ESPN's Jon Gruden and Sean McDonough drew praise for abhorring the on-field carnage during ESPN's "Monday Night Football" telecast of Steelers vs. Bengals in Week 13. But FS1's Jason Whitlock is throwing shade at the ESPN duo for making a "big deal" out of what he thought was a hard-hitting, but mostly clean, NFL game.
The AFC North grudge match featured not one but two players being stretchered off the field. During ESPN's telecast, Gruden said Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Schuster's illegal crackback block against the Bengals' Vontaze Burfict was "sickening." Smith-Schuster, who then crowed over the fallen Burfict, should have been thrown out of the game, Gruden added.
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McDonough, the play-by-play announcer, was disgusted by what he called an "ugly" night for a league suffering from declining TV numbers and fan interest: "I think the players need to think, Jon, about what they’re doing to each other, what they're doing to themselves, what they're doing to the image of the league and fan interest."
But Whitlock thought the criticism on "MNF" was coming from ESPN and the sports media's campaign to demonize the game of football. The only true dirty hit Whitlock saw was Bengals S George Iloka's head-hunting lick against Steelers star Antonio Brown. Both Smith-Schuster and Iloka were suspended one game by the NFL. The sports world is still holding its breath over the scary spinal injury suffered by Shazier after a clean, head-first tackle.
"The broadcast of that game was an embarrassment," Whitlock told partner Colin Cowherd on Tuesday night's "Speak for Yourself" on FS1. "They tried to slam football every chance they got. If you don’t like it, don’t broadcast it, don’t watch it. But football is a physical, contact sport."
"Everybody that’s signed up, and is making this money, they know what they’re getting into. That game was not dirty. There was one dirty hit at the end of the game. It happens."
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Whitlock also detected racial overtones in ESPN's MNF coverage.
According to Whitlock, Gruden and McDonough don't condemn on-field violence during MNF games featuring white coaches. But in a game coached by two African-Americans — Mike Tomlin of the Steelers and Marvin Lewis of the Bengals, as was the case Monday night — the NFL disgracefully became too "ghetto," Whitlock said.
"All of sudden we act like football died on 'Monday Night Football,' like it was the 'Malice at the Palace,' the Piston-Pacers (brawl in 2004). It just wasn't. It was unfair to these guys."
Just like ESPN's MNF duo, influential voices such as Fox Sports' own No. 1 game announcer, Troy Aikman, and Peter King of TheMMQB.com also decried the Steelers-Bengals game.
Imagine being a parent with a child who loves football and want to play. You’re watching this game. You ask, “How can I let my child play anything other then flag? Ever?"
— Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) December 5, 2017
This game is hard to watch for a number of reasons...terrible for the NFL and the game of football overall.
— Troy Aikman (@TroyAikman) December 5, 2017
As usual, Whitlock is taking a contrarian position that runs counter to the prevailing sports media wisdom at ESPN, his former employer. But he also had a point when he noted NFL standards keep changing.
Crackback blocks like the one Smith-Schuster used to wipe out Burfict used to be legal, not illegal.
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In fact, it was the kind of snot-bubbling hit that ESPN would have gleefully celebrated on its "Jacked Up" segment a few years ago. Not to mention cheering the fact that a notoriously dirty player like Burfict was finally on the receiving end of what Brown called "karma."
As Whitlock noted: "Burfict was trying to make a play on a football, and a guy cleaned his clock. Ten years ago we’d all be saying he got ‘Jacked Up' and high-fiving each other."
But that was then, this is now.
Given what we now know about concussions, CTE and the trauma from big hits, Gruden and McDonough would have pilloried if they had not decried the on-field violence we watched on ESPN Monday night.
It was, however, a good night for ESPN. Sean McDonough minced no words, Lisa Salters asked Roethlisberger good questions in the right order. No sugarcoating what happened.
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) December 5, 2017
Moving forward, more NFL announcers are going to be placed in these damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't positions. Where's the line between celebrating hard-hitting, clean football and worrying on-air about the brutality and health impact of an inherently violent game?
During Monday's "Golic and Wingo," Gruden said NFL defenders need to retrain themselves to stop tackling with their helmets, period. Many will look for network announcers to forget league partnerships and talk more openly about ways to limit head injuries and increase player safety.
But for every one of those cautious voices, there will be those like President Donald Trump who complain the NFL has gotten too "soft." Even retired ESPN announcer Brent Musburger weighed in.
Yo,Snowflakes. Quit preaching. The Violent World of Sam Huff sold NFL football to the masses. The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders gave us a little sex with our violence. Deal with it!
— Brent Musburger (@brentmusburger) December 6, 2017
As Whitlock put it, ESPN's entire broadcast sounded like it was coming from people who don't like the sport they cover. If so, Whitlock said, "don't broadcast the game."
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
