Watch: ESPN spread misinformation about Tennessee Vols player during broadcast
On Friday, the Tennessee Vols annoucned that catcher Evan Russell wouldn't be available for UT's Knoxville Regional game against Alabama State. Tennessee didn't give a reason for Russell's absence and they noted that head coach Tony Vitello would address it after the game. This of course sent the internet into a frenzy. Various rumors, some […]
On Friday, the Tennessee Vols annoucned that catcher Evan Russell wouldn't be available for UT's Knoxville Regional game against Alabama State.
Tennessee didn't give a reason for Russell's absence and they noted that head coach Tony Vitello would address it after the game.
This of course sent the internet into a frenzy. Various rumors, some of which were reckless, spread across message boards and Twitter like wildfire.
After the game, Vitello said Russell was "sick" and may or may not be available for the Vols' game on Saturday night against Campbell.
One of the rumors that spread across social media was that Russell had failed a PEDs test. The rumor seemingly originated with an Arkansas fan on Twitter. There was no factual basis for the rumor.
ESPN apparently took the tweet from the Arkansas fan as fact. During their broadcast of a Big 12 game, the ESPN announcers said that a "report" indicated that Russell failed a PEDs test and that the rest of Tennessee's team would be tested on Saturday. That's pretty much word for word what the tweet from the Arkansas fan said.
This is about as unprofessional as it gets. Russell dealt with enough when it came to social media rumors and message board speculation on Friday night. But ESPN — the biggest brand in sports — spreading misinformation about Russell is significantly worse than any Twitter user or message board user spreading a rumor. Both are bad, but ESPN's announcers have a responsibility to the viewer to be accurate and to not damage a college athlete's reputation.
It's not unreasonable to suggest that ESPN could've hurt Russell's NIL earning opportunities by harming his reputation.
ESPN should publicly apologize to Russell, at the very least, so he can clear his name. I'm sure there are a lot of viewers who aren't Tennessee fans and haven't kept up with the situation that believe Russell is a PEDs user thanks to ESPN's irresponsibility.
Mistakes happen. But this one should've never ever happened.
Update: Tennessee released a statement on Saturday addressing ESPN's comments about Russell.
Featured image via USA TODAY Sports
