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This is annoying.
A week after ESPN publicly refuted the possibility of openly challenging the league’s sandline position that restarting the Bills and Bengals’ Week 17 game is not being considered, ESPN.com said ESPN — and it’s aimed specifically at Troy Vincent, executive vice president of the NFL’s football operations.
The Don Van Natta, Jr. item features Dawn Aponte, a league official who was in attendance at the game, as the voice of reason for prompting Vincent to go ahead with the game.
“The Lord himself could go down and we weren’t going to play again,” a senior team official told ESPN on condition of anonymity.[Aponte] I was under pressure. She didn’t get the consistent and direct message she deserved. ”
Reportedly, Aponte was unwavering.
“Any crazy nonsense she was getting, man, she had it,” a source told Van Natta of Aponte.
Van Natta’s article clarifies that the postponement of the game did not come from the league office, but from the contest scene.
“The league didn’t cancel the game,” an unnamed team official told Van Natta. “The Bills and Bengals canceled the game.”
Then there’s this from an unnamed source. It’s absolutely the wrong person in the wrong position at the wrong time. …he wants to be a hero, but he never takes accountability. That’s his “T”.
Van Natta’s article also alleges that ESPN’s refereeing expert Jon Parry was informed by an “NFL Senior Rules Analyst within the NFL Command Center” that games would resume on Monday night. There is
In a statement to ESPN.com, the NFL said: [the unspecified rules analyst] Tell John Parry something related to the five minute warm-up period… John is dead wrong. . . we support Troy Vincent’s comment and strongly refute this characterization. ”
But as Joe Buck told Van Natta, the league never asked ESPN to put five minutes of toothpaste back in the tube.
“We stayed on the air for another 40 minutes and no one modified the idea that the game was restarted,” Buck told Van Natta. “nobody.”
A source who confirmed the ESPN.com article predicted the league would attempt to identify an unnamed team official who spoke with Van Natta. “Not a lot,” said the source, “and it’s just two teams.”
And this report can cause problems at 345 Park Avenue. Added source: “I know Troy very well, so I know this will cause a terrifying shock wave.”
The shockwave began last Monday, when it was perfectly reasonable to explain that the league had a standard protocol that was originally set to roll out, calling the offer to resume play “insensitive”. made worse by Vincent’s decision to characterize it as “ridiculous”. , until it became clear that the situation required a different approach.
Had that been done, a great deal of confusion could have been avoided.
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