CBS left fans hanging by not addressing something Boomer Esiason said during halftime of Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday.
Esiason was among the panel of analysts who appeared on the pregame, halftime and postgame shows for CBS’ telecast of the Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev.
Though Esiason was the only analyst who said anything with teeth during halftime, he was wrong about the accusation he made. Esiason incorrectly asserted that the 49ers should have been flagged for having an illegal man downfield on their trick play that went for the only touchdown of the first half.
Esiason wasn’t making a comment about a judgment play, such as if pass interference should have been called. There are defined rules about being illegally downfield — and the 49ers did not violate the rules on the play.
The problem is CBS allowed Esiason to make that accusation and failed to address it. They did no follow-up. They did not have a rules analyst pop on to comment. They did not have announcers Jim Nantz or Tony Romo demonstrate why the 49ers did not commit a violation. Instead, they left it up to viewers — or writers like us — to track down the NFL rulebook to find the answer.
CBS has tons of people on staff to help put together a great Super Bowl broadcast, but somehow they failed to address this, which was a big miss.
