ESPN Is Dead To Me

We all know the party line. ESPN hates Notre Dame, tries to create the news and is more about entertainment than sports (the E does come first). As Notre Dame alumni, we put up with it. Deep down, I always felt it was just an act to get ratings. ESPN is always first to bash the Irish, but they never fail to make ND success the lead story as well. I just thought they were pandering for ratings by playing good cop, bad cop with the New York Yankees of college football. Surely, when Mike Golic, Lou Holtz and Digger Phelps are all featured contributors, there is no anti-ND bias, right?

WRONG!

Last week, Mike and Mike were roasted in Atlantic city. You know, the old celebrity roast style with a roastmaster, lots of guest appearances, inappropriate and vulgar jokes, and plenty of drinks! This would be awesome! Well, apparently Dana Jacobson took things way to far. Obviously intoxicated, she stepped up to the mike and did her best Jimmy the Greek, Don Imus, Mel Gibson, Kelly Tilghman impression:

"Fu@% Notre Dame."
"Fu@% Touchdown Jesus."
dramatic pause...
"Fu@% Jesus."

Now let me get some things out of the way. Jacobson is Jewish, and she graduated from Michigan. This was an informal roast, not aired on ESPN (although I'm sure they filmed it planning to do so in the future as with all celebrity roasts). Jacobson was very drunk. ESPN has confirmed the "foolish and insensitive" comments, but does not address them publicly. Jacobson has been suspended for one week. The story is only now starting to hit the press, as ESPN and the people involved have tried in vain to suppress the issue.

That said, I am outraged. At first I didn't believe it. Then it was confirmed by multiple sources. The first two comments are no big deal. I would expect nothing less from a drunk Michigan grad. They are in the spirrit of the venue, a roast. The third comment, well I guess that is from a drunk Jewish woman who hates Christianity? Can you imagine the firestorm if she had said "Fu@% Mohammad"??? I think a fatwah would have been issued and a few American buildings would have been blown up by now. She would also be out of a job. I feel that in society, it is okay to bash Christianity and Catholicism in general. Big deal, nobody cares. But if you mention the word "lynch", or discuss race, or deride Judaism or Islam - then you pay the price.

ESPN has shown silent agreement with Jacobson by refusing to address this issue. I can't take their garbage any longer. I once was only annoyed with their game, but now I am taking action. I sent an email to their VP of communications and urge you all to do the same. I don't want them to fire Jacobson. I just want them to appropriately deal with this in a manner that would be used for some of the other examples of bigotry I mentioned. Just let me know that you know this is wrong and do not condone it. Treat Christianity with the same respect you treat racial and other religious issues. Unless ESPN appropriately addresses this issue, I am completely done with their TV, radio, print and internet services.