ESPN has apologized for playing the Confederate Civil War anthem "Dixie" during its Colts-Texans NFL wild-card telecast Saturday.
Some TV viewers accused ESPN of racial insensitivity on social media after watching the graphic depicting Colts quarterback Andrew Luck as a Civil War officer while "Dixie" sounded in the background.
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The graphic was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek homage to the humorous @CaptAndrewLuck Twitter account, which imagines the Colts QB as a Civil War officer writing home to his mother. But some viewers weren't laughing on social media Saturday night.
"Is George Pickett running the graphics department at ESPN," asked Michael Baumann, a staff writer at Bill Simmons' "The Ringer," in a reference to the Confederate general who led the final charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
"Dixie" was not part of the graphic when the piece was initially produced and approved, a source told SN. Instead, the song was dropped into the piece at the last moment by a staffer in the production truck. A source said ESPN addressed the issue with the staffer, but would not elaborate on the outcome.
“It was a mistake to use this song. We regret having done so and we apologize," said ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz in a statement to SN.
In a weird, ahistorical touch, Luck's blue-clad Union officer is "protected" by soldiers/offensive linemen wearing both the grey and blue uniforms of the Confederate and Union armies.
Over the decades, many sports entities have stopped playing "Dixie" due to its connotations of racism, slavery and the Confederacy. The University of Mississippi, for example, announced in 2016 that the Ole Miss marching band would no longer play any variations of the song.
With the real-life Luck leading the Colts back to the playoffs, the popular @CaptAndrewLuck parody account has embraced by ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" and NBC's "Sunday Night Football."
The feed's author is a still-anonymous Civil War buff, according to Ben Strauss of The Washington Post.
ESPN's "Monday Night Football" team produced the network's wild-card playoff coverage from Houston on Saturday night. During Saturday's telecast, and through the 2018 regular season, the "MNF" team routinely used graphics to illustrate players and story points.
ESPN simulcast the Colts' 21-7 win over the Texans across ESPN, ESPN Deportes and sister Disney broadcast network ABC. The telecast averaged 22.8 million viewers across the three channels, up 3 percent from the comparable Titans-Chiefs wild-card telecast last season.