Peter Burns publicly apologizes to Benjamin Watson, wife for joke made on SEC Network

Peter Burns on Monday night posted a “public apology” on Twitter to SEC Network college Benjamin Watson and his wife Kirsten after a joke he made appeared to anger the former Georgia and NFL tight end.

During halftime of the Florida-Vanderbilt game, Watson joked that his wife texted him to tell him that he looked good. Burns responded, “That’s not what she texted me,” as the broadcast went to commercial.

That’s when things turned awkward: when the show returned from break, analysts Chris Doering and Takeo Spikes were seated at the desk in their usual spots, but Burns and Watson were nowhere to be found. Eventually, Watson joined them but appeared angered by Burns’ joke.

Burns eventually posted a photo of him and Watson on Twitter showing that things were good between the two after viewers expressed concern, with ESPN later saying that the whole thing was a bit. However, on Monday, Burns responded on Twitter to someone who commented that the situation “wasn’t that bad”, while apologizing for his joke:

While it was an joke, the truth is that I crossed the line, you should never joke about family so that I owe a public apology to Ben & Kirsten 100%.@BenjaminSWatson couldn’t have handled it better with his humor and class.

We all good & proud to call him a friend & coworker https://t.co/dPw7VdPcaX

— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) November 22, 2022

It’s good to see that Burns and Watson have put the incident behind them and moved on. Let’s hope for no further controversy between the two, though.

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.