More than six years removed from a historic Super Bowl collapse, Matt Ryan has undoubtedly endured every 28-3 joke there is. But he probably isn’t used to getting ribbed by his own team.
Sunday afternoon, Ryan made his regular season debut as an NFL game analyst for CBS, teaming up with Andrew Catalon and Tiki Barber to call the Week 1 matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings. And during the broadcast, Catalon trolled Ryan for leading the Atlanta Falcons to an epic meltdown against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
Matt Ryan made his broadcasting debut today … and they really didn’t have to do this to him.
Ryan’s face as soon as “28-3” comes out of his mouth 😂pic.twitter.com/FdoT16JDKo
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 10, 2023
“In the booth with Matt Ryan and Tiki Barber,” Catalon said as he welcomed the audience back from halftime.” We were just chomping some burgers at halftime, saying this game feels like it should be 28-3 in favor of Minnesota. Why is it still 10-10?”
The 38-year-old former quarterback might not be on the field anymore, but that clearly didn’t save him from getting blindsided in Week 1 of the NFL season. Ryan could have enhanced the viral moment with a witty response, but instead, the quarterback nicknamed “Matty Ice” remained cool and ignored the joke from his new teammate.
“Turnovers,” Ryan answered, paying no attention to the mention of 28-3.
Maybe Ryan was blindsided by the friendly fire, but it’s also entirely possible the new NFL on CBS broadcast team could have drawn this up knowing the quip would garner them attention in their debut. Although, if the 28-3 joke was planned by the booth and cleared by Ryan, you’d expect the former quarterback to have a more robust response than “turnovers.”
Whether or not it was planned for Week 1, the Catalon, Barber and Ryan trio should keep it going by sneaking a 28-3 mention into all of their broadcasts this season.
[CBS]
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