It’s so widespread, there can be no other explanation. At the ends of pregame production meetings, a reminder/order is issued: “Remember, whatever happens and whatever you say, don’t tell the truth!”
And so when Baylor wide receiver Ishmael Zamora, who had fumbled earlier in the game, caught a pass, then ran 10 yards for a TD against Texas Tech on ESPN, he was treated like a champ.
Even as Zamora was seen on the sidelines, laughing, smiling, laughing some more — no evidence that Baylor now was down by only 20 and soon would lose its sixth straight after a 6-0 start, evidence that Zamora was pleased with only himself. ESPN’s announcers, Clay Matvick and former Oklahoma nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek, spoke of Zamora as special — at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, Baylor’s “top receiver” and worthy of our admiration.
Matvick started it by naming Zamora as “one of the team’s better receivers, despite missing three games with a team suspension.”
Three-game suspension? For what? Missing classes? Overdue library books? Blew curfew?
Neither Matvick nor Dvoracek chose to say what they knew: Zamora was suspended after a home video revealed him to have repeatedly beaten his cornered dog with a belt, then kicked it, then again beat the cowering “pet” with the belt.
The viewer-discretion video still is on the internet, and Zamora pleaded to animal abuse; it wasn’t as if it was a matter of rumor; thus ESPN protected the wrong animal.
But Baylor football and its players have, at least thus far — and with much more likely to come — escaped greater shame as per the tell-no-truths of sports television.
Although Baylor, this season, has appeared on ESPN, ABC or FOX, no game announcer, analyst or sideline reporter has stated some unsavory facts:
An extensive, Baylor-funded investigation uncovered allegations that since 2011, 17 women have been victims of alleged domestic abuse, sexual assaults, rape and gang rapes by Baylor football players.
Even as the school continues to eschew its green and gold school colors to wear Nike Bad Boy Black uniforms, the “program” likely was pervaded by worse — genuine felons — than its “alternative” uniforms tried to convey.
Last year, defensive end Sam Ukwuachu, recruited to Baylor after he was thrown off Boise State’s team amid reports of violent episodes and threats against women, was convicted of the rape of a Baylor student. The year before, Baylor linebacker Tevin Elliott was sentenced to 20 years on two counts of sexual assault.
Among all the growing malevolence that big-time, TV-moneyed college sports inflicts on society under the sham front of higher education — and among all the physical and emotional scars left on the victims of big-ticket college sports — Baylor football may prove beyond all boundaries.
But TV won’t touch it. And if it can’t report the two recent convictions for sexual assault and suspected sexual or domestic assaults by 19 Baylor recruits, why wouldn’t a Baylor star be protected by TV for merely beating the hell out of a defenseless, cowering dog?
Kaepernick picks wrong time to show Castro love
The corner of Coincidence and Irony: Not that anyone on TV was going to touch this, but Colin Kaepernick, the Niners’ QB, who regards the US as unworthy of once-weekly national anthem respect, appeared in one of his protest pronouncements wearing a T-shirt carrying images of Fidel Castro, apparently one of Kaepernick’s heroes.
Photos and footage of that session made for an extra-incensed response from residents of Miami, the US city most inhabited by those who most despised the Cuban autocrat.
Castro died Friday, just as the Niners, quarterbacked by Kaepernick, prepared to play yesterday … in Miami.
The Niners, who lost, hadn’t played the Dolphins in Miami since 2008.
Once again, and again for one week, nonstop, ESPN sold “the great traditions” of Michigan-Ohio State.
But one of the traditions that goes unmentioned is the incivility of fans, players and coaches.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s graceless postgame bad-loser whining about extremely close calls again proved that colleges will pay millions to engage overly entitled adult brats who couldn’t set a good example for a redshirt or true freshman.
And after selling the game for a week for its great tradition, Ohio State, in a conspicuous abandonment of tradition, wore black helmets and “alternative uniforms,” as per Nike’s orders.
And given that ABC/ESPN announcers, Chris Fowler and OSU football alumnus Kirk Herbstreit apparently didn’t notice, we weren’t supposed to, either.
As the Notre Dame-USC game on ABC/ESPN degenerated into something that resembled prison-gang warfare — football grows more and more insufferable — USC’s Adoree’ Jackson added to the desensitization by striking an immodest Heisman Trophy pose after scoring.
Of course, ESPN then chose that to twice emphasize as a slow-motion highlight, while FOX’s college football studio show, a bit later, also showed it as a “game highlight.”
ESPN’s promo for Tennessee-Vanderbilt? A UT player mean-mugging the camera while flexing his muscles.
Why networks spend billions to buy sports, then work to destroy them will be one of those answers that arrives far too late.
Huard calls ’em like we’ll see ’em
Nice call by ESPN analyst Brock Huard in Michigan State-Penn State. The play after stating that PSU RB Saquon Barkley “can accelerate and elevate,” Barkley leaped into the end zone from 3 yards out.
The Browns, yesterday on FOX, shattered the record for most ain’t-I-great showboating by an 0-12 team. Yeesh.
After USC scored on a punt return, then a return of an interception, ESPN’s Steve Levy noted: “In 17 seconds, two non-offense touchdowns!” Got it, Steve; good stat. But tell ESPN. Those 14 points will be credited to the offense, then presented as evidence of USC’s “high-powered offense!”
With the passing of Ralph Branca, reader Bill King suggests that if “The Shot Heard ‘Round The World” happened today, it would occur at about midnight. Hey, ESPN once showed Bobby Thomson’s homer, then identified it as a “walk-off” that won the “1951 NLCS.” Seriously.
Allen Bestwick, normally known as a NASCAR voice, called ABC/ESPN’s Nebraska-Iowa as if he were speaking to intelligent life forms, those who could see what he saw in a casual but alert mode. More Bestwick, please.
FOX, within Thanksgiving’s Skins-Cowboys, promoted Joe Buck’s new autobiography, attached to a coarse title that underscores his slick, hip and forced TV persona.
Reader David Distefano laments: With Brian McCann traded to Houston, we’re not likely to ever again hear John Sterling sing, “Ah, McCann can; oh, yes, he can can …”