In a season of apologies of all shapes and sizes, FOX has responded for its attempt to blend two Vikings quarterbacks into one.
A promo of the Week Seven Vikings-Eagles game had a real photo of Philly quarterback Carson Wentz along with an image of Sam Bradford that consisted of slapping Bradford’s head onto Teddy Bridgewater’s body, with Bridgewater’s 5 painted into an 8. Via Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, FOX has apologized for the gaffe.
“It was a mistake and we apologized to both players and to the Vikings and we tried to get it corrected right away,” FOX spokesman Jonathan Butnick told Tomasson.
Tomasson says FOX explained that the error occurred when a placeholder graphic was quickly prepared and accidentally not removed before broadcast.
Still, someone had to create the thing in the first place. Timothy Burke of Deadspin points out that FOX had previously used the image on September 6 for FS1’s Speak for Yourself.
That graphic actually had a pair of photoshopped images, with the notorious Sammy Bradfridgewater image in the middle of the page and another (much better) effort in the graphic at the bottom of the screen.
Back then, there was no image of Bradford in full Vikings gear, because he hadn’t played for the team yet. The question becomes why FOX felt compelled to create a phony image at all. A photo from a Vikings practice should have been used, or from Bradford playing with the Eagles in the preseason.
No one would have criticized FOX for using an accurate image of Bradford, especially at a time before any accurate photo of him in game-day Vikings gear existed. Instead, FOX opted to go the Frankenstein monster route, and it eventually came to life and attacked its makers on Sunday.