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.

–WSJ.

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.

Brent Musburger, in my opinion, is at a point in his career where he probably has more latitude to express his candor on certain things that the rest of the traditional sports media may not.

“I’ve had somebody say that, you know, steroids should be banned because they’re not healthy for you,” he told the students Tuesday. “Let’s go find out. What do the doctors actually think about anabolic steroids and the use by athletes? Don’t have a preconceived notion that this is right or this is wrong.”

Musburger said negative stories about steroids are mainly the fault of “journalism youngsters out there covering sports (who) got too deeply involved in something they didn’t know too much about.” –The AP.

PREACH. ON. Look, I’m not saying steroids are great, or even ethical, but the stigma that steroids have in the sporting world and in the media today is just insane. Steroids have been used as a conduit, in my opinion, for certain sportswriters to carry out whatever agendae they choose against whomever they choose. Barry Bonds. Brian Cushing. Marion Jones. Whoever. I don’t really care about steroids in big sports, just as long as somebody finally nails Lance Armstrong. The only thing worse than hearing about steroids is hearing about cycling…

ESPN’s Brent Musburger is 70 years old, but he still does a decent job at calling a college football or basketball game, provided that you also are 70 and have difficulty hearing the hyperbole and fellating that comes from someone that you’d expect to know better. But anyway, he was asked about Bob Knight, who’s now a college basketball analyst for that network, and Musburger relayed this charming little anecdote:

I was in practice one day and Landon Turner, who had been paralyzed in a car accident, was there. Bob stopped practice and just tore into him. He ripped him up and I was like, “Whoa.” I guess Landon missed an English class if I recall, and that was the result of the tirade.

So that night Bob and I went out to dinner and I said, “Coach, sitting there I winced and I was little uncomfortable when you turned your fire on Landon. Tell me about that?”

He said, “Brent, I promised his mother that he would get his degree when he came back after he was paralyzed and I’m going make sure he goes to class and get his degree. But by doing that, he feels that he is still a little part of the team because he knows direct fire at players in practice.” It was a moment of honesty. –Richard Deitsch, SI.com.

Of course, Knight couldn’t do that anymore because student-athletes can’t be “abused” like that anymore. What’s the point of even having a coach around if kids are just going to do what they want? And really, people in wheelchairs should be yelled at more often. What, ARE YOU JUST GOING TO SIT AROUND ALL DAY? Maybe that’s a bad example.

Ugh.  I wanted to avoid this video, because I hate Zapruder films where people just film what's on their TV screen.  I can't watch one of these without picturing some blogger sitting really close to his TV with a digital video camera, then me breaking a chair over his head.

But what do you know, it's Friday, I don't care, and nobody else got better video.  So here's Erin Andrews giving a sideline report during chants of "Er-in! An-drews!" followed by Brent Musburger and Steve Lavin being fucking retarded.  Lavin actually says that Andrews is a bigger rock star than the Beatles.  Dude needs some hyperbole classes from Bill Walton.

[Brahsome via Awful Announcing]