Jimmy Roberts has an earned reputation as one of the most respected broadcasters in sports, but even he has an on-air moment he’d like to forget.
The 16-time Emmy winner was this week’s guest on GOLF’s Subpar podcast, and he had a blast co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz with the story of his biggest mistake on air.
The moment occurred during Roberts’ coverage of the Deutsche Bank Championship in the early 2000s. At the time, Roberts said he was tasked with providing brief updates during the tournament broadcast that touched on highlights from the wider world of sports.
On this particular occasion, Roberts was preparing to introduce a clip that featured a home run from an MLB game.
“The information was kind of sketchy at times,” Roberts began. “And you really had to ad-lib, and you had to fly by the seat of your pants. But that’s okay, because that’s what we do, right?
;)
Josh Berhow
“Anyway, the note I got, I was doing a baseball game or a highlight of a baseball game, and I don’t even remember who the player was. But I had my brief in front of me, and I do my presentation, and then they’re going to play a tape, and I know the first event is a baseball highlight. And I say, ‘We know who the homer was,’ run’ and it’s underlined like three times.
“And there’s no more detail. He might have said 4th inning, whatever, somebody’s pitching, right? So we go to the highlights: “We go to Cleveland, third inning. Don Smith on the hill, opposite Jim Jones. And the field…”
“And I’m here to tell you, it’s the most MASS home run I’ve ever seen. And the trick to doing these things is not to read, but to look at the screen so that you can intuitively describe what you’re seeing, and that’s streaming, right? But I was caught completely unaware of how big this house was going to be.
“So I’m looking at the screen, I’m like, ‘And the tar, she—’ and I go, ‘Holy shit!’
“And I only get as far as ‘sh.’ And I didn’t have the presence of mind at that point to kind of pivot and say something like, holy sugar! Holy shit! Whatever, right? I was so shocked by the size of this home run. I just left it on holy sh.”
Roberts said she was humiliated by the gaffe, but consoled herself with the belief that few people would see it. That is, until he left the cabin.
“I start walking back to the clubhouse and run into Steve Stricker,” Roberts said. “And he says, ‘(Stricker’s wife) Nikki just texted me that you just said sh on the air! Is that true?’
