Kevin Harlan calls Monday Night Football games on the radio for Westwood One. He and partner Kurt Warner were in Cleveland on Monday night and witnessed the injury that ended Nick Chubb’s season.
His radio crew did not have to decide whether or not to show a replay of the incident. He told Richard Deitsch of The Athletic that he thinks Joe Buck and ESPN made the right call in not showing a replay and handled it the right way on air.
“I’m glad Joe [Buck] said what he said. It was honest. I don’t think we’re in the business of gruesome. I think we’re in the business of reporting. And I think those words and the reaction of the players told it all.”
Harlan did not see the knee injury occur in real time. In fact, the only way he knew its severity was from the crowd’s reaction to an in-stadium replay.
He says he actually did not see it at all until the next day when he was shown a clip of it. He said “it was as bad as I had feared.”
In 2017, Harlan was on the call of the Celtics’ season opener in Cleveland for TNT. That was the game where Gordon Hayward broke his ankle in his first game with Boston. He said it is the only thing he could compare the atmosphere surrounding Chubb’s injury to.
“There was bone and blood,” he said. “I could hear it and see it because we’re courtside. My recollection of it was TNT did not show the replay. I think we just conveyed it was about as gruesome as you might assume.”
Many other broadcasters have disagreed with Harlan’s assessment. This week, Dan Patrick, Mike Stone and Pardon My Take have all advocated for the moment to be replayed with a disclaimer about the severity of what the audience will see.
