ESPN opted not to broadcast the national anthem or the moment of silence preceding Thursday’s Sugar Bowl between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a decision that has left NFL legend Brett Favre displeased.
The Sugar Bowl had been delayed by a day due to a terrorist attack just a mile from the stadium, which resulted in 14 fatalities and left dozens injured.
Ahead of the game, the Sugar Bowl observed a moment of silence for the victims and played the national anthem. However, ESPN excluded this segment from its game coverage.
A source familiar with the decision told The New York Post that “several factors” influenced the choice not to air the national anthem.
The source explained, “‘SportsCenter,’ which had served as the pregame show due to the unusual circumstances, had wrapped on an interview with Tim Tebow and went to a commercial break before the moment of silence and returned in the middle of the anthem, ‘making it awkward to cut it’ at that moment,” as reported by the Post.
“ESPN did open its broadcast of the Sugar Bowl with a prerecorded message from President Joe Biden, and play-by-play broadcaster Sean McDonough spoke about the tragedy in his open while a montage of fans, police and the city of New Orleans played on the screen.”
Despite these explanations, Brett Favre said in a social media post.
“Heard: There was no televised National Anthem for Sugar Bowl yesterday. Instead a DEI message by @Allstate CEO. Woke is a joke,” Favre wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Needless to say, this led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“Rich coming from a guy who steals from the poor,” one person wrote on X.
“First they say politics don’t belong in sports but then they say this,” someone else said.
“You stole thousands of dollars from welfare. Shut up,” another person said, referencing the welfare scandal Favre is involved in.
“Needing to play the National Anthem before every game, letting alone televising it, is weird. Just like having to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school,” someone else said.
“I honestly wouldn’t mind if he got erased from Packer history,” another person added.
“he National Anthem wasn’t played at every sporting event, let alone televised, until post-9/11. These flexes aren’t what they think they are,” someone else said.
While the national anthem was not part of ESPN’s broadcast, it was aired on “SEC Nation,” a program on the ESPN-owned SEC Network, which was broadcast live from the Superdome.
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