Monday night, New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold was mic’d up for the battle against the New England Patriots. This provided ESPN with extra content for Monday Night Football, but they aired a moment in which Darnold admitted to “seeing ghosts” after his ill-timed turnovers. Head coach Adam Gase heard about this moment and is fairly upset with ESPN.
According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Gase responded to the “seeing ghosts” moment from this game and said that the team is upset that this comment was shown on national TV. In addition, he also said that they would be looking into the moment “pretty hard.”
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“I don’t know how we can allow our franchise quarterback to be put out there like that,” Gase said, per Brian Costello of the New York Post. He also reportedly said that the team will be re-evaluating their cooperation with ESPN.
Sam Darnold is mic’d up and he came to the sidelines and said, “I’m seeing ghosts.”
(Via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/9MoM6Rkmo5
— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) October 22, 2019
As it turns out, the channel that airs Monday Night Football may not be the ones to blame for this ill-timed comment being aired. Yes, ESPN asks for specific players to wear the mic during the game, but they do not have the final say on what gets aired.
This job actually falls to NFL Films. As Mehta explained, there was a representative on-site for the game, and they were the one that decided to push this “seeing ghosts” comment forward. Additionally, Mehta’s understanding is that people higher up at NFL Films are not happy that the representative let this moment see the light of day.
On one hand, airing this comment could make NFL Films look bad due to them deciding to show a quarterback admitting that he is struggling against one of the league’s best defenses. Additionally, this moment could also result in backlash from multiple teams.
ESPN strives to mic up at least one player a week in order to provide extra content during Monday Night Football, but having Darnold’s comment make air might cause multiple coaches to shut down the network. Why would they want to risk an embarrassing moment for their franchise on national TV?
Finally, there are many Jets fans that are simply angry that the young quarterback admitted to “seeing ghosts” on the field. They believe that the stadium in Jacksonville will be filled with Jaguars fans wearing ghost outfits when the Jets come to town on Sunday.
(Photo Credit: Emilee Chinn/Getty)
