BY LORI RAUDIO

It was clear early on in the BCS Championship game Alabama had control of the game over Notre Dame. The Crimson Tide scored quickly and easily, so announcers Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit were forced to look for other topics to keep things interesting.

After Alabama took an early 14-0 lead, the cameras panned to a woman in the crowd, who Musburger and Herbstreit took quite an interest in. Musburger identified the woman as Katherine Webb, girlfriend of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron. He told viewers this “lovely lady” is a student at Auburn, the University of Alabama’s rival, and a former Ms. Alabama pageant winner.

Musburger didn’t stop there. He continued and said, “Wow, you quarterbacks get all the good looking women. What a beautiful woman, whoa!” Herbstreit can be heard laughing and saying, “AJ’s doing some things right down in Tuscaloosa.” Musburger chimed in again with some advice for the kids watching. “If you’re a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops,” he said.

Viewers immediately took to Twitter to talk about Mursburger and Herbstreit’s comments, and the video has since gone viral. This incident is just another example of how fast a comment can be spread with today’s technology. Media personnel need to be more aware of what they say and the possible implications it could have.

I think Musburger and Herbstreit’s comments were highly inappropriate. Instead of just introducing Webb as McCarron’s girlfriend and moving on, they took it a few steps too far. The game may have not been as interesting as they hoped, but they should have found other talking points than a player’s attractive girlfriend.