ESPN is trying to get out of politics. On “Monday Night Football,” analyst Jason Witten might have put them back there.
The former Dallas Cowboys tight end has received criticism after saying the NFL’s controversial roughing the passer rule has gone “a little to the left wing” during Monday’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Here is Witten’s comment in full context, per Pro Football Talk:
“It’s just gone too far with that rule,” ESPN’s Jason Witten said regarding the NFL’s enhanced emphasis on roughing the passer. “I knew they wanted to make it about the health and safety and protect these quarterbacks. It just seems like we just went a little bit to the left wing on that, you know, with our approach of trying to protect it because as we said not only are the players frustrated but the coaches, they don’t know how to coach this. That’s when you have a challenge with this rule.”
Found the clip. Here’s Witten calling the roughing the passer rule change “left wing” pic.twitter.com/htLzeRcm79
— Conor Orr 🇦🇶 (@ConorOrr) September 25, 2018
In a statement to Philly.com, the network defended Witten, saying the comment had “nothing to do with politics.”
But that didn’t stop others from blasting Witten, who’s in his first year as an announcer, on Twitter:
Jason Witten has been so bad in the booth for MNF, but he just called all the roughing the passer penalties… “too left wing”… get this man off the air
— IMG_4346.jpeg (@Austin_Nar) September 25, 2018
Oh @JasonWitten, I used to be a fan of yours…until you became a surprisingly bad commentator and then used the phrase “left wing” with these roughing the passer calls (even though many of us, Dems and Reps, don’t like these calls) https://t.co/ExwULKDs0m
— Jeff Elliott (@JeffBElliott) September 25, 2018
Jason Witten called roughing the passer penalties “left wing” and I turned off the TV 💁🏻♂️
— Reginald Duplesses (@ReginalDupless) September 25, 2018
The liberals and their pesky anti-pass rush agenda https://t.co/xaAGAapBM3
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) September 25, 2018
In August, five months into the job, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told reporters the network that covering politics was “not our jobs.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger went further, telling the Holywood Reporter last week that he and Pitaro thought the sports company “swung a little bit too far away from the field” to societal and political issues.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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