Wow, The Way A Football Team Trolled ESPN Is Absolutely Perfect!
Well, apparently an illegitimate high school football team allegedly lied to sports broadcasting giant ESPN so that they could get a chance to play on national television.
The Details
Last Sunday, Complex reported that ESPN had evidently been duped by a fake high school football team. If that weren’t bad enough, it also has become increasingly evident to ESPN that the coach of this “team” has an active arrest warrant for fraud.
That was the day that ESPN aired a high school football game between Florida’s IMG Academy – a fully legitimate high school and Ohio’s “Bishop Sycamore”, which is largely unknown and appears to be college-aged adults.
Right from the get-go, Complex’s Daniel Barna wrote, “While we’ve seen mismatched opponents square off in nationally televised games before, this was something different entirely. IMG is defending national champs and consistently one of the best teams in the country. Apparently, ESPN was under the impression that Bishop’s program was also stacked with top recruits.”
“That clearly wasn’t the case,” Barna added, noting that the team from Florida took home an easy 58-0 win.
The announcers of this “game” also appeared to realize in real-time that they had been duped, Barna noted, and they expressed concerns for the safety of the players.
“They also admitted live on the air that they had been misled by Bishop, and didn’t do due diligence to verify that what they had been told about the caliber of the players was true,” Barna noted.
ESPN announcer Arif Shroff raised some eyebrows when he announced during the game, “Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster. To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify. They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services. So, OK, that’s what you’re telling us, fine, that’s how we take it in. From what we’ve seen so far, this is not a fair fight, and there’s got to be a point where you’re worried about health and safety.”
Shroff later apologized on Twitter: “Sorry. They had no business being in that game today. None. I feel bad for the kids. Player health and safety was at risk today. It was uncomfortable for anyone who watched.”
A Fake Team and a Coach Who Has an Active Warrant?
Coach Roy Johnson is the individual who led the Bishop team to their devastating defeat, and he allegedly has an active arrest warrant against him for fraud.
Football Scoop is now noting that the BIshop Sycamore team may not even be a legitimate high school, and apparently, it is nothing more than an online-only charter school with a “football” that posted an 0-6 record last year.
Football Scoop also noted that it was rumored that many of the players on the team had already graduated from high school.
“With all this information readily available online, it’s unclear why or how ESPN agreed to air the game in the first place,” Barna concluded.
Last Monday, new details regarding this “school” emerged, indicating that they are not recognized by the Ohio High School Athletic Association as a legitimate high school. Moreover, their “physical location, practice facilities, and roster eligibility could not be verified.” When you couple that with a game they played on Friday, that makes two games that the team played and pulled the wool over on ESPN eyes.
“According to Awful Announcing, the game was scheduled by Paragon Marketing Group, whose president, Rashid Ghazi, denied having knowledge of Bishop Sycamore’s Friday game,” Barna added. “Ghazi also said the company did not do due diligence in researching the team.”
A spokesperson for ESPN announced that they are discussing the snafu with Paragon Marketing Group, which it said “secured the matchup and handles the majority of our high school event scheduling.”
“They have assured us that they will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward,” the spokesperson added.
Social media user Dawson Boyd summed up this bizarre turn of events in a succinct and now-viral tweet.
He wrote, “From this story that keeps getting wilder: There has never been a Bishop Sycamore[.] They played two games in three days[.] Their head coach currently has an ACTIVE arrest warrant[.] Most of the players are JUCO dropouts who are nowhere near HS age[.] How was ESPN scammed this badly??”