I was watching 'Pardon the Interruption' yesterday and I see on the topic list to the right 'Vick', meaning they are going to talk about Michael Vick in some way. I assumed it would be the 'Ron Mexico' story, but instead they went on about how the NFL has scheduled the Atlanta Falcons 3 TIMES on Monday Night Football this upcoming season, something they rarely do with a team. TK and Wilbon concluded that the NFL is going to start pushing 'Superstars' like Vick in the marketing which they haven't really done in the past. Kornheiser then made the comment under his breath 'you mean Ron Mexico?' and Wilbon looked up and said 'I have no idea what you're talking about'. Unless Wilbon just fell off the turnip truck he certainly knows the Ron Mexico story.
Then it occured to me that the boys on ESPN Radio have rarely talked about the Ron Mexico/Vick story either, if at all. It's not mentioned anywhere on their website that I can see. I'm thinking that the NFL, in their desire to promote Vick, have let it be known to ESPN that they might not get Monday Night Football if ABC declines it as has been reported, or maybe even threatened their football package altogether, if they push the Ron Mexico/Mike Vick story. This doesn't look favorably upon ESPN, as they should have at least the pretense of journalistic freedom to report on sports that their viewers care about.
ESPN:Corporate Lackey? What say you all?