Greg Olsen has emerged as one of the NFL’s most popular analysts, but knows the goodwill can quickly deteriorate if he makes the mistake of drawing penises on a broadcast.
Last year, Olsen was tasked with serving as the analyst on Fox’s lead broadcast despite the looming presence of Tom Brady, who expects to overtake the gig in 2024. Olsen recently joined Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take, and during the interview, the former NFL tight end was asked if there’s a call from his broadcasting career that he’d like to have back.
Olsen admitted he’s made plenty of mistakes as a broadcaster, but some of them went unnoticed, or weren’t notable enough to go viral on social media. “Call a guy the wrong name. Have the wrong timeouts. It happened to the guy who called the ending of that great game the other night, was it Karl Ravech?” Olsen recalled.
During the College World Series last month, Ravech mistakenly thought a go ahead three run homer was a walk-off shot and butchered the call. But not only did he butcher the initial call, he also butchered the correction, getting the team wrong before finally setting the record straight.
“It can happen to anybody,” Olsen said. Which is why the Fox NFL analyst chose not to share the viral clip of Ravech on social media, fearing karma could come back to get him. But it’s not just saying the wrong thing that Olsen worries about, it’s drawing the wrong thing.
“I’ve messed up a million things and drawn the wrong picture,” Olsen admitted on Pardon My Take. “That’s tough. There’s so many things in NFL football that look like penises. And there’s a lot of very questionable verbiage that’s used in NFL football. ‘Come inside.’ There’s a lot of stuff that you gotta be careful. And I’m not gonna lie, there’s times where I’m like, ‘Here’s a safety, here’s a safety’ and you want to show that third little zone and you’re like, nope! Delete. Clear screen. I’m not gonna be the d*** guy.”
If Olsen does accidentally draw a penis on the telestrator, he certainly wouldn’t be the first analyst to do it. Ronde Barber did it while calling a game with Dick Stockton on a Fox broadcast nearly a decade ago. Steve Kornacki once inadvertently drew a penis shape while attempting to draw an outline of the United States, oddly enough. Booger McFarland joined the fraternity a few years ago with a his own telestrator mishap.
While Olsen should take solace in knowing he wouldn’t be the first person to make the telestrator mistake, this fear might be overcame if everyone just took Dan Le Batard’s advice and normalized the penis.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com