There was a lot of unusual NFL news Sunday morning, from the incident with police detaining Tyreek Hill to Kendrick Lamar’s announcement of his Super Bowl halftime performance to the Dallas Cowboys finally working out a contract extension with Dak Prescott. But maybe the strangest moment on TV came from the prop NFL Network analyst and former head coach Steve Mariucci brought to the GameDay Morning set to discuss Joe Burrow’s wrist injury.
That would be Mariucci’s 64-year-old cast, from when he broke his wrist when he was four:
Steve Mariucci brought out his 64-year-old cast to talk about Joe Burrow coming off wrist surgery… leaving Rich Eisen and Cynthia Frelund with far more questions than the Burrow status. pic.twitter.com/GSPgPiaifh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 8, 2024
“I don’t know, Rich, if he’s going to get off to a fast start,” Mariucci said. “And you know why? I don’t think it’s going to be because of that wrist injury that ended his season last year. You know why I know that? Because I broke my wrist when I was four years old, and this was the cast. This cast is 64 years old. That’s that cast. And I’m fine, but he’s going to be fine too.”
That drew a “You’re going to be kidding me” from Eisen.
And then when Mariucci tried to discuss his actual concerns with Burrow, Eisen stepped away and Mariucci poked the ancient cast towards him, leading to Cynthia Frelund asking “Why do you have that?!”
Mariucci responded “I’m a hoarder, okay?!” before getting back to his actual discussion of the Bengals and other players’ injuries there.
Eisen then walked away again. And while Mariucci eventually got his point out, his cast still bothered Frelund when he threw to her: “I think he’s actually going to start fast. This thing’s really grossing me out. I’m having a hard time focusing here.”
Eisen then jumped back in after Frelund’s point with “The thing I’m most concerned about is this. And I need an honest answer; did you know you were going to talk about this subject matter and brought this thing, or do you always travel with this thing, Steve?”
Mariucci then responded, “I brought this thing because I wanted to have a prop for the wrist injury. I was standing on my tricycle when I was four and I fell off, I broke my wrist, I’m an idiot. I saved it, though.”
Frelund asked again “Why do you have this?!”
“It’s only 64 years old,” Marriucci replied. “It’s older than you, Rich.”
That certainly made for a fun and unusual moment, and one of the stranger things on a pregame show in a while.
[H/T to Louis Butko]
