If there’s a controversial call in Super Bowl 50, CBS will pitch it to former referee Mike Carey.
And while there’s a seemingly good chance Carey will get that call wrong, his bosses defended his work leading into next week’s broadcast.
“I’ve seen some of the criticism, and I think some of it is very hurtful, quite frankly,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said, via Lorenzo Reyes of USA Today.
While Carey’s a stationary target, in fairness to him it’s entirely possible the crews on the field are screwing it up on a regular basis while he’s the one getting it right.
But his penchant for saying the opposite of what transpires moments later has become a fixture of CBS broadcasts.
“But Mike is learning his craft and, I think more often than not, he has gotten it right,” McManus said. “But I’ll also say that he has disagreed a number of times in some very high profile situations with what the [replay] officials have come back with. . . .
“It’s funny, the vast majority of the calls that Mike has made have been correct. I sit there on Sunday afternoon, and he’ll do sometimes, a dozen different cut-ins to our various regional games, and he’s almost always right.”
McManus did admit that Carey may have gone too far on some calls, and that exuberance my have led to some problems.
“Mike has perhaps gone out on a limb more than he should in trying to guess or speculate what a call will be, but all he is giving is his opinion of what he would call if he were on the field,” McManus said. “And if it’s a different result, I think people get frustrated. But I think people would understand that Mike is only giving his opinion.”
Which is the same thing we’re doing, when we say we must not be getting the majority of the CBS broadcasts when Carey’s nailing it.