It was the purported flatulence heard around the world — or at least on Twitter.
Early in the “Sunday Night Football” telecast, it sounded like Al Michaels or Cris Collinsworth may have audibly passed gas while Ben Roethlisberger was in shotgun.
Since fart jokes are too good to pass up, the online consensus was reached pretty quickly: Michaels or Collinsworth was responsible for the brief interruption.
Unfortunately, reality isn’t always that tidy. It’s far likelier that an item hit the microphone, or it picked up the swooshing of fabric. The fact is, it’s pretty inconceivable that Michaels’ or Collinsworth’s microphone could pick up something that happened beneath them.
Sorry to be the bearer of flatulent truth.
Viewers were also able to hear Michaels and Collinsworth levy plenty of praise on the Steelers, even as their dramatic comeback fell just short. Collinsworth presciently called Pittsburgh’s come-from-behind effort, noting in the third quarter it would be great for the Steelers if they could “do something to get the crowd going and get the terrible towels going.”
Then the Steelers blocked the punt, and scored a touchdown shortly thereafter.
“You can’t kill the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Collinsworth said.
While the Steelers still lost, that’s a correct statement. Unfortunately, you also can’t kill speculation about flatulence.