At halftime of Monday Night Football, the Chicago Bears honored Brian Urlacher by presenting him with his Pro Football Hall of Fame ring. As teams so often do, the Bears chose halftime of a nationally televised game to honor their new Hall of Famer, because those are big moments to give a player recognition on a big stage.
Unfortunately, ESPN didn’t get the memo.
Instead of showing Urlacher at halftime, ESPN showed a performance by the musical group Cheat Codes. Many Chicago fans complained, and now ESPN has admitted it should have given Urlacher his due.
“That was a miss,” Monday Night Football producer Jay Rothman told the Chicago Tribune. “We should have played it back. We did not play it back.
Rothman said he wishes he would have shown at least a short piece of the Urlacher ceremony at some point in the third quarter, but why not show the whole thing at halftime? Are football fans really more interested in a musical performance by Cheat Codes than in a great player receiving one last honor in front of his home fans?
The reality is, football fans would rather see Urlacher, but ESPN doesn’t cater its broadcast to football fans. If you’re a big football fan, you’ll watch football regardless of what the halftime show is. ESPN wants to bring in other viewers, the kinds of viewers who might specifically tune in because there’s going to be a performance from a band they like.
Still, is Cheat Codes really a big enough draw to bring in significant numbers of viewers? It’s hard to believe that it is, and in this case, the halftime show would have been greatly improved by simply showing the fans at home what the fans at Soldier Field saw.