Liverpool clenched their first league title in thirty years at the end of June, but they had to wait until their final home match of the season to lift the trophy. That was today, after a very fun 5-3 win over Chelsea that came despite another fantastic performance from Christian Pulisic.
For American Liverpool fans who have been waiting throughout the pandemic-induced layoff and for nearly a month since Liverpool clinched (on top of the prior thirty years), it was a momentous occasion, and many were obviously locked in on NBCSN’s coverage today. And while the network did an admirable job of staying on with post-game sights and sounds from Anfield, they made a very poor (or perhaps just very unlucky) decision to go to a split-screen commercial break just as Liverpool staff and players were about to sing a league championship rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
That is certainly not what anyone wanted, especially not the thousands and thousands of fans who were probably waiting to join in from home. Instead they got a lengthy commercial break. Why air the inspiring sight of Liverpool persevering despite an empty stadium, singing to fans around the globe, when you can instead have Peyton Manning and Brad Paisley bantering back and forth about a Nationwide jingle?
This, obviously, didn’t go over well!
This was so bad. https://t.co/Q4quHrLobA
— Zach Osterman (@ZachOsterman) July 22, 2020
https://twitter.com/MaebyKate/status/1286057589546065920
Oh, NBCSN. Commercials during YNWA. You gaggle of ass clowns.
— B (@NTXZO) July 22, 2020
THEY LITERALLY CUT OUT AS THEY STARTED AND CAME BACK AS THEY FINISHED, I NEED THAT VIDEO NOW PLEASE
— Alex Reiter (@ghost_reiter) July 22, 2020
To NBCSN’s credit, they did go back later and replay. Their EPL coverage is typically as good as anyone could hope for, and if forced to guess, they just had a hard break there and couldn’t do anything about Liverpool’s order of operations for their celebration. But it was certainly unfortunate all around.
Still, Liverpool fans: you did just win the Premier League title, a season after winning the Champions League, and you get to cheer for a team managed by Jurgen Klopp, one of the most inspiring people in sports. Here he is talking about the party he hopes to throw once this “bullshit” virus is eradicated. (Bullshit not in that it’s fake, but in that it sucks.)
So, yeah, things could be a lot worse for you.
