ESPN Vice President Burke Magnus spoke Violent reaction against his company for failing to broadcast the national anthem before the Sugar Bowl on January 2, one day after the terrorist truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people.
Magnus called Failure Broadcasting the national anthem was a “big mistake,” blaming employees who were working in the Bristol, Connecticut, office at the time.
“There's a group of people in Bristol who made a terrible mistake, it was human error, it happened. I don't want to downplay it in any way,” Magnus said. “This was just a huge mistake made by a group of really well-meaning people who feel bad about it.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
The national anthem is played before the 2024 Sugar Bowl between the Texas Longhorns and Washington Huskies at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. (Steven Liu – USA TODAY Sports)
Magnus also said that the circumstances of the match, since it was postponed a day after the attack occurred early on January 1, affected the scheduling and timing of people working on the broadcast.
“Nothing was normal that next day, including our lineup,” Magnus said. “I can give you a whole bunch of reasons why it wasn't a normal circumstance,” he said.
Magnus insisted that the company did not make a deliberate decision not to broadcast the national anthem.
Eagles coach calls AJ Brown 'lazy' after he was caught reading a book during game
Authorities patrol Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 2, 2024. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
“The idea that it was somehow intentional or that we were trying to avoid acknowledging the horrific situation in New Orleans was really misplaced. It was just a mistake that we feel bad about, and by the way, we should be held accountable for that.” He said.
“Our timing was wrong. We were on a commercial break when the national anthem played. It wasn't good by any measure and it wasn't up to our standards,” he said.
The failure to broadcast the anthem was exacerbated by the decision to also broadcast a controversial video message from Tom Wilson, CEO of Allstate, the Sugar Bowl's corporate sponsor.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Tom Wilson, Chairman and CEO of Allstate Corp. (Misha Friedman/Bloomberg/Archive)
In the video, Wilson noted that Americans have an “addiction to division” and must “accept people's flaws and differences.” Many fans insisted on canceling their Allstate insurance plans after the video aired. Allstate later deleted the video from its social media accounts.
The initial backlash to ESPN's broadcast prompted the network to air the Sugar Bowl's national anthem later in the week during Thursday's edition of “SportsCenter.”
However, many fans considered the network's nod too late at that point. The network also made sure to air the national anthem ahead of the Orange Bowl game on January 9 between Penn State and Notre Dame.
The company then broadcast a prayer before the Cotton Bowl game between Ohio State and Texas on January 10.
Follow Fox News Digital Sports coverage on Xand subscribe to Fox News Sports Huddle Newsletter.
