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Criticizing the broadcasters: Vols, Cats fans call Musburger drunk and more

Nick Cole

By Nick Cole

Published:

It was Halloween night and Tennessee was on the prowl.

But in spite of dominating Kentucky to the tune of a 52-21 victory, many of the Tennessee faithful were focused on what was going on in the booth in Lexington, where Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer were calling the game for the SEC Network.

PAST CRITICIZING THE BROADCASTERS: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 |Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8

More specifically, they were citing speech patterns, mispronunciations and offhand comments as a reason to accuse Musburger, who is now 76 years old, as perhaps being a little less than sober on Saturday night.

That’s an accusation not to be taken lightly.

It may stem from mistakes like Dak “Preston” and “domintated” during the broadcast, which are captured here:

https://twitter.com/RaineyVol/status/660936798705721344

But it wasn’t just one of the viewers saying this. It’s like they all coordinated their efforts to accuse the veteran broadcaster on Saturday night. Even some Kentucky fans were asking questions. Odd, to say the least.

Take a look at some highlights from Twitter from Saturday night:

https://twitter.com/RogerEly/status/660622848260767745

https://twitter.com/Hardie_Sorrels4/status/660623793577177088

https://twitter.com/JacksonLatta/status/660624425969152000

https://twitter.com/parezcoydigo/status/660625637649043456

‘Uncle Verne’ talks old school

What makes the “Uncle Verne” character so great is that he really does say things that your great uncle might say at Thanksgiving in a few weeks.

Lundquist dropped a couple of lines during the CBS broadcast of Georgia and Florida that raised some eyebrows:

Thanks a lot, Brian Griese

This may seem like a minor infraction, but there’s nothing worse than an announcer ruining a good trivia question.

Ole Miss and Auburn fans were cheated during Saturday’s SEC telecast:

And that wasn’t the only thing the former Michigan quarterback did to upset viewers.

Just look at this scathing review:

https://twitter.com/walter_lewellyn/status/660532183166251008

Criticizing the critics

Now, if you’ll indulge me, we’re going to flip the script a bit on criticizing the broadcasters.

It is time that the SEC fans take some heat for their criticism of the CBS broadcast team.

Each week, no matter what the matchup may be, there are fans from both teams Tweeting about how much Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson hate their team.

For example, here is a snippet of what I ran across during last week’s Florida vs. Georgia game on CBS:

https://twitter.com/ellisjuan350/status/660547778267975680

These Tweets were sent within two minutes of each other. TWO MINUTES.

Now I’m not saying there isn’t a mass conspiracy by Lunquist and Danielson put together to ensure that you all get offended by their treatment of your favorite team. I’m just saying it’s far more likely that you’re just super excited about your team playing in the league’s showcase game, and perhaps you’re a little oversensitive to any comment that could be construed as criticism of your team on the national stage.

To put it another way: There are many, many things to criticize the broadcasters for, but them purposely hating on your team probably isn’t one of them.

Nick Cole

Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.

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