Brent Musburger: I was made into ‘villain’ over Katherine Webb comments
Nearly a decade later, and Brent Musburger can remember the aftermath following his viral Katherine Webb comments at the 2013 BCS National Championship Game as if it were yesterday.
During an appearance on “The Shamrock” podcast this week, Musburger, 83, joked about how his remarks over the then-girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron “took all the heat off” his pal and former Notre Dame coach, Brian Kelly, whose Fighting Irish were decimated by the Crimson Tide, 42-14.
“Coach Kelly, who I know very well now down at LSU, having left Notre Dame, I still tease him that when he got blown out by Alabama in that national championship game, I took all the heat off him because I called a beauty queen beautiful,” Musburger said.
“I was the villain that night, in the eyes of the media, especially the woke journalists of some of the papers around the country. I say, ‘Coach, you’d have been under the gun if it wasn’t for me.’ He laughs. He’s a good old politician, we’ll see what he does.”
Webb, now 33, made headlines during the Jan. 2013 broadcast when Musburger gushed over the former Miss Alabama.
“When you’re a quarterback at Alabama, you see that lovely lady there?” Musburger said on the broadcast. “She does go to Auburn but she also is Miss Alabama and that’s A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. … You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman. Wow.”
Although ESPN issued an apology for Musburger’s on-air commentary, Webb told The Post in 2013 that an apology wasn’t necessary.
“A.J. knows [Musburger] personally, and he’s had a very respectable career as a reporter. He just said some nice things about me. I agreed that he didn’t need to apologize,” she said.
Webb, who later married McCarron, with whom she shares three children, also addressed the widely seen moment in an Instagram Story this past February, when she implored critics to back off Musburger.
At the time, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit alum was asked by a fan if she and Musburger had crossed paths.
“I haven’t but we have exchanged friendly statements thru separate interviews,” Webb replied. “Listen leave that man alone he didn’t do nuthin wrong LOL.”