ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ Seems to Have Its Limits in Covering Football Scandals

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On Twitter, Alex Marvez, the sharp lead pro football columnist for FoxSports.com, points to an intriguing story by the blogger “SPORTSbyBROOKS” on a cover-up by ESPN’s usually excellent investigative program, Outside the Lines, regarding network personality Mel Kiper’s questionable involvement in a summer 7-on-7 football program, an activity banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

You can read the story at http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/espn-covers-up-mel-kipers-sec-banned-activity-29739.

Marvez is a journalist worth following. Part of the reason may be that he has a background in covering the pro wrestling industry, which equips him with a well-tested bullshit detector.

On the general subject of ESPN and Outside the Lines, I have given them credit for important early investigations of tainted and commercially conflicted research on brain injuries by National Football League-affiliated doctors. But ESPN, which was once ahead of the curve on this national health scandal, has been playing lackluster catch-up lately. I wonder why. More on this subject here as we move along.

 

Irv Muchnick

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Concussion Inc. - Author Irvin Muchnick