Grayson Weir
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SEC Network, an ESPN property, made an awkward blunder during Saturday’s game between Arkansas and Auburn. It used an incredibly incorrect photo of quarterback K.J. Jefferson.
With six minutes left in the third quarter, the visiting Razorbacks took a 24-13 lead over the Tigers after Jefferson connected with Jadon Haselwood for an easy touchdown over the middle. It was his second passing touchdown of the day and it added to his impressive stat-line, which was highlighted by a violent stiff-arm and vicious celebration.
To emphasize Jefferson’s strong outing, the broadcast cut to a shot of the massive, 6-foot-3, 243-pound signal-caller on the sideline. It was pretty standard graphic and the stats was correct.
However, there was one glaring issue. The photo that it used next to Jefferson’s name was…
… not Jefferson.
SEC Network mistook one African-American quarterback for another, who was completely unrelated to the game at hand.
It wasn’t even close, actually. SEC Network used a photo of Shedeur Sanders. Shedeur, the son of Deion, is the starting quarterback for his dad’s Jackson State program. He does not play in the SEC. He does not play for Arkansas. He is not K.J. Jefferson.
People in the production truck are moving quickly and mistakes happen all the time. It is also very possible that the ESPN graphic team had JSU on its mind. College GameDay was in Mississippi on Saturday morning and Shedeur is a big reason that his top-10 FCS team is undefeated in 2022.
With that being said, it was an egregious error to mistake one for the other.
Jefferson and Sanders look nothing alike and the latter was not even playing in the game. He wasn’t even part of a national ESPN broadcast and shouldn’t have been part of the conversation on The Plains.
It was a brutal look for SEC Network. In turn, it was also a bad look for the ‘Worldwide Leader In Sports.’
A “vicious celebration,” was it?? Was this more or less vicious than Jermaine Burton’s being run into by a woman after the TN-bama game, during the fans’ storming of the field, when he slapped the woman? KJ didn’t touch anyone else when he went into the Superman pose.
The picture ID business was dumb but I don’t think it was intentional; as you wrote, it’s chaotic in the production truck, and they’d been talking about Sanders’s son a lot this morning. Did they apologize to KJ?? I was watching that game and another one at the same time, and I missed that part. Thanks.
I do not think it was intentional either! But that does not take away from the mistake that shouldn’t have been made in the first place. I am not sure if an apology was issued.
Got to love the young generation of wokesters. And more classic Saturday work from Grayson.
Nice job of making something about race when it was simply just an error.
The next time this happens with two white players because it has and it will make sure and point that out too.
Oh, and the stiff arm wasn’t that violent and the celebration wasn’t that vicious. Your hyperbole is impressive too.
Hey Brad, welcome back! It was simply “just an error.” Totally agreed. One that should not have been made and is completely unacceptable!
Unacceptable because it was sloppy work or unacceptable because the player was black?
You are missing the point. You brought race into a story that has nothing to do with race. Maybe write for MSNBC.
Why even mention the color of the player? You created a story where there was none.