Let me first say, I have a great deal of respect for Jeff Pearlman. His accomplishments at SI and beyond speak for themselves. Jeff is one of those lightning rod types. Often times - whether he'll admit it or not - he takes the opposite of what everyone else is thinking just to prove he's smart enough to make a good argument. His take on ESPN's handling of Mark Ingram is one of those times.
If you missed it, Ingram was drafted 28th overall by the New Orleans Saints. Immediately after he hugged the commish, ESPN's Suzy Kolber read the rookie an email from his incarcerated father. As you would expect, the 21-year-old running back was extremely emotional.
Pearlman wrote this blog post explaining why he felt the special moment was dishonest:
"In the ESPN production booth, everyone cheers. What raw emotion! What spur-of-the-moment grittiness! Great job, Kolber! Great job!
But it’s not a great job. It’s emotional manipulation. You don’t spring this sort of letter upon a 21-year-old kid on national TV. It might make for great viewing, but it’s dishonest, dishonorable and wrong. This is the life he’s been handed—a father behind bars; trying to overcome that and somehow get past it."
Let's start with the decision to have Kolber read the note to Ingram. When broadcasting a live event, decisions have to be made faster than you can say "conflict of interest." It seems reasonable to say Kolber said to her producer, "I got an email from Ingram's father, should I roll with it?" To which the producer, without thinking, said "yes yes yes." It is possible that the email was a setup - and if that's the case I would be more inclined to agree - but Kolber reading the note from her cell phone doesn't seem exactly how they would have plotted it out. So, for now, let's assume it was organic.
Here's what went through said producer's mind in that eye blink: "Ingram will cry. His fans will care about him more. Kolber will win a fucking Pulitzer or something. The Saints will send me a care package filled with wonderful fruits my wife will love. Roger Goodell will hug me twice for helping build the same brand my company is paying billions for, raise raise raise raise raise raise raise raise...."
The producer weighed the following drawbacks of reading the imprisoned father's email to his son: NONE. Outside of a few souls bouncing the notion around that it may have been contrived, the only long-shot, 1,000-to-1 shot of something going wrong would be if the draftee became somehow angry. Although, let's say Ingram screams "how dare you!" Then, the clip gets played a zillion times on Youtube, the producer gets interview on Good Morning America and ESPN's brand grows evermore.
Forgive me, for thus far I've ignored Pearlman's main argument for why ESPN shouldn't have read Ingram's email: that the World Wide Leader was abusing a 21-year-old's raw emotion. That they took advantage of him for ratings or awards/recognition purposes. That they got the reaction they wanted and the poor ignorant kid thinks they did something nice.
There's something faulty here. First, Ingram realizes full well that he's going to a major televised event. He knows his father is in prison. And, I would argue it isn't a stretch to say he is aware the NFL and ESPN should both start with the letter E for entertainment. Could he have possibly thought it wouldn't come up?
If you're going to talk about taking advantage of young guys, how about the fact that Ingram is stepping into a league that will mash his brains into a suicidal soup by age 45? How about running him 400 times per year until his knees are more or less that of Joe Namath then cutting him faster than Shaun Alexander can say Larry Johnson? How about parading him around on national TV and hugging a commissioner who just wrote in an Op-Ed that his teammates who don't stick around for more than six years are basically worthless? Oh, but gosh darn ESPN for making him cry.
The cynicism from Pearlman is appreciated - and that's said with zero #sarcasm. Ethics in sports broadcasting needs to be talked about. Like, how Jon Gruden will criticize the hell out of a player when he's just drafted, but as soon as he's playing for a team Gruden might coach the next season, he'll "this guy" him to death on Monday Night Football. Or how about the fact that Kolber, like hundreds of outstanding female broadcasters, was even stuck on the sideline of the draft!
Even if we grant that Ingram was taken advantage of, it's nearly impossible to find actual damage. He had an emotional moment on TV that endeared him immediately to Saints fans. NFL is happy, Saints are happy, his agents is happy, ESPN's happy. Everybody won, nobody lost. Except cynics, I suppose.
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