-century issue the only way he could, with a 1950s answer.
There was only one thing to think at that moment. Brent, it’s time to go.
But then along came a second chance. The social media outrage over Musburger’s comments was so overwhelming that he came back in the third quarter to give it another try. He obviously hadn’t had time himself to see the reaction, but he was told that there was trouble.
Even then, if he truly didn’t know what to do, he had the vast public relations safety net of ESPN ready and waiting. The public relations people simply could have written a sincere apology for him to read on the air. Broadcasters like Musburger read canned copy all the time to promote upcoming games and thank their advertisers. This would have been an easy fix. But no. Musburger came out with guns blazing.
“Apparently, some people were very upset when I wished this young man well at the next level,” he said. “Let me make something perfectly clear. What he did with that young lady was brutal, uncalled for. He’s apologized. He was tearful. He got a second chance. He got a second chance from Bob Stoops. I happen to pull for people with second chances, OK? Let me make it absolutely clear that I hope he has a wonderful career and he teaches people with that brutal, violent video. OK? Second downand-9.”
Musburger’s combative tone was stunning. He made it crystal clear: This was all about protect- ing the young man, not the young lady. Musburger had no time for you people out there who care about violence against women. Second down-and-9.
There’s a pattern here that should concern ESPN far more than it apparently has so far. During the national college football championship game in January 2013, Musburger couldn’t stop himself from praising the looks of Katherine Webb, the then-girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron. The comments were embarrassing and totally out of place, and ESPN later apologized.
A week later, Musburger was at it again, saying that a fellow ESPN staffer, reporter Holly Rowe, was “really smoking.”
This is a sad column for me to write. I emceed Musburger’s induction into our Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement several years ago. I like him and care about him. I tried to reach him for this column through ESPN’s PR people but never heard back from him.
If he can’t make this decision himself, then ESPN needs to make it for him. It’s time.
FOLLOW COLUMNIST CHRISTINE BRENNAN @cbrennansports to keep up with all the latest sports issues.
The man who used to know exactly the right thing to say at the right time was embarrassingly out of his element.