Out of the Park: ESPN’s draft coverage should be less reliant on tragedy

With the toll that the coronavirus pandemic has taken on just about everything sports fans had to look forward to this spring, seeing the best day of many football players’ lives unfold on screen seemed like the perfect remedy. 

Thanks to ESPN, however, the 2020 NFL Draft essentially became a highlight reel of the worst days of draftees’ lives, doing little to distract from the sadness people across the country are feeling with the pandemic and certainly not doing any favors for the draftees themselves.

Stories of players overcoming obstacles have always been a component of draft coverage, but this year, it seemed that the infographic for nearly every draftee referenced some sort of personal tragedy. And as if simply mentioning the player’s horrific circumstance wasn’t enough, the broadcasters often elaborated on these stories in great detail as somber piano music played in the background.

When former Utah State quarterback Jordan Love was drafted in the first round by the Green Bay Packers, the discussion should have centered around the implications on franchise quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ future in Green Bay. Instead, after briefly comparing the circumstances of Love’s selection to those of Rodgers’ in 2005, ESPN spent a few minutes of airtime on the suicide of Love’s father, going into detail about what may have caused him to take his own life.

After receiving backlash from viewers about the broadcast’s overreliance on “sob stories” like Love’s, ESPN defended its tragedy-focused coverage as a way to provide insight into players’ lives off the field.

“Our NFL Draft coverage analyzes the prospects on the field and introduces the human side of the players by telling their stories, including the obstacles their families have overcome as part of the journey to the NFL,” ESPN said in a statement to The Athletic Saturday.

But the network continued to come under fire, especially for the content it included in various player infographics. The graphic for former Clemson wide receiver Tee Higgins read, “Mom, Camillia, fought drug addiction for 16 years.” A screenshot of the graphic went viral on Twitter, as fans wondered why ESPN would choose to casually include such personal information on the screen alongside Higgins’ hometown and other collegiate scholarship offers.

Fans were also confused when former Wisconsin wide receiver Quintez Cephus’ graphic detailed the legal trouble he faced in college. They couldn’t fathom that Cephus would have given the go-ahead for ESPN to broadcast this information to millions of viewers. Yes, disciplinary issues can be a concern for a player’s future in the NFL, but ESPN chose to lead with the fact that Cephus was accused and charged, rather than emphasizing his acquittal.

Although Higgins tweeted that he had “no problem” with ESPN elucidating his mother’s battle with addiction because he is proud of how far she has come, I doubt all of the draftees were pleased with seeing their draft announcement and a little bit of game tape before reliving their biggest hardships via national broadcast. 

ESPN vice president of production Seth Markman apologized about the content of the Higgins graphic in a statement to the Washington Post Sunday but did not mention how any other players were depicted, including Cephus.

“It was a mistake and we apologize for it,” Markman said. “We want our draft coverage to personalize players and, where appropriate, acknowledge the obstacles they’ve had to overcome on their journey to the NFL. This graphic lacked proper context.”

While I understand that ESPN’s goal is for viewers to get to know the draftees, there is a time and place for certain types of stories, and the draft — which is supposed to be uplifting and a cause for celebration — is not the time to talk about criminal records and the deaths of parents a decade ago. If players like Higgins are open to sharing these stories with the world at a later date, then so be it. Include it in a short documentary or another broadcast, but let’s minimize such content in the draft.

Even if every player had consented to ESPN revealing the darkest aspects of their past, it was also just not what fans needed from a broadcast that was supposed to be a reprieve from the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Perhaps the most striking story was that of former Penn State defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos, who lost his father and older brother in two separate tragedies. Gross-Matos’ father drowned trying to save 1-year-old Yetur when he fell overboard on a boating trip, and his older brother was fatally struck by lightning while playing baseball. 

These events seem too tragic to be true, and I can see why ESPN jumped at the chance to reveal what must have been formative parts of Gross-Matos’ life. But when so many people are feeling depressed over the apparent lack of control they have over their lives due to a global pandemic, Gross-Matos’ story — along with several others included in the broadcast — only served to underscore the notion that life can be devastatingly unpredictable.

With Gross-Matos’ permission, his story would make a compelling documentary for viewers who know what they’re getting into. But showing tragedy after tragedy on the broadcast is no way for players to celebrate achieving a lifelong goal or fans to celebrate one of the first major sporting events in a long while. It’s no way to make people feel good when they might not have a lot to feel good about otherwise.

It’s more than possible for ESPN to cut down on the dramatic — in fact, there’s so much potential for other types of content in the draft. I would have loved for the announcers to spend more of the time between picks focusing on each team and how the draft was going for them, essentially showing the “winners and losers” of the draft.

It also would have been interesting for the broadcast to incorporate interviews with draftees’ college coaches and get their reactions to their former players being selected. The coaches could have provided insight as to how each player has grown and can be an asset to their new NFL team, allowing ESPN to highlight a player’s development without desperately bringing up tragedy.

Ultimately, I started to feel like I was watching “American Idol” rather than a sporting event, because the players that stood out on the broadcast the most were often the ones with the most devastating backstories rather than those with the most impressive game tape.  

The NFL Draft is one of the best celebrations in sports. Given that distinction, it doesn’t seem like it should be controversial to suggest that ESPN’s coverage should focus a lot more on the celebration, and a lot less on trauma porn. 

Amanda Sturges is a sophomore writing about the impact of sports on society. She is also a features editor for the Daily Trojan. Her column, “Out of the Park,” typically runs every other Tuesday.