(AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post has a great blog post about how the new SEC Digital Network, the same entity that mandates TV stations cannot use highlight clips from games more than 72 hours old, somehow forgot to include the hit by UK’s Tyler Wyndham on Tim Tebow that led to the Florida quarterback suffering a concussion last Saturday.
In its highlight package of the UK-Florida game, the SEC ignored the play.
An excerpt from Volin’s post:
The highlight package, which lasts 2:23, completely skips over Taylor Wyndham’s hit on Tebow late in the third quarter. The play happened with 4:11 left in the third quarter, and the highlight tape jumps from 12 minutes to 54 seconds in the third quarter with no mention whatsoever of Wyndham’s devastating hit and Tebow’s concussion.
At the very end of the tape, Lauren the announcer finally addresses the Tebow injury. Here is the full text:
“Tebow, after being sacked in the third quarter, was tended to briefly on the field and walked off under his own power, but he did not return to the game.”
Talk about the understatement of the year.
This was one of the top concerns considering the SEC’s new media policy, or policies as it finally turned out to be. By controlling video, the league can show what it wants to show, not what might be of most interest to the fans. Ignoring, or at least minimizing the Tebow hit is proof.
You can see a nine-second clip of the sack using the SEC Digital player on Kentuckysports.com.
I think the SEC is just trying to close their eyes and pretend it didn’t happen. Wyndam broke SEC media commandment #4: thou shall not injury tebow.
I’ll bet you’ll see the hit as part of SEC Football “Packages” to open games or stuff like that… “We’re Comin’ to your City!!! (Tebow Hit), Yeah we’re comin’ to your City!!! Woo Hoo!!
You can’t show the play you can just use it to promote the League.
The reason that clip was left of the Florida highlights was that it was not a highlight for UF. The SEC website does two sets of highlights for each in-conference game – one for each school. If they had watched the UK highlights – like I did on the night of the game – they would have seen it. Take a look at http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/video/kentucky.aspx .
So, even from Florida’s point of view, the Tebow hit was not an important part of the game?
John – I don’t know why they’re doing things that way on their website. But that’s how they’ve covered all football games this year – each team gets their own seperate set of highlights on their own page. I don’t think it’s the best way of doing things, either. But for Volin to say that they ignored it isn’t accurate – he just looked in the wrong place.
Albert, yes, the UK highlights (http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/video/kentucky.aspx) does have the sack, but doesn’t mention anything about Tebow suffering a concussion, etc. Seems to downplay the hit as well.