Whenever Matthew McConaughey isn’t on the screen, everybody else should be asking “Where is Matthew McConaughey?”
That was seemingly the rule to ESPN’s Field Pass broadcast for the nightcap of the College Football Playoff semifinals with Texas and Washington squaring off in the Sugar Bowl. While the crew from the Pat McAfee Show manned the sidelines for the Rose Bowl Megacast, the Sugar Bowl featured a variety of personalities – Cole Cubelic, Harry Douglas, Sam Acho, and Colt McCoy. With two Texas grads in the group – and ESPN in business with Texas through the Longhorn Network and their soon to be affiliation with the SEC – it could have been expected that the telecast might lean a little bit towards the Longhorns.
As the game developed, that naturally drifted towards focusing on the biggest celebrity on the sidelines – Texas superfan Matthew McConaughey.
Mr. All Right, All Right was everywhere on the ESPN2 Field Pass and that may be an understatement. Before halftime we were privileged to witness the first ever McConaughey triple box. Not even Stephen A. Smith has ever gotten that on ESPN before!
Earlier, Matthew McConaughey was part of the Field Pass crew for a while before saying that he was leaving to find a better view from the sideline.
"I can't keep looking at that damn screen."
The ESPN2 broadcast then added a box showing him from the sideline. #CFP pic.twitter.com/3KBIz2l9Kl
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 2, 2024
When former SportsCenter anchor and Washington native Kenny Mayne joined the party, he quickly joked about how active the actor was on the sidelines, even going over to interact with the Texas players like he was an assistant coach!
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1742052319339143266
Then as Texas drove down the field for an improbable comeback attempt, we got another live reaction shot of McConaughey along with actual Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian instead of, you know, anyone from Washington that could have been celebrating the victory.
Matthew McConaughey watches the final play. #CFP pic.twitter.com/4OGRxLoCNj
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 2, 2024
What do we need to do to get Joel McHale out here to add a little balance to the broadcast?! After all, he was one of College GameDay’s best guest pickers this year. Even Season 6 of Community on Yahoo stacks up well compared to anything McConaughey has done since True Detective.
