NBC veteran football announcer Al Michaels has apologized after making a joke about disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein during a game between the New York Giants and Denver Broncos on Sunday night.
“I mean, let’s face it. The Giants are coming off a worse week than Harvey Weinstein and they’re up 14 points,” Michaels jabbed in the third quarter.
“Only my L.A. guy comes up with that one. There you go,” chuckled color commentator Cris Collinsworth.
“All you have to do is read the papers. Any paper,” added Michaels.
{mosads}
The Giants, a playoff team last season, came into the game in Denver as heavy underdogs and were missing several key players who were lost to injury or suspension this week.
Weinstein, 65, is a former Hollywood mega-producer and prominent Democratic donor accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault. The story has received sizable broadcast media coverage, particularly on cable news.
Later in the broadcast, Michaels apologized on the air.
“Sorry I made a reference earlier,” the 72-year-old broadcaster said. “I tried to be a little flip about somebody obviously very much in the news all over the country. It was not meant in that manner. So my apologies, and we will just leave it at that.”
“Will do, move on,” replied Collinsworth.
Michaels’s career includes calling national games for the NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball for more than 40 years. He has never been known to be provocative on the air.
There were mixed reactions to the comment and the apology on social media.
The Weinstein Company’s board fired Weinstein not long after reports of sexual harassment complaints against him were published in The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine.
NBC faced considerable scrutiny on reports that they passed on reporting the Weinstein story when it was brought to them first.
Reporter Ronan Farrow then took the story to The New Yorker, which published the bombshell report that detailed sexual harassment and assault allegations against the Hollywood mogul.