Kevin Harlan made headlines for his reaction to the viral video of him calling the end of the Furman/Virginia game last week and got people wondering why the veteran broadcaster didn’t want to embrace how popular his call of the first round upset has become.
“If they asked me my preference, I would have said, ‘Please don’t put that up there,'” Harlan told Richard Deitsch in a podcast interview this week. Harlan revealed that he was unaware CBS had a camera on the broadcasters for the game.
Harlan’s comments came up in discussion on Boomer & Gio on WFAN on Thursday, and host Boomer Esiason said it’s not in Harlan’s nature to make himself the focus of attention.
“The only reason he doesn’t like it is because he doesn’t want it to be about him,” Esiason said. “But he’s the perfect guy to be there to make that call.”
For those wondering if Harlan planned that sort of reaction with the intent being to go viral, Boomer said Harlan was authentically himself.
“He is passionate about what he does, and he loves it. He does every game the same way whether it’s on radio, whether it’s on TV, whatever,” Esiason said. “He is the same guy and he is one of the nicest, kindest, most professional people I’ve ever been around.”
“The guy is so much fun to work with,” Esiason added. “He’s got to do his thing, and you got to let him do his thing which you should because he is animated. He doesn’t do it on purpose.”
