Sports

ESPN Pulls A ‘Bleacher Report 2019 Women’s World Cup Post’, Gets Bullied Into Deleting Embarrassing Graphic

#ESPN
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Bleacher Report/ESPN


ESPN rolled out their direct-to-consumer streaming service this week and is pulling out all of the marketing stops to promote it. One of those promotions, however, may find itself alongside Bleacher Report’s infamous 2019 Women’s World Cup post in the pantheon of all-time terrible sports graphics.

In a since deleted tweet, the official SportsCenter social media account attempted to promote the new ESPN app with a graphic featuring “all the icons.”

The graphic was reminiscent of the infamous post that Bleacher Report shared during the 2019 World Cup, which inexplicably featured the likes of Michael Scott, actors from Stranger Things, Iron Man, Tom Cruise as Maverick, Oprah, the cast of Friends, Miley Cyrus, and more.

The post was quickly taken down, however, as sports fans cooked ESPN for who they did and did not include in the graphic, with the breakdown of athletes being as follows (partially, at least): 11 WNBA players, 10 NFL players, and 5 college football players, while also omitting the likes of Scottie Scheffler. To ESPN’s credit, though, unlike Bleacher Report, they did not inexplicably include fictional pop culture characters in their post.

SportsCenter deletes “All The Icons” graphic following widespread criticism on social media

The graphic also included analysts like Brian Windhorst (in his iconic ‘conspiracy’ meme pose) and Mina Kimes — who we will NOT be hearing any slander about on this website, as she’s one of ESPN’s best football analysts, but still — and her dog Lenny, but not All-Star pitcher Paul Skenes.

It didn’t take long for the post to go viral, with even former ESPN personality and current Ringer podcaster Ryen Russillo saying that somebody needs to “step in” and do something about the post.

According to ESPN, their new DTC service, which officially launched on August 21, gives fans access to all of their linear networks, such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network — in addition to ESPN on ABC, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+ and ACCNX — without having to pay for traditional cable.

The plan is tiered at two price points: ESPN Unlimited for $29.99 per month or ESPN Select for $11.99 per month. The Unlimited package gives subscribers all ESPN networks, “including ESPN+, with events like NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, tennis and golf majors, top-tier college football and basketball, WWE and postseason coverage from all those and more” available through the service.

Eric Italiano BroBIble avatar
Eric Italiano is a NYC-based writer who spearheads BroBible's Pop Culture and Entertainment content. He covers topics such as Movies, TV, and Video Games, while interviewing actors, directors, and writers.
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