The appearance of ESPN's Dan Patrick in a Coors
commercial with John Elway is "doubly troubling," according
to Milton Kent of the Baltimore SUN. Kent: "First, as a
journalist, he compromises his integrity by endorsing a
product of any sort, even as nominally as he does in the
spots, where he doesn't hold the beer, nor does he say the
Coors name." While Patrick "doesn't cross the line as
egregiously as" SI's Rick Reilly did in his Miller Lite ad,
he "shouldn't be stepping out for a product. Just as
importantly, for Patrick to be selling an alcoholic beverage
at a time when the incidents of athletes and announcers
(witness ESPN's Gary Miller) showing an inability to handle
their liquor are growing, is not good." Patrick appears in
PSA's telling parents to talk to their kids about drugs and
drinking, of which Kent writes, "Talk about your mixed
messages." Kent: "Why didn't someone in ESPN management
tell Patrick that for his own good and for the good of the
channel, he couldn't do the spots? It's too late for that
now, for the damage to his credibility and that of ESPN has
already been done" (Baltimore SUN, 7/20).
