Mine That Bird Shocked Everyone, Including Announcer Tom Durkin

Above is the full broadcast of Saturday's Kentucky Derby as it appeared on NBC, with Tom Durkin calling the race. It was not one of Durkin's better days.

Mine That Bird came out of nowhere to win the Derby as a 50-1 shot, and Durkin just plain missed it. Early in the race he said, "Well behind the rest of them is Mine That Bird," and by the next time Durkin mentioned Mine That Bird's name, the horse had surged into a big lead.

Even after Mine That Bird blew away the field down the stretch, Durkin seemed unsure of himself and stumbled over his words, and he chuckled as he finally said, "Mine That Bird has won the Kentucky Derby! An impossible result here!"

Durkin's job is an unforgiving one: He's not like a play-by-play man who does his job for three hours and gets the chance to redeem himself if he screws up. He does his job for three minutes, and if he screws up, that's all anyone will remember about him. As a result, Durkin's mistake has been mentioned all over the place in the last couple of days, from the FanHouse podcast to USA Today to Deadspin, just to name a few.

Still, as Bob Goetz of the New York Times notes, Durkin is one of the best in the business. Durkin missed this call, but that just goes to show that everyone missed Mine That Bird.