2016By Alex Putterman on

In the post-Jacked Up era, ESPN and other sports media outlets are, at least ostensibly, committed to promoting player safety in football and resisting the urge to glorify the game’s violence.

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So it seemed odd Saturday when ESPN.com posted a video of big hits from the day’s college football action interspersed with clips of the ambulance graphics featured in old Madden games. And it seemed even more odd when the official SportsCenter Twitter account sent out the video with a tweet reading, “The Madden ambulance had to be called numerous times on Saturday.”

The tweet quickly sparked some backlash, including from former SportsCenter anchor and current MLB Network and NHL Network host Robert Flores.

After Flores’ call-out, SportsCenter deleted its tweet promoting the video, and ESPN took down the clip. For some reason, the page still exists as of this writing, with this thumbnail photo:

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But when you click the “play” button, here’s what comes up:

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Here’s a screenshot of the since-deleted tweet:

It’s tough to figure out what ESPN was thinking here. Given the national focus on football-player safety, specifically with regards to head injuries, it’s somewhat shocking that editors, producers and social media staff at ESPN all signed off on a video that more or less jokes about college athletes suffering potentially traumatic injuries.

UPDATE: Asked about the video’s removal, an ESPN spokesman told Awful Announcing in an email, “The simple truth is we thought better of it once it was posted.”

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

View all posts by Alex Putterman

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