If ESPN was trying to hide the apology late at night, by saying it on air during “SportsCenter” at 12:20 a.m. ET, it didn’t slip by the Patriots, who tweeted out the clip to their 1.52 million followers. The report ESPN was referencing was presumably the one that the Patriots taped the Rams’ practice before that Super Bowl, and it was proven by the NFL to be untrue long ago.
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ESPN issued an apology Thursday to the NFL’s New England Patriots franchise for a mistake made while reporting on the team’s scandals.
If you think DeflateGate is annoying, why don’t you try on Spygate for size? The Patriots merely were penalized for filming Jets signals during a game. “While the Boston Herald based its February 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walk-through ever existed”.
“On two occasions recently – in an onscreen graphic and in an anchor’s unscripted remarks – SportsCenter incorrectly referenced an inaccurate 2008 newspaper account regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI”, King said.
In fact, ESPN ran with the filmed walkthrough story multiple times in recent weeks, displaying the “news” on the bottom of the screen during discussions about DeflateGate.
The apology was directed to the Patriots in response to citing “a 2002 report” regarding the Patriots’ XXXVI appearance vs. the St. Louis Rams.
“The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots’ owners, players, employees and fans for our error”. By now, everyone, even the NFL and the reporter himself, has acknowledged that Chris Mortensen’s story about 11 of the 12 Pats footballs from the AFC championship being “inflated significantly below the NFL’s requirements” with some under-inflated by more than 2 PSI was slightly off, at best, and wrong, at worst.
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Storm later clarified her comments, but did not apologize.
