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Brent Musburger has said he “never had a bad day” in his 27 years at ESPN, but that was before he started his new gig with less corporate regulation on his favorite taboo topics: gambling and women.
The iconic sports broadcaster launched his new career three weeks ago with the Vegas Stats & Information Network, offering a daily, two-hour talk show to gambling enthusiasts after leaving ESPN on Feb. 1. “My Guys in the Desert” gives Musburger, and co-host Al Bernstein, the freedom to discuss his true passion, a subject that wasn’t always welcome during ESPN’s nationally televised games.
“I came to believe that the professional sports bettors and bookmakers are the most knowledgeable sports fans in the country,” Musburger said, in a Washington Post feature published Tuesday, of the time he was introduced to sports wagering in his early broadcasting days at CBS. “I love sitting around talking to them.”
There was a time when higher-ups would rebuke Musburger for referencing point spreads during games. Sixteen years after moving from CBS to ESPN, Musburger learned that lesson the hard way, getting pulled into a “back room” and taken “to the woodshed” for announcing the over/under on the 2006 Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Notre Dame.
Leaving ESPN has meant leaving the constraints of a company owned by family-friendly Disney. Before his infamous, repeated defenses of former Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, who was suspended his freshman season for punching a woman in the face, Musburger took heat for cooing over Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron’s then-girlfriend, Katharine Webb, during the 2013 national championship game. He regularly and unapologetically admired women — remember Jenn Sterger? — and gave his thoughts on their beauty.
After Monday’s radio show, the 77-year-old offered an off-hand remark on the joy of leaving behind the scrutiny of the Worldwide Leader.
“It’s great working for a group that, when I see a beautiful woman, I can call her a beautiful woman,” he said with a laugh, via the Washington Post.
Musburger is apparently now free to comment publicly on women’s looks and point spreads. Although ESPN and other major networks eased up on gambling talk as professional leagues began to embrace it, when Musburger’s nephew suggested he become the face of a show, streamed on several platforms including SiriusXM, dedicated to the pastime, he jumped at the opportunity — even after signing an extension with ESPN in 2016.
“He knew my weak spot,” Musburger said of his nephew, Brian. “The truth of the matter is, I was gonna move to Vegas, anyway.”
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