Over the last decade or so, nobody would mistake Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd for a true sports savant.
He’s your typical talking head, one who doesn’t have the minute details down for each sport that he gets on radio and TV and talks about daily.
Throughout the last decade or so there’s been plenty of examples of that. His latest mistake Tuesday was arguably his most insensitive one.
In a discussion highlighting the quarterbacks that he believes can and cannot win the Super Bowl in 2023, including all of the quarterbacks drafted dating back to 2013, Cowherd insensitively took a shot at late Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins, naming him as a quarterback who “can’t win the Super Bowl” this season.
“Then the third category is 20 guys who are not getting to a Super Bowl and certainly not winning it. And that’s everybody else from Baker Mayfield, Teddy Bridgewater, Dwayne Haskins,” Cowherd said on his show, according to video from Funhouse on Twitter. “Guys, guys that … can’t win Super Bowls. Okay? So six stars, four high-end starters, and 20 guys that can’t win a Super Bowl.”
Someone should tell him.
Haskins, as is well known across the NFL landscape, died tragically in April 2022 after being hit by a dump truck while trying to cross a highway in Florida early one morning after his car ran out of gas.
He was 24 years old.
At the time, he was the No. 3 quarterback in Pittsburgh behind veterans Mitch Trubisky — who had recently signed as a free agent — and Mason Rudolph. Haskins was in Florida working out with Steelers teammates at the time before tragically dying.
While it’s been roughly 16 months since Haskins died, taking a shot at him by listing him as a quarterback who can’t win the Super Bowl in 2023 is just classless from Cowherd. He should know better that Haskins died. It was national news. That’s not something you just forget, especially the manner in which Haskins sadly died.
It would be understandable if it was just a mistake with Haskins being on the graphic as a quarterback in the league drafted since 2013, since he was a quarterback drafted in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Washington franchise. But it wasn’t just that; Cowherd called Haskins out by name.
This isn’t some old video that resurfaced either. Cowherd said this Tuesday on a national show.
Incredibly insensitive and shows that Cowherd just doesn’t pay close enough attention to the sports he actually talks about.
This is largely who Cowherd is, though. As Funhouse stated on Twitter, Cowherd “doesn’t do” death on his shows. He doesn’t care if you die, even if you’re a prominent name in the sports world.
Haskins spent two seasons with the team before being released during the 2020 season. Pittsburgh signed him to a futures contract after the 2020 season. He spent the year as the team’s No. 3 QB, never appearing in a game before the Steelers restricted tendered him in the 2022 offseason as he was expected to compete for the No. 2 or No. 3 job on the roster.
Haskins’ career never panned out like he or anyone else had envisioned when he was a star at Ohio State and eventually selected in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Granted, some of that could be attributed to the dumpster fire of a franchise he landed with, one that rushed him into the starting lineup and then yanked him from the field far too quickly.
He may have never won a Super Bowl in his career, but more than 16 months after his tragic death, it was an unnecessary, insensitive, largely classless shot from Cowherd. Rest in peace, Dwayne.
