FS1’s U.S. Open golf broadcast got extremely strange Friday. Around 1:45 p.m. Eastern, lead announcer Joe Buck set up a shot from Patrick Reed. And then, while Reed was taking the shot, the commentary track changed to two guys discussing sex, in rather explicit terms (language warning, obviously):
Buck says “Here at 1, it’s Patrick Reed.” His voice then cuts out, and there seems to be some indistinct radio chatter. And then:
Guy 1 says something about “a good pull.”
Guy 2: “That’s my ex.”
Guy 1: “Yeah, she’s hot.”
Guy 2: “That’s when we were fucking so hard, and I headbutted her in the head.”
Guy 1: “Sure.”
Guy 2: “And I smacked that bitch down.”
Guy 1: “Yeah, what actually happened, pal?”
Guy 2: “No, straight up. We kind of went in the [indistinct] position, and I was laying down…”
And then it cuts back to Buck, who says “Second shot” as if nothing had happened. From the sound, it seems likely this was a radio conversation that somehow got picked up onto the actual feed, rather than just crowd chatter, but we don’t know for sure. Whatever the case, it was definitely one of the strangest parts of a golf broadcast you’ll ever hear. Are we just turning actual Fox into Buck’s Brockmire appearances now? We’ll see if Fox issues an explanation and/or an apology.
UPDATE: Fox issued a statement to Sporting News, saying that they “sincerely apologize” for the audio.
“Today, during the live FS1 broadcast of the 2018 U.S. Open, one of the many microphones on the course inadvertently picked up some offensive crowd chatter. We sincerely apologize,” Fox Sports spokeswoman Anne Pennington said in a statement to Sporting News.
[Deadspin]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.