By now everyone has heard that Bob Griese made a pretty racist statement yesterday, when he suggested Juan Pablo Montoya was out of the Top Five because "he was out having a taco." Well late yesterday evening he issued an apology through ESPN. Here's the video and the apology.

“Earlier today on our game I made an offensive comment regarding Juan Pablo Montoya as part of a NASCAR promo. It was regrettable and I should not have said it. I really enjoy NASCAR and I follow it closely and would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Juan, NASCAR and everyone else who heard my comment.”- Bob Griese

I just don't know what to say when these things happen anymore. How someone could ever think that would be funny is beyond me. Bob Griese now joins Tony Kornheiser in the Stereotype Hall of Fame.

Paul Maguire is certainly one of the elder statesmen in College Football, and at 70 years old, he's not getting any younger. Well according to USA Today, the ABC announcer will be get a bit of a break next College Football season. Not only will Maguire have a reduced slate of games, but he will be appearing on some studio shows as well....

Although not formally announced, ESPN's Mike Soltys confirmed Sunday that college football analyst Paul Maguire, 70, will have a "reduced role" this season. Rather than having a full slate of games, says Soltys, Maguire will work only "the occasional game and do some studio shows and radio."

Maguire goes pretty far back in the sport. He played tight end at The Citadel and led the nation in touchdown receptions — in 1959. After being a linebacker and punter in the old American Football League, Maguire worked for NBC before becoming ESPN's original college football lead analyst in 1979 and in 1984 began working ESPN's first live college football — after a U.S. Supreme Court decision had loosened the NCAA's control of TV rights, which let ESPN get live games.

Maguire returned to NBC and, as part of its lead NFL teams, called Super Bowl action. But after NBC lost NFL TV rights in 1998, he returned to ESPN for its Sunday night NFL games. In recent seasons, he's worked ESPN college games with Bob Griese and Brad Nessler in three-man on-air teams that included Maguire being stationed in TV production trucks and on carts that rolled along sidelines while covering games.

I personally think Maguire has lost a step or two over the years, but he always makes the games interesting. Especially when he's talking about drinking during a 10-7 BC-NC State barn burner. Hopefully this new schedule will work out for him, and we can joke about that silly cherry picker he rides on the sidelines again.

Maguire will take reduced role in ESPN college football coverage (USA Today)

Darren Rovell at CNBC noticed during the FSU-Florida game this past Saturday that the team of Nessler, Griese and Maguire had a "Did You Know?" that said that Florida State and not U of F was actually credited with inventing the Sports Drink Gatorade. Being extremely confused, since he wrote an entire book on the subject, Rovell set out to find the truth and these were his findings....

Neither had Dr. Dana Shires, one of Gatorade’s four inventors, who was actually watching the game at the time. “Of course I’ve never heard of it,” Shires said. “It’s just another stupid stunt from the guys at Florida State.”

If I were a researcher for ABC, I doubt I would go with that story after I found only 41 hits for “Seminole firewater.” Or after the doctor who supposedly invented the stuff—an R.A. Johnson —only came up when this “Seminole firewater” was referenced.

The story probably came from a jokester who put it up on Wikipedia. Then, a site called the history of branding, which doesn’t even exist anymore, put it on their site and then it hit all the message boards and voila–a creation becomes a fact.

The University of Florida is so concerned about this new revelation that they are supposed to issue a press release later today, perhaps to quell what has become the hottest new smack talk in Florida.

I don't know who works at the ABC Football research department, but there has to be something more to the reason why they chose to say that on-air. I mean it's widely known that Florida is credited with the invention, so I'd love to hear why they went with Florida State in that moment. Very odd, and it'll be interesting if anything more comes of this.

Ok, What's All This About FSU "Inventing" Gatorade? (CNBC: Sports Biz)

A hilarious exchange took place during the UNC-MD game this evening. As Brad Nessler was talking about the Minnesota-Wisconsin game he tried to mention the trophy that both teams play for in the rivalry, Paul Bunyan's Axe. Nessler, however, called it something else and Bob Griese was there to question him....

Pretty sure that was a Paul Bunyan's "Ass" that Nessler said the Gophers and Badgers were playing for. He tried to save it there, but I don't think he quite did. Too funny.

The chatter last week was about Erin Andrews and Kirk Herbstreit's allegiances when covering College Football, but I think everyone completely forgot about Bob Griese. The team of Brad Nessler, Griese and Paul Maguire were at Purdue when the stadium decided to get Bob to get his alma mater hyped before the fourth quarter. Here's the video evidence via Brahsome....

Wow. That's just about as over-the-top as it gets. The worst part is that Oregon ended up twelve points to Oregon's six in the fourth and beat the Boilermakers after being down fourteen in the first quarter.

Bob Griese Is an Impartial Announcer, Clearly (Brahsome)
On Favoritism In Broadcasting (Awful Announcing)

ESPN actually did a pretty cool thing during the Georgia-Georgia Tech game this afternoon. Brad Nessler switched booths to work with Georgia Radio's Larry Munson whom Nessler used to be partners with awhile back.

While that was all fun and good it was the exchange of goods between Nessler and Munson that caught the eyes of Nessler's partners Paul Maguire and Bob Griese.....

"...had to give Muns that cigar."- Brad Nessler
"We wondered what you were giving him."- Bob Griese
"We've been trading cigars for about 28 years."- Brad Nessler
"Voice sounds a little younger than yours.- Paul Maguire
"Does it?"- Brad Nessler
"We were wondering what you were giving him for after the game. You know my partner over here, he....."- Bob Griese
"I thought you were giving him a bud."- Paul Maguire

And to think, I once labeled the booth of Fowler, James, and Flutie the "Stoner Crew". I think we need to switch that title.

So after 32 games, and countless live-blogs I've got your final Network grades for the Bowl Games. As always.....please feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments. ESPN is up first.....

Here is your list of announcers for every single Bowl Game this season on ESPN (I know....I'm psycho for keeping track of this).
___________________________________

ESPN2 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl– San Diego Northern Illinois vs. TCU Rece Davis, Lou Holtz, Mark May and Rob Stone

ESPN Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl – #20 BYU vs. Oregon
Las Vegas Brent Musburger, Bob Davie, Craig James and Lisa Salters

ESPN2 R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl – Rice vs. Troy
New Orleans Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone

ESPN2 Papajohns.com Bowl – South Florida vs. East Carolina
Birmingham, Ala. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Todd Harris

ESPN New Mexico Bowl – New Mexico vs. San Jose State
Albuquerque, N.M. Bob Wischusen, Rod Gilmore, Trevor Matich and Stacey Dales

ESPN Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl –Tulsa vs. Utah
Fort Worth, Texas Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

ESPN Sheraton Hawaii Bowl – Hawaii vs. Arizona State
Honolulu Mark Jones, David Norrie and Heather Cox

ESPN Motor City Bowl – Middle Tennessee vs. Central Michigan
Detroit Dave Lamont, Ray Bentley and Vince Welch

ESPN Emerald Bowl – Florida State vs. #25 UCLA
San Francisco Dan Fouts, Tim Brant and Jack Arute

ESPN PetroSun Independence Bowl – Oklahoma State vs. Alabama Shreveport, La. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Todd Harris

ESPN Pacific Life Holiday Bowl – #21 Texas A&M vs. #18 Cal
San Diego Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews

ESPN Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl – Clemson vs. Kentucky
Nashville, Tenn. Dave Pasch, Rod Gilmore, Trevor Matich and Stacey Dales

ESPN AutoZone Liberty Bowl – South Carolina vs. Houston
Memphis, Tenn. John Saunders, Craig James, Doug Flutie and Todd Harris

ESPN Champs Sports Bowl – Purdue vs. Maryland
Orlando, Fla. Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Bonnie Bernstein

ESPN Meineke Car Care Bowl – Navy vs. #24 Boston College
Charlotte, N.C. Pam Ward, Mike Gottfried and Jimmy Dykes

ESPN Alamo Bowl – #19 Texas vs. Iowa
San Antonio, Texas Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone

ESPN Chick-fil-A Bowl – Georgia vs. #15 Virginia Tech
Atlanta Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Dr. Jerry Punch

ESPN MPC Computers Bowl – Miami vs. Nevada
Boise, Idaho Mark Jones, David Norrie and Heather Cox

ESPN Outback Bowl – #17 Tennessee vs. Penn State
Tampa, Fla. Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

ABC Capital One Bowl – #12 Arkansas vs. #7 Wisconsin
Orlando, Fla. Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Erin Andrews

ABC Rose Bowl Presented by Citi – #5 USC vs. #3 Michigan
Pasadena, Calif. Brent Musburger, Bob Davie, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters and Bonnie Bernstein

ESPN2 International Bowl – Western Michigan vs. Cincinnati
Toronto John Saunders, Craig James, Doug Flutie and Todd Harris

ESPN GMAC Bowl – Ohio vs. Southern Miss Mobile, Ala. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Rob Stone
______________________

Good lord....where do I even start? Well let's break this down Awards style.....

Best Announcing Team- Chris Fowler/Kirk Herbstreit (With the added bonus of Erin Andrews), The Holiday Bowl

I love when they do games. I have to actually TRY to find things wrong with their broadcast, and I rarely do. It's a shame ESPN continues to leave their best teams as the Studio Show.


Worst Announcing Team- Tie between Fouts/Brant (Emerald Bowl) & Thorne/Ware (GMAC Bowl)





Lowlights:

Thorne referred to a player as "Old Man Handy".
"Usually that's a false start when they blow the whistle before the whistle"- Ware
"The eyes are still down the field, which allows him to make the play." - Ware
"Oh no, he broke my ankles."- Ware
"Weakley had one reception on the year coming in, so now he has two."- Thorne
"Effort penalties, I'm okay with - those are just part of the game." - Ware
"This one's starting to have the aroma of a barn burner!"- Fouts
"As Jack talked about this is a flat field because it's a baseball field"- Fouts
"Steve Barth our referee from the USA.....Conference."- Fouts
"Booker looks looked like he was heading to halelujah land"- Brant
"And the fair catch is signaled and....IT'S MIFFED!"- Fouts

Best Supporting Actor (Best Color Guy)- Bob Griese, Champs Sports Bowl

The Greaseman took Paul Maguire to task on a regular basis during the Champs Sports Bowl leading to this exchange.....

"I think it's an honor to sit next to a Hall of Famer"- PM
"Umm, I wish I could say the same"- BG

Best Supporting Actress (Best Sideline Reporter)- Erin Andrews, Multiple Bowls

Come on......who did you think I was going to pick? And before you get all uppity and call me sexist....I needed a category for the women. Pam Ward was not winning for anything and there are no female colorguys persons. (Erin barely beat out Dr. Jerry Punch who I think is just dreamy)


Best Bowl Game- Chick-fil-A Bowl (Georgia/VT)

To tell you the truth the majority of the Bowl Games ESPN showed this year sucked. They were either low scoring or blowouts. This was the only one that didn't disappoint.

AA's Final Grade:

The sheer amount of Announcers ESPN has is mind-boggling. You could probably create an okay team if you nixed a few folks (Ware, Fouts, Maguire, Mike Patrick, etc.) I think the games themselves played a big part in the announcers being pretty bad this year, and I'm not going to penalize them for that. So........

C-

Join me for the NFL Network and Fox tomorrow. Don't forget to stop by at around 9PM for Just Call Me Juice's live-blog of the Wisconsin/Ohio State tilt tonight.

Well last night sucked as far as picks went. I was 2-3, and I think I'm going to simply pick by conference now.

No offense to the teams playing, but today is by far the worst day of the Bowl Season. Navy v BC? Boring. Texas v. Iowa? Blowout. VT v Georgia? Well there's not a team I hate to watch more than Georgia.....but BC and Iowa are close.

As the title suggests......I can't stand Maguire. He was doing the Champs Sports Bowl last night with Bob Griese (who is okay) and Brad Nessler (who is above average). Griese and Nessler kept laying into him and all he could come up with is some dumb joke about how he won't bring Griese coffee next week. Griese was pretty funny though at times.

"I think it's an honor to sit next to a Hall of Famer"- PM
"Umm, I wish I could say the same"- BG
(insert lame coffee joke)

Nessler had the joke of the Bowl Season though. Purdue's kicker shanked a kick in the first quarter. As Nessler took them to commercial he said "Wow and that is shanked! Looked like one of those kicks at halftime for a prize." PM and BG laughed like little girls.

I just personally cannot stand Paul Maguire.....he is the worst of the worst. I don't understand how someone who played football knows nothing about it. But what do I know? Let's ask the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame:

Had Maguire never played the game, his broadcasting career alone would earn him hall-of-fame status. On the other hand it is precisely because Paul played the game that his analytical instincts are so sharp, his observations so relevant, his criticism so knowledgeable.

F-that. Back later with the Meineke, Alamo, and Peach Previews.......get your picks in.....BC -6, Tex -8.5, VT -3.