'Gutless' ESPN Issues On-Air Apology After Guest Makes SEC-Alabama Conspiracy Claim
If there’s one thing ESPN seems steadfastly opposed to learning, it’s the lesson that sports and politics don’t mix.
So maybe having Democratic political strategist and noted LSU fan James Carville on “College Gameday” was less a spark of inspiration and more like a sparkler being thrown into a dumpster to start a trash fire.
Carville espouses a rather wild-eyed conspiracy theory that Alabama’s success on the football field is not due to coach Nick Saban’s successful effort to brand the Tide’s image as a place to win championships in college and make giant sums of money in the NFL for the high school recruit.
Instead, Carville would have us believe that all of Alabama’s success is due to the Southeastern Conference rigging the game in favor of the men in Tuscaloosa.
Linebacker Devin White, LSU’s best defensive player, served a suspension in the first half of the Tigers’ game against Alabama Saturday, a game the Tide won 29-0 in Baton Rouge. White’s suspension was a result of being ejected for a targeting penalty in the second half of LSU’s last game, an Oct. 20 win over Mississippi State.
The Tide scored 16 points in the first half against LSU and 13 in the second. As conspiracies go, this isn’t exactly steel beams and jet fuel.
But whatever, if all of this was nothing more than a jilted fan complaining that his team got a raw deal, every one of us watching games in any sport would be Alex Jones.
What caused ESPN to apologize is Carville going way over anyone’s idea of the line between decency and “dude, you might want to walk that one back about 15 yards.”
Carville told TMZ on Friday that, “I would trust the Saudi government more than I’d trust the SEC. [White] is our best player we got, no reason he shouldn’t be playing.”
Carville followed that up Saturday by appearing on ESPN’s “Gameday” wearing a purple sweatshirt that called out SEC commissioner Greg Sankey by name. He then went on an unhinged rant in which he paced between the camera and the studio team spouting off about alleged match-fixing on the SEC’s part, pointing out the coincidences between player suspensions and their teams facing the Crimson Tide.
Did James Carville just expose the deep state of the SEC?!pic.twitter.com/c8EV5DvCY3
— Barstool Sports (@barstooltweetss) November 3, 2018
ESPN’s apology was meek and conciliatory in exactly the way you’d expect from a network with declining ratings and revenues that can’t afford to anger the benevolent hand that feeds them something to broadcast.
You just hate to see a once powerful network beg for forgiveness like this on live TV. You really do. pic.twitter.com/oM0MTp4SOb
— Barstool Sports (@barstooltweetss) November 3, 2018
ESPN “encourages diverse opinions” while acknowledging that Carville “went too far.”
Carville, meanwhile…well, OK, you gotta hand it to anyone who sticks to his guns. Let’s at least give him that:
Grabbing bite to eat @philsoysterbar and I see gutless ESPN cut in their show to bow down to the SEC. well I got documentary evidence they knew what they were gonna get on air but still can’t help but suck up to power. #GeauxTigers #speaktruthtopower #releasethetexts pic.twitter.com/G29ew5mf9K
— James Carville (@JamesCarville) November 3, 2018
Carville called ESPN’s apology “gutless” and claimed he has “documentary evidence” — I think the word is supposed to be “documented,” not implying there’s a ’30 For 30′ somewhere that never got released, but whatever — that the conspiracy is real.
Working in the reference to Phil’s Oyster Bar in the tweet was a nice touch, though.
In the end, LSU got its butt kicked in its own stadium by the Tide, and even if it would have had White, LSU still needed to score points.
And ESPN will never learn that politics and sports don’t mix.
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