ESPN’s Sage Steele on Thursday said she had a "problem" with all of the coverage sports media has been giving to the Colin Kaepernick saga, according to Dan Steinberg of the WASHINGTON POST. Steele, appearing on "The Dan Patrick Show," said, "I do not look forward to discussing this on ‘SportsCenter,’ I really don’t. And we are going to be doing things a little bit differently. I mean, on NFL Mondays, you will see every highlights from every game played on Sunday. Every one. Doesn’t mean they’re all going to be two minutes, but we’re getting back to that, to more sports -- I know, God forbid. And not that we haven’t done it on other shows, but that was a key for me. So these discussions need to be had, and there are crossover topics like this that will be discussed." Asked about covering the Robert Lee story impacting ESPN, Steele said, "When I turn on ‘SportsCenter,’ that’s not what I want to hear. As a viewer, I want to see the highlights, I want to hear from Rich Hill. That’s what I want as a viewer, and that’s what I believe most viewers want when they turn to ESPN, is less of this." More Steele: "I will always go back to why did people turn us on when Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann were hosting, and why are they turning us on now? And in my opinion, it’s not to hear about Charlottesville. ... It’s about the games, it’s about the highlights. Let’s show some standings. Let’s talk about what’s coming up tonight" (WASHINGTON POST, 8/25).
IN HINDSIGHT: In Boston, Chad Finn writes ESPN "wasn’t being politically correct" when it decided to move Lee from calling the William & Mary-Virginia football game. It was "being paranoid." The fundamental misread is that it "did not consider what would happen if someone with a significant audience and an anti-ESPN agenda got wind of the decision." And ESPN "clearly didn’t consider that the backlash would create significantly more Internet grief for Lee than just letting him call the game" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/25). Ravens radio play-by-play man Gerry Sandusky, who bears a name similar to the former Penn State assistant football coach, said, "We're just so overreacting and so overreaching and so overconcerned about the things that don't matter because we're not paying attention to the things that do matter" (Baltimore SUN, 8/24).
TIME TO DECIDE: SI.com's Richard Deitsch wrote ESPN management now has a "decision on its hands regarding discipline" following the recent arrest of the net's Ryen Russillo. The expectation is Russillo will be "suspended by the company for a period of time." No decision had been made given management had "yet to talk to Russillo" as of Wednesday night. An ESPN colleague close to Russillo predicted that if given the opportunity on air, he would be "fully transparent about what happened" (SI.com, 8/24).
