It has been nearly two days since ESPN’s Brent Musburger blurted “This is for all the Tostitos” at the end of Monday night’s BCS title game, but I’m still pretty miffed about it, and I’d imagine most of you are as well. Musburger already has said that he wasn’t paid to do it, which really makes this even more unforgivable.
Mr. Musburger’s closing-seconds phrase immediately lit up the Internet. ESPN and Frito-Lay said they had nothing to do with the play-by-play man’s product mention, though a Frito-Lay rep told USA Today the company was “delighted.”
There was a predictable fury about Mr. Musburger’s word choice, accusations that he sullied the drama of a game by naming a sponsor that was in every advertisement, every official product, the logo at midfield…and the jersey of every player on the field.
Yeah, they sponsored the game. Fine. Yes, we’ve had ads dropped into play-by-play before. Those are tolerable. But nobody has ever jammed an ad into the climactic point of a game. Between this and his stupid “Cinderella lives” comment after Boise State beat Virginia Tech to open the season, it’s time for him to go.
I don’t understand why ESPN feels like college football is best served by a 71-year-old man who embodies that senile great-grandparent whom we visit out of spite just because they have nobody else left but really needs to just die already. Um, I meant “get fired already.” No calls to violence here, you know, because if he actually did die then it would be totally my fault.
