When Super Bowl LV was interrupted by a spectator running on the field Sunday evening, TV broadcaster CBS quickly cut away — a standard broadcast procedure that aims to keep copycats off the field in the future.
But on the national radio broadcast, play-by-play man Kevin Harlan knew it was his time to shine.
Harlan is known for his unique style in describing the action on the field — even when the clock is stopped. On Sunday, his latest "spectator on the field" call quickly became an instant classic.
"He's now being chased, he's running down the middle of the field. The 40...arms in the air in a victory salute. He's pulling down his pants — pull up your pants my man! Pull up those pants!" Harlan said.
Harlan described the trespasser with the same cadence he would a Leonard Fournette touchdown run.
"He's being chased to the 30, he breaks a tackle from a security guard, the 20. Down the middle! The 10! The five! He slides at the one, and they converge on him at the goal line."
After the man was taken into custody, Harlan had some harsh words for the man, who appeared to have been wearing a bright pink undergarment.
"Pull up your pants, take off the bra and be a man!"
Kevin Harlan's call of the idiot on the field (w/video from @rlacey23) : pic.twitter.com/iAI7WDi5xx
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) February 8, 2021
It's not the first time Harlan has used his unique style to call the action when play on the field is halted. In 2019, Harlan was on the call during a Monday Night Football game between the Giants and Cowboys when a cat got loose in the end zone of New Jersey's MetLife Stadium.
"And the cat is in the 'CDW Red Zone' — CDW: People who get it," Harlan said.
Harlan also had a memorable call when a trespasser breached the field during a 2016 game between the Rams and 49ers.
"The guy is drunk, but there he goes! The twenty! They're not going to catch him!" Harlan said.
