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NFL announcer Al Michaels makes bad Harvey Weinstein joke—and the internet tackles him

Big nope.

Photo of Josh Katzowitz

Josh Katzowitz

Al Michaels

Al Michaels is one of the greatest play-by-play announcers in sports history. But just because his call of the 1980 Olympic gold-medal game for the U.S. hockey team is one of the most iconic ever, that doesn’t mean the broadcasting veteran still isn’t capable of making a horrible joke on air.

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Because that’s what he did Sunday night while covering the Giants-Broncos contest. And it’s a doozy. Listen below.

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“Let’s face it, the Giants are coming off of a worse week than Harvey Weinstein, and they’re up by 14 points,” Michaels said.

As James Corden learned this weekend, Harvey Weinstein jokes aren’t playing well these days, especially since the allegations against the film producer have inspired waves of women to talk about their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault.

While true that the Giants have had a terrible season leading up to their 23-10 win vs. Denver, it is of course not comparable to the Weinstein controversy. At all. And many on Twitter were quick to remind.

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https://twitter.com/JoeyLangone/status/919755525553905664

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https://twitter.com/jtylerconway/status/919753875984474112

Later in the broadcast, Michaels attempted an apology (though he didn’t mention Weinstein by name this time).

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“Sorry I made a reference earlier before. I tried to be a little flip about somebody obviously very much in the news all over the country,” Michaels said. “It was not meant in that manner. So, my apologies. And we’ll just leave it at that.”

It’s a pretty weak apology, actually. Perhaps the 72-year-old Michaels can learn something from Corden.

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Or people can finally recognize that it’s never cool to “joke” about sexual assault. Let’s go with that.

 
The Daily Dot