ESPN VP admits not airing national anthem before Sugar Bowl after terror attack was an 'enormous mistake'

ESPN Vice President Burke Magnus addressed the backlash against his institution for failing to broadcast the nationalist anthem up of the Sugar Bowl connected Jan. 2, 1 time aft the New Orleans panic motortruck onslaught that killed 14 people.

Magnus called the failure to broadcast the nationalist anthem an "enormous mistake," blaming employees who were moving successful the Bristol, Connecticut, bureau astatine the time.

"There's a radical of radical successful Bristol who conscionable made an tremendous mistake, it was a quality error, it happens. I don't privation to minimize it by immoderate stretch," Magnus said. "That was conscionable a horrible mistake that was made by a radical of truly well-intentioned radical who consciousness unspeakable astir it."

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Magnus besides said the circumstances of the game, since it was delayed a time aft the onslaught took spot aboriginal connected Jan. 1, affected the scheduling and timing of the radical moving connected the broadcast. 

"Nothing was mean astir that adjacent day, including our programming lineup," Magnus said. "I could springiness you a full big of reasons wherefore it wasn't the mean circumstance," helium said.

Magnus insisted that the institution did not marque a deliberate determination to not broadcast the nationalist anthem. 

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"The conception that it was someway intentional oregon we were trying to debar acknowledging what was a horrific concern successful New Orleans was truly misplaced. It was conscionable a mistake that we consciousness unspeakable astir and, by the way, we should beryllium held to relationship for," helium said. 

"Our timing got fouled up. We happened to beryllium successful commercialized interruption erstwhile the anthem happened, it was conscionable not bully by immoderate measuring instrumentality and not up to our standards," helium said. 

The nonaccomplishment to aerial the anthem was compounded by the determination to besides aerial a arguable video connection from Tom Wilson, the CEO of Allstate, which is the Sugar Bowl's firm sponsor.

In the video, Wilson suggested Americans person an "addiction to divisiveness" and indispensable "accept people's imperfections and differences." Many fans insisted they would cancel their Allstate security plans aft the video aired. Allstate aboriginal deleted the video from its societal media accounts.

The archetypal backlash to ESPN's broadcast prompted the web to aerial the Sugar Bowl's nationalist anthem aboriginal successful the week during a Thursday variation of "SportsCenter."

Still, galore fans considered the network's motion excessively precocious astatine that point. The web besides made definite to aerial the nationalist anthem up of the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl betwixt Penn State and Notre Dame. 

The institution past aired a supplication up of the Cotton Bowl crippled betwixt Ohio State and Texas connected Jan. 10.

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