(By Tracee Hamilton, Washington Post, 10 January 2012)
Thank
goodness the PC police took down that filthy Brent Musburger. At 73, he’s
clearly past the age limit at which you can compliment a young, beautiful
woman. We all know that’s, um, well, I have no idea. But apparently there is a
limit. Old geezers can marry young women, but whatever you do, don’t say
they’re beautiful. During Monday night’s
national championship game, Musburger had the temerity to call the 23-year-old
girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron – who also happens to be Miss
Alabama – “a beautiful woman” and suggested that youngsters in Alabama start
throwing a football around with their dads, implying, I suppose, that they
should all aspire to be quarterbacks so they can all get girlfriends that
beautiful. It was a weak joke, perhaps, but it’s hardly offensive.
Kudos to
Katherine Webb and her parents, who refused to get worked up about the entire
kerfuffle. Personally, I’ve read and re-read the quotes, and I don’t understand
the outrage. Yet ESPN felt it necessary to issue this statement: “We apologize
that the commentary in this instance went too far, and Brent understands that.” Does he? Well, he’s one up on me. How did the
commentary go too far but the camera work did not? If the camera continues to
linger on the beautiful girlfriend in the stands, what exactly is Musburger —
who is there to comment on what you, the viewer, is seeing — supposed to say?
He has game notes on the players, but beyond saying she was a former Miss
Alabama, he doesn’t have a lot of talking points to work with.
All the
networks are guilty of too many pointless shots of wives, girlfriends and
parents during games. Wimbledon telecasts may be the worst offenders, what with
the Royals in the stands and the very attractive wives/girlfriends of the
players. That’s right, I said it. They’re “very attractive.” (Editor’s note:
The Washington Post apologizes for this commentary, and Tracee understands
that.) Oddly, we seldom see the “good-looking” — another of Musburger’s
offensive phrases — boyfriends of the female athletes.
Musburger
has been in the broadcast booth since the days when very few sporting events
were televised. He was among the very first announcers I heard as a kid. I
don’t recall him ever making an inappropriate remark. I think his age is catching
up with him — as it does with all of us — but I didn’t see anything offensive
in what he said. An older gentleman commented on a pageant queen’s looks, but
he didn’t do it in a creepy way. If he said, “Boy, I’d like some of that,” then
fire him. But he didn’t. He didn’t even come close to that.
Commercials
during game broadcasts are far more offensive than anything Musburger said. For
example, during the Redskins-Cowboys game two weeks ago, we were treated to a
commercial for the remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” followed
immediately by a tight shot of a McRib being lifted out of a pool of barbecue
sauce in a McDonald’s ad. Ugh. Most horror movie promos should not be viewed by
children, but then again, I still have nightmares over “The Ghost and Mr.
Chicken.” And don’t get me started on the
hypocrisy of the willingness to make money peddling erectile dysfunction
medication, but the unwillingness to let a 73-year-old say that a beautiful
woman is, in fact, beautiful. Maybe if Musburger and Webb had sat in adjoining
bathtubs, that would have made it okay.
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