ESPN confuses new Jacksonville with old Jacksonville, and … Charlotte?
We're going to go ahead and believe that the shot above is of a part of the greater Jacksonville, Florida, area — after all, the stadium shown does look a lot like EverBank Field, where the Jacksonville Jaguars play. However, this picture may not be truly representative of the current city. According to ESPN's Paul Kuharsky, observant viewers threw multiple flags against the "Worldwide Leader" after it became evident that some of the overhead shots on the "Monday Night Football" game between the Jaguars and San Diego Chargers were outdated representations of Jacksonville.
That's not the best part. According to Kuharsky, one of the aerial shots was actually of Charlotte, North Carolina. Whoops! Kuharshy reached out to an ESPN spokesperson, who had this to say:
"The Charlotte aerial was an inadvertent mistake. It should not have aired. We apologize that it was part of the telecast.Well, sure. Generally speaking, when you see an overhead shot of an area, you expect that you're seeing it live. We're under the impression that you shouldn't have to expect a disclaimer that you're not seeing something from a Goodyear Blimp in 1979, but maybe that's just us.
"The scenics of Jacksonville that were used during 'Monday Night Countdown' were shot the night of the previous MNF game there in late October. We did not have a crew shooting scenics Monday. There were no graphic or audio mentions indicating the shot was live, though we understand viewers may have been under this assumption."
Or, given the team's new ownership and longstanding rumors of a franchise move to L.A. or elsewhere, maybe ESPN was just trying out aerials of different cities. That would have been a more creative excuse.
ESPN's next Monday night game features the St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks from Seattle's CenturyLink Field. As a Seattle resident, and someone who will be watching the game from the press box, I'll do my best to relay any scenic discrepancies.
You're on notice, ESPN — if you try to show overhead shots of Portland, or of Seattle during the WTO riots at the height of the Grunge Movement, we'll be on to you.
