ESPN admits 'terrible mistake' in Sugar Bowl national anthem decision

ESPN caught some heat after failing to broadcast the playing of the national anthem before the Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff game.
The game was played in New Orleans one day after a deadly terrorist attack that killed more than a dozen people and resulted in the contest being postponed by nearly 24 hours.
Not airing the national anthem was met with plenty of criticism, and now a decision maker at ESPN says it was all a mistake.
Listen to @espn President of Content Burke Magnus blame "human error" for skipping the National Anthem at the Sugar Bowl. @ClayTravis pic.twitter.com/SNbGIWKosU
— The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (@clayandbuck) January 16, 2025
“Let me just say this: There’s a group of people in Bristol who just made an enormous mistake,” ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said of the oversight.
He added: “It was a human error. It happens. I don’t want to minimize it by any stretch.”
Magnus noted that ESPN’s entire programming schedule was thrown off by the effect of the terrorist attack and it causing the Sugar Bowl to be delayed.
But he didn’t blame those changes for the anthem not being played on its airwaves.
“I could give you a whole host of reasons why it was not the normal circumstance, but at the end of the day, that was just a horrible error made by a group of really well-intentioned people who feel terrible about it,” he said.
Magnus pushed back against the idea that ESPN purposefully avoided playing the national anthem, a claim that was brought up by some political commentators.
“The notion that that was somehow intentional, or we were trying to avoid acknowledging what was a horrific situation in New Orleans was really misplaced,” he said.
“It was just a mistake that we feel terrible about, and, by the way, we should be held accountable for.”
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