Brent Musburger admits he once bet on a game he broadcasted

Now that he’s out of traditional broadcasting and working on a Vegas sports gambling show, former CBS and ESPN broadcaster Brent Musburger has finally let his guard down and admitted he once bet on a game he called.

Musburger gambled on a Lakers-Trail Blazers game back in the 1980s. He claims that although he’s bet on many other games throughout his life, that was the only time he gambled on a game he broadcasted as he quickly learned his lesson when the outcome came down to the final shot.

Here’s how Musburger told it to Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune:

One time. A long time ago I was doing an NBA game. It was in Portland in the ’80s. Lakers-Trail Blazers and the director was legendary Tony Verna, who started instant replay in the (1963) Army-Navy game. I took the Lakers (plus) three points. The bet was dinner for the production team, which I suppose would have been 300 bucks. The Blazers were up by 4, well inside of one minute. Shot clock. The Lakers came across (half court) and a kid by the name of Kurt Rambis jacked up this outrageous shot, and I was all over him! So I paid off the bet, bought the dinner and said to myself: ‘You know, that was not good. That was just not good. You do not want the spread to influence how you are announcing a game.’ I always knew what the number was on every game I did. I told (former ABC executive) Dennis Swanson: I’m not going to bet on games I broadcast. I’ll bet on other games.

After learning that lesson, let me apologize to Rambis. I should not have done that. ‘He could have pounded it inside and I could have had a backdoor cover!’ (laughs)

In the Q&A, Musburger also talks about his classic call on a backdoor cover between Ohio State and Northwestern, when the Wildcats flubbed a hook and ladder attempt from their own eight yard line and the Buckeyes recovered it in the end zone on the final play of the game.

https://youtu.be/C6RWfIdJE4Q?t=2h33m4s

Based on the Tribune interview, it seems the Blazers-Lakers game is the only big secret Musburger was hiding. But considering just last week he told the Washington Post he’d never gambled on a game he broadcasted, maybe some more secrets will come out over time.

[Chicago Tribune]