The biggest criticism that came from the coverage of this year’s NFL Draft was the constant focus on tragedy and trauma.
While the draft should be seen as an occasion worth celebrating for a football prospect, ESPN’s graphics included details about family deaths, struggles and diseases in an otherwise football-focused profile.
Viewers overwhelmingly wanted ESPN top stop highlighting tragedies, but the network defended the pieces as sharing “the human side of the players.”
One of those graphics focused on Bengals second-round pick Tee Higgins, which mentioned that Higgins’ mother, Camillia, battled drug addiction for 16 years. That graphic was one of the many that sparked backlash towards ESPN, but Higgins himself took no issue with it.
The former Clemson wide receiver responded to a screenshot of the graphic and said that he saw the story’s inclusion in an inspirational sense. He wrote:
I’m proud of my mom for turning her life around for me and my sister! I have no problem with them showing the world that my mom is a true fighter.
Good on Higgins for finding the positive in a situation that could have warranted criticism from him.
But ESPN definitely could hold back on the tragedy-focused presentation next time.
