ESPN needs to immediately issue an apology to Tennessee in light of comments from Georgia starting offensive lineman
ESPN's Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit had a rough showing last weekend during the broadcast of the Tennessee Vols' matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. The duo stumbled their way through the broadcast, often ignoring questionable plays/calls that impacted Tennessee. Arguably the worst moment of the broadcast was when the duo started poking fun […]
ESPN's Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit had a rough showing last weekend during the broadcast of the Tennessee Vols' matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens.
The duo stumbled their way through the broadcast, often ignoring questionable plays/calls that impacted Tennessee.
Arguably the worst moment of the broadcast was when the duo started poking fun at Tennessee's players for complaining that their bench warmers weren't working.
The broadcast would revisit the bench warmer issue later in the game, suggesting that playing on the road against a Big 10 team in the College Football Playoff could be a problem for the Vols.
As you can imagine, social media was flooded with posts making fun of Tennessee.
What the ESPN broadcast neglected to mention was that Georgia's skill position players were also using heated benches, something that Bulldogs offensive lineman Tate Ratledge pointed out on this week's Mullets on the Mic.
"You know what kind of makes me mad? It was cold, right? The Tennessee game got a little chilly," said Ratledge. "All the skill players get those little heated benches and we're (offensive linemen) just sitting over there on folding chairs just being cold. With one heater like 15 feet away from us."
Ratledge added that at one point he walked away from the group of offensive linemen to sit on the heated bench to warm up for a few seconds.
Both teams were dealing with the elements in the same way. Yet ESPN's broadcast only focused on Tennessee's players being "cold" (in reality, all of the players on both sides were just trying to say loose). ESPN's unprofessional broadcast led to a false narrative forming about the Vols, which is why the network should immediately apologize to the program in a public way.
But I'd be surprised if that happens. After all, this isn't the first time that Herbstreit and ESPN have been involved in spreading falsehoods about the Vols. It was just two years ago, around this same time of year, that Herbstreit claimed there were major locker room issues in Knoxville with zero proof (Vols head coach Josh Heupel even called out the false rumors). And Tennessee is still waiting on that apology.
