Brent Musburger Reveals His Inside Joke With Brian Kelly About Infamous Katherine Webb Comments

In 2013, Alabama and Notre Dame faced off in the last national championship game of college football’s BCS Era in a contest where the Crimson Tide absolutely embarrassed the Fighting Irish by securing their second straight title by a score of 42-14.

You could argue the most memorable moment of that largely forgettable showdown had nothing to do with what transpired on the field but rather what went down when Brent Musburger shared some very effusive praise for Katherine Webb, the Miss Alabama winner and girlfriend (and future wife) of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron.

Musburger’s comments were widely viewed as the national television broadcast equivalent of being horny on the main, and ESPN even issued an apology to viewers in a statement where it accused the commentator of going “too far.”

Webb, on the other hand, made it clear she wasn’t particularly bothered by what he had to say; she thanked him when he prematurely announced his retirement from broadcasting in 2017 and highlighted the role he played in giving her even more exposure than she already had on the anniversary of the “incident” a couple of years ago.

Musburger has maintained he doesn’t think he crossed any lines. He even joked about the comments when Webb and McCarron relocated to Oakland after the QB was traded to the Raiders in 2018—and it turns out that’s not the only time he’s used it as comedic fodder.

Brent Musburger says he and Brian Kelly have a running joke about his Katherine Webb comments

Musburger was the guest of honor on a recent episode of The Shamrock podcast where he revealed he has a habit of ribbing Kelly (who was the coach of Notre Dame at the time) over the loss at his own expense.

Here’s what he had to say:

“I still tease him that when he got blown out by Alabama in the national championship game, I took all of the heat off of him because I called a beauty queen beautiful. 

I was the villain that night in the eyes of the media—especially the woke journalists in some of the papers around the country. I say, ‘Coach, you’d’ve been under the gun if it wasn’t for me’ and he laughs.”

Classic Musburger!