Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd has been known for some remarkable takes over the years. His latest, the opening monologue on his FS1 show The Herd Tuesday, comes from listing quarterbacks. He went through several categories, then finished with “20 guys who are not getting to a Super Bowl, and certainly not winning it.” On that list, Cowherd included several current NFL starting quarterbacks, but also some players who have been out of the league for years. And one of those, and one of the three players he specifically mentioned when talking about the graphic (which was actually improperly headlined “20 QBs who can win a Super Bowl) was former Ohio State/Washington/Pittsburgh quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who passed away in 2022 after being fatally struck by a vehicle:
On today's show, Colin Cowherd mentioned Dwayne Haskins as one of the QBs who cannot win a Super Bowl.
This is factually correct, given that Haskins passed away 16 months ago. pic.twitter.com/L1PvtPLyY6
— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) August 8, 2023
“The third category is 20 guys who are not getting to a Super Bowl, and certainly not winning it, from Baker Mayfield, Teddy Bridgewater, Dwayne Haskins, guys that are just not, yeah. It says ‘Can win Super Bowls,’ it’s ‘Can’t. Can’t win Super Bowls.’ So six stars, four high-end starters, and 20 guys that can’t win a Super Bowl.”
There are a whole lot of weird choices in there, from EJ Manuel (who last was on a NFL roster in 2019, only in the offseason, and last played in the league in 2017) to Johnny Manziel (who last played in the NFL in 2015, and is the subject of a documentary that premiered this week on his attempts to move on from football) to Paxton Lynch (who last played in the NFL in 2019) to Carson Wentz (who did actually win Super Bowl LII with the Philadelphia Eagles in February 2018). And they’re then mixed in with actual NFL starters including Jordan Love and Daniel Jones. But the Haskins inclusion really stands out, especially with him being one of the three players Cowherd specifically mentioned (alongside Mayfield and Bridgewater, who are both still in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions respectively):
The Haskins part is obviously the most notable. But even overlooking that…
Johnny Manziel, EJ Manuel and Paxton Lynch last played in the NFL in 2015, 2017 and 2019, respectively. Did we really need Colin Cowherd's infinite wisdom to tell us they can't win Super Bowls? https://t.co/auyDa5osZk
— Michael Dixon (@MDixonsports) August 8, 2023
And what got quite interesting with this is how The Herd‘s third hour, which normally starts with a replay of that monologue, still showed the graphic, but cut out Cowherd’s mention of Haskins:
After taking criticism for including Dwayne Haskins, who passed away in 2022, on a list of “20 QBs who can’t win the Super Bowl,” a The Herd recap segment cut out Colin Cowherd’s comments there. pic.twitter.com/L8Y9EUpMRP
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 8, 2023
This is just an absolutely bizarre collection of “20 quarterbacks who cannot win a Super Bowl.” It would have made much more sense to limit it to “20 QBs on NFL rosters who cannot win a Super Bowl,” rather than just “20 QBs drafted since 2013 who cannot win a Super Bowl.” But Cowherd expanded that to get in some more known names, even if many of them haven’t recently played in the NFL and don’t look set to head back there. And that got real bad when he brought in a deceased player in Haskins.
Cowherd is not the first analyst to mess up in discussions of Haskins, of course. ESPN’s Rex Ryan did that in 2022, and several other NFL media figures have tripped up in how they’ve discussed Haskins. But this is the latest case of Cowherd subscribing to his own philosophy of being interesting, but not correct. And that third-hour replay edit is very interesting, removing Cowherd’s comments in what certainly looks like an admission that they weren’t great.
[Funhouse on Twitter]
