President Trump saw a wild College Football National Championship game on Monday (January 8th) when the Alabama Crimson Tide fought back from a 13-0 halftime deficit to beat the Georgia Bulldogs in overtime. But, if you missed the pregame ceremony you would have had no idea that the president of the United States was attending the game.
Before the national anthem played, President Trump came out to the field accompanied by members of the military. The crowd gave the president a loud cheer, and despite a smattering of boos, was clearly supportive of the president. As Trump walked to the 50 yard line, the ESPN announcers remained quiet. While Trump sang along as Zac Brown Band played a great rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, ESPN mostly avoided showing Trump. After he left the field, you never heard about him again.
There were no shots of him enjoying the game in his private box, which he was sharing with ROTC students. There was no halftime interview. It was as if he wasn't there in the eyes of the ESPN. They couldn't even mention his name of air.
ESPN has been struggling to keep viewers as more and more people are canceling their cable subscriptions, and those who have kept them are tuning out the sports network. The network has faced mounting criticism of a liberal bias in their programming and many fans are tired of a sports network spending so much time covering off the field issues and wading into political arguments on their talk shows.