Ravens On-Air Swearing Comes During Live Portion of Super Bowl Coverage

CBS has no comment on four-letter outbursts; PTC calls for action from FCC

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/4/2013 1:21:15 AM

Victorious Ravens' quarterback Joe Flacco's four-letter exhuberance -- "F***ing awesome and a teammate's "holy sh*** summation of the night -- in the moments after winning a squeaker of a Super Bowl Sunday night (Feb. 3) were captured by CBS as its cameras and microphones covered the immediate postgame celebration. It immediately became a story on various websites.

That came almost a decade after the famous nipple slip on the CBS Super Bowl halftime show helped usher in an FCC fine and all the legal and congressional fallout to follow. It was also reminiscent of Bono's "f***ing brilliant" comment on NBC's Golden Globes that also contributed to the FCC crackdown in the mid-2000s.

Following the broadcast, the Parents Television Council called on the FCC to take action against CBS. It was PTC complaints that also helped prompt the indecency crackdown.

 

"Despite empty assurance after empty assurance from the broadcast networks that they would never air indecent material, especially during the Super Bowl, it has happened again," said PTC president Tim Winter in a statement.

"No one should be surprised that a jubilant quarterback might use profane language while celebrating a career-defining win," he added. "but that is precisely the reason why CBS should have taken precautions."

 

Winter did not mention the "holy sh*t " comment that -preceeded it and was also clearly audible.

CBS does take precations, but a CBS source confirmed that the network does not go to a tape delay -- the game is always live -- until the first commercial break after the game is over. Flacco's swearing came before that first break.

It wasn't the first Super Bowl-related verbal slip for the Raven's quarterback. Flacco only days before publicly apologized for saying that holding a Super Bowl outdoors in cold weather -- next year's is outdoors in New Jersey -- was a "retarded" idea.

A CBS spokesman declined comment.