ESPN Blames ‘Timing Issue’ For Not Carrying Moment Of Silence And National Anthem Ahead Of Sugar Bowl

Ahead of the Sugar Bowl, the stadium held a moment of silence for the victims of the New Orleans terror attack, after which Georgia and Notre Dame fans came together in a stream of loud “U-S-A” chants.

However, the event’s exclusive broadcast partner, ESPN, opted not to show viewers the moment live or afterward. ESPN also decided to go to commercial breaks during the national anthem.

OutKick asked ESPN what went into the decision to skip over a powerful moment of unity after such a devastating massacre just 24 hours prior. Unfortunately, the network did not respond.

Rather, ESPN blamed the decision on a timing issue in a response to the New York Post. 

“However, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post that several factors played into why the national anthem and moment of silence didn’t make it on air, in particular, the awkwardness of the transition out of a commercial break,” the report details.

How convenient. And dishonest.

As Clay Travis noted on X, ESPN controls the broadcast clock. Networks decide well ahead of time what parts of the pre-game festivities they will and will not show. Hence, the Super Bowl broadcasters always clear enough time to carry the national anthem (and now the black national anthem.) Moreover, ESPN carries the moment of silence on its sister station, SEC Nation, which is known to have a less mainstream audience. 

Put simply, ESPN made the conscious decision ahead of time not to show the anthem and the moment of silence.

“So @espn said they didn’t cover the national anthem or the moment of silence for terror victims because of a “timing issue,” Clay commented. “Yet the @SECNetwork showed both. And ESPN, as the TV network, controls the clock. They are blatantly lying. They chose not to cover it.”

ESPN also didn’t show the Notre Dame players running on the field carrying the American flag. Probably another “timing issue.” Or something like that.

Why would ESPN choose not to carry the anthem and honor the victims of the attack? For the same reasons that the network has refused to call the massacre what it so clearly was: a terror attack.

Instead, the network has referred to the news as a “truck attack,” as if an ISIS-supporting monster was not behind the wheel of the car.

We remind you that ESPN carried nearly every second of the NBA playoff bubble in 2020 when players knelt before the national anthem in the name of the Marxian political organization “Black Lives Matter.”

There were no “timing issues” then.