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Brent Musburger | |
|---|---|
 Musburger atCassell Coliseum in 2007 | |
| Born | Brent Woody Musburger (1939-05-26)May 26, 1939 (age 86) Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Family | Todd Musburger (brother) |
Brent Woody Musburger (born May 26, 1939) is an Americansportscaster, currently the lead broadcaster and managing editor atVegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN).
WithCBS Sports from 1973 until 1990, he was the original host of their programThe NFL Today and is credited with coining the phrase "March Madness" to describe theNCAA Division I men's basketball tournament while covering theFinal Four. While at CBS, Musburger also covered theSuper Bowl,NBA Finals, theWorld Series,U.S. Open tennis,The Masters andcollege football, includingHail Flutie andCatholics vs. Convicts.
JoiningESPN andABC Sports in 1990, Musburger continued to cover the NBA Finals, as well as hostingMonday Night Football and providing play-by-play forSaturday Night Football and theSEC Network. He covered theIndianapolis 500 motor race,U.S. Open andBritish Open golf, theFIFA World Cup in soccer, theBelmont Stakes in horse racing, theRose Bowl and theCollege Football national championship among other big events. In January 2017, he left theESPN andABC television networks after 27 years, briefly retiring from play-by-play of live sports before returning as the play-by-play voice of theLas Vegas Raiders from 2018 until 2022.
Raised inBillings, Montana,[1][2] he is a member of the Montana Broadcaster's Association Hall of Fame.[3]
Musburger was born inPortland, Oregon, and raised inBillings, Montana, the son of Beryl Ruth (Woody) and Cec Musburger.[4][5] His brother,Todd Musburger, is a prominent sports agent.
His love of sports began as a boy, where he playedLittle League Baseball and was a boyhood friend of formerMajor League pitcherDave McNally. He also sold programs atBillings Mustangs games in the late 1940s and early 50s.[6]
Musburger's youth included some brushes with trouble: when he was 12, he and his brother stole a car belonging to their mother's cleaning lady and took it for a joy ride. His parents sent him to theShattuck-St. Mary's School inFaribault, Minnesota.[5] Educated atNorthwestern University'sMedill School of Journalism, he was kicked out for a year for owning and operating a car without a license.[5]
Around this time, Musburger was aminor league baseball umpire in the Class-DMidwest League for the 1959 season. While previously reported that Musburger was the home plate umpire when future MLB All-Star andFord C. Frick Award winnerTim McCarver made his professional baseball debut that summer for theKeokuk Cardinals, the story is apocryphal. However, Musburger did umpire games of McCarver's later in that season.[7]
Musburger began his career as asportswriter for the now-defunctChicago American newspaper, where his editor was sportswriterWarren Brown. In 1968, Musburger penned a column regardingTommie Smith andJohn Carlos's protest ofracial injustice in the United States witha Black Power salute on the medal stand during the1968 Summer Olympics. In it he stated "Smith and Carlos looked like a couple of black-skinned storm troopers" who were "ignoble," "juvenile," and "unimaginative". In a 1999 article inThe New York Times, Musburger stated that comparing the two to theNazis was "harsh", but he stood by his criticism of the pair's action:
Did [Smith and Carlos' action] improve anything? ... Smith and Carlos aside, I object to using the Olympic awards stand to make a political statement.[8]
According to Carlos, Musburger never apologized:
We are talking about someone who compared us to Nazis. Think about that. Here we are standing up to apartheid and to a man in Avery Brundage who delivered the Olympics to Hitler's Germany. And here's Musburger calling us Nazis. That got around. It followed us. It hurt us. It hurt my wife, my kids. I've never been able to confront him about why he did this. Every time I've been at a function or an event with Brent Musburger and I walk towards him, he heads the other way.[9]
Carlos later toldJemele Hill during a 2019 discussion that "Brent Musburger doesn't even exist in my mind. He didn't mean anything to me 51 years ago. He doesn't mean anything to me today. Because he's been proven to be wrong."[10]
In 1968, Musburger began a 22-year association withCBS, first as a sports anchor forWBBM radio and later forWBBM-TV. In the mid-1970s, Musburger moved toLos Angeles and anchored news and sports for KNXT (nowKCBS-TV); there he worked alongsideConnie Chung as a co-anchor on KNXT's evening newscasts from 1978 until 1980, when he joinedCBS Sports full-time.
In 2020, Musburger told theSports Illustrated Media Podcast that he has always won while betting the length of the Super Bowl national anthem by having his friends attend the rehearsal the day before the game and time it: "Some people have lip-synched it and that was an easy win because that recording is automatic."[11]
Beginning in late 1973, Musburger was doing play-by-play forCBS Sports. He started out doing regular seasonNational Football League games (futureThe NFL Today co-hostIrv Cross was also doing NFL games at that time as well). Musburger was paired withTommy Mason orBart Starr, who provided the color commentary. A year later,Wayne Walker would be paired with Musburger in the booth.
By1975 atCBS, Musburger went from doing NFL play-by-play (and other items, mostly on CBS'Sports Saturday/Sunday programs) to rising to prominence as the host of the network'sNational Football League studio show,The NFL Today. Suddenly, Musburger began to cover many assignments for CBS Sports. Among the other events he covered, either as studio host orplay-by-play announcer, werecollege football andbasketball, theNational Basketball Association,horse racing, theU.S. Open (tennis) tournament, andThe Masters[12] golf tournament. He would even lend his talents to weekend afternoon fare such asThe World's Strongest Man contests and the like. Musburger also calledMajor League Baseball games forCBS Radio.
But it was Musburger's association withThe NFL Today that made him famous. During his tenure,CBS' NFL pregame show was consistently the #1rated pregame show. One of the signatures of the program was Musburger's show-opening teases to the various games CBS would cover, along with live images from the various stadiums. Musburger's accompanying intro to each visual,"You are looking live at ..." became one of his catch phrases. In promoting the network, his voice often tailed off on the last letter of "CBS" ("C.B. eeezz"), creating another catch phrase.
Musburger made headlines when he got into a fist-fight withThe NFL Today's betting analystJimmy "The Greek" Snyder in a Manhattan bar on October 27,1980.[13] However, the fist-fight incident was quickly regarded as water under the bridge as the two cheerfully appeared onThe NFL Today the following week wearing boxing gloves on camera.[14]
By the late 1980s, Musburger was CBS's top sportscaster. He was the main host and play-by-play announcer for theNBA Finals,college basketball,college football, theBelmont Stakes, and theCollege World Series. He also hosted aNew Year's Eve countdown for CBS. Musburger is regarded as the first broadcaster to apply the termMarch Madness to the annualNCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament.[15]
Early in 1990,CBS underwent a significant management change. During the early morning hours of April 1, 1990, Musburger was fired from CBS. His final assignment for CBS came the following evening, doing play-by-play for the1990 NCAA men's basketball final, which wasDuke versusUNLV. When the game was completed, Musburger thanked the audience and CBS Sports, and the analysts that he had worked with through the years likeBilly Packer, who was standing next to him.[16]
At the time of his firing (which he originally thought was anApril Fools joke), Musburger had been set to handle play-by-play duties forCBS's television coverage of Major League Baseball later that month; he was replaced byJack Buck[17] in that capacity. His position atThe NFL Today was filled byGreg Gumbel. His position as the lead play-by-play announcer for college basketball was filled byJim Nantz.
Following his dismissal from CBS, Musburger considered several offers, including one to return to Chicago and work atWGN-TV, ultimately settling atABC. WithAl Michaels entrenched as ABC's top broadcaster, Musburger focused oncollege football andbasketball. After his hiring, ABC's merger withESPN under theDisney umbrella allowed him[18] to work on ESPN as well (increasingly since 2006), includingMajor League Baseball,[19][20][21][22]NBA games,ESPN Radio, golf tournaments,horse racing, theIndianapolis 500,Little League World Series, soccer games,college football, and even some NFL games (including hosting halftime duties forMonday Night Football and Wild Card round games). Musburger was also the main studio host during ABC's coverage of the1998 World Cup and the2006 World Cup, was briefly the studio host forESPN and ABC's NASCAR coverage and has hostedTour de Francecoverage for ABC.
In1995, Musburger called Games 3-5 of theAmerican League Division Series between theSeattle Mariners andNew York Yankees alongsideJim Kaat forABC in association withThe Baseball Network. The fifth and decisive game went into the bottom of the 11th inning beforeEdgar Martínez won it for Seattle with adouble that scored bothJoey Cora andKen Griffey Jr., sending them to theLeague Championship Series for the first time in their franchise's history.
No balls and a strike toMartínez. Line drive, we are tied!Griffey is coming around! In the corner isBernie. He's going to try to score! Here's the division championship! Mariners win it! Mariners win it!
Musberger's call, dramatic as it was, incorrectly implied that Bernie Williams fielded the double in left. Bernie was playing center field at the time.Gerald Williams was in left field playing the ball and making the late throw back to the infield.
Musburger and Jim Kaat later called Games 1-2 of the 1995 American League Championship Series, while the rest of the games were called byBob Costas andBob Uecker onNBC.
Musburger's college football duties for ESPN and ABC included calling seven BCS National Championship games (2000,2004,2010,2011,2012,2013, and2014).
Beginning in 2006, Musburger called ABC Sports' college footballprime time series, along with analystsBob Davie andKirk Herbstreit. Musburger called the2007 Rose Bowl, taking over for the retiredKeith Jackson. He also called games onESPN during his time at ABC.
During the2013 BCS National Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame, a camera turned toKatherine Webb, who was in the stands cheering for her boyfriend, Alabama quarterback,A. J. McCarron. Musburger remarked, "I'm telling you, you quarterbacks get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman. Wow!" and continued commenting in a similar fashion.[23] The next day, ESPN apologized for his comments, saying they "went too far".[24] The controversy died down quickly afterwards, largely due to Webb stating that she was not bothered at all by Musburger's comments. As the Raiders' new radio broadcaster in 2018, Musburger jokingly revisited the incident with a Twitter post welcoming the now-married McCarrons to Oakland after the Raiders acquired AJ from theBuffalo Bills.[25]
Musburger's involvement withSaturday Night Football concluded when he andJesse Palmer were named ESPN's lead game commentators for college football coverage on theSEC Network in 2014.[26] Musburger nevertheless called some games on ESPN and ABC after that time.[27][28]
At the2017 Sugar Bowl, held in early January, Musburger made controversial comments about then-University of Oklahomarunning backJoe Mixon. Mixon had previously punched and broken a woman's jaw.[29][30]
Later in the same month, Musburger announced that he would retire from play-by-play broadcasting[31][32][33] and would call his final game atRupp Arena inLexington, Kentucky, on January 31, 2017.[34]
Musburger stated he planned to help his family get asports handicapping business started in Las Vegas, have a sports gambling show onSirius XM Radio, and enjoy personal travel.[34][35] The new venture,Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) is the first multichannel network dedicated tosports gambling information and is broadcast from a custom-built studio at theSouth Point Hotel, Casino & Spa.[36] Musburger serves as managing editor of the network, and hosts its programMy Guys in the Desert (a reference to his sly mentions of events of interest to bookmakers during his play-by-play).[37] Musburger and his sons sold VSiN toDraftKings in March 2021 while remaining executives and on-air personalities with the network;[38] DraftKings sold VSiN back to the Musburgers in 2024.[39]
On July 17, 2018, it was reported that Musburger would be making his return to the broadcast booth, this time as the newradio voice for theOakland Raiders under a three-year contract (which included itsinaugural season in Las Vegas in 2020), succeedingGreg Papa.[40][41][42] Musburger continued as announcer through the2021 season.[43]
Musburger made a special appearance at the2025Pro Football Hall of Fame Game as part of theNBC broadcast team, to commemorate Musburger's receiving thePete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from theHall of Fame that year.[44] On September 21, 2025, Musburger made a guest appearance onThe NFL Today as part of a special edition commemorating the program's 50th anniversary.[45][46][47]
Musburger has a down-to-earth manner of speaking, often addressing his viewers as "folks". In aSports Illustrated profile done on Musburger in January 1984, he stressed his hesitance to "pontificate" during his broadcasts. In 2004,CNN Sports Illustrated'sStewart Mandel selected him as the second-best college football announcer, behindRon Franklin. Mandel said of Musburger, "His voice will always be associated with some of the sport's most memorable, modern moments."[48]
Musburger has a reputation for pointing out attractive women in the crowds of the games he calls; among those who later rose to fame includeSusan “Busty Heart” Sykes,[49]CJ Perry,[50]Jenn Sterger,[51] andKatherine Webb McCarron.[52]
Musburger was a reporter inRocky II and had his role immortalized in a 2006 action figure.[53] He also played the right leg of the fictional monster Scuzzlebutt on anepisode ofSouth Park.[54] He also made cameo appearances inThe Main Event andThe Waterboy. InCars 2 andPlanes, he played Brent Mustangburger, a fictionalized version of himself. He appeared as himself in the episode "Lying Around" on the ABC sitcomHappy Endings.[55]
Musburger is portrayed by John Dellaporta and has a voice cameo as himself in the HBO seriesWinning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.[56] He was also parodied byKevin Nealon onSaturday Night Live.[57]
| Preceded by | Lead play-by-play announcer, ABC College Football 2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lead play-by-play announcer, ABC College Football 1999–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Play-by-play announcer,NBA Finals 1975–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | The NFL Today host 1975–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Studio host, NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four 1982–1984 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Play-by-play announcer, NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four 1985–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | Studio host,Monday Night Football 1990–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | U.S. World Cup television studio host 1998 2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lead play-by-play, Little League World Series 2000–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by none | ABC Saturday Night Football play-by-play announcer 2006–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Television play-by-play announcer,Rose Bowl 2007–2014 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Television play-by-play announcer, BCS National Championship Game 2010–2014 | Succeeded by BCS defunct |
| Preceded by Gary Thorne (in1989) | #2 play-by-play announcer, Major League Baseball on ABC 1994–1995 | Succeeded by Last |
| Preceded by | National radio play-by-play announcer, NBA Finals 1996–2004 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
