Viewers watching Saturday night’s NFL playoff game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans were treated to the song “Dixie” — the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy, 11 states that seceded from the United States — during the telecast on ESPN.
The Washington Post reported that the network apologized on Sunday:
ESPN issued an apology Sunday after it used “Dixie” the day before in a graphic about the pass protection for Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. The network reportedly blamed the use of the song, widely associated with pro-Confederacy sentiment, on a production staffer.
The graphic was shown during Saturday’s Colts-Texans playoff game, in which Luck led Indianapolis to a 21-7 win. Appearing to play off the popular Twitter account “Capt. Andrew Luck,” in which the quarterback is portrayed as a Civil War officer to humorous effect, ESPN had the Colts star dodging cannon balls while clad in Union military garb.
“It was a mistake to use this song. We regret having done so and we apologize,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said in a statement to Michael McCarthy of Sporting News.
Read the complete Washington Post article, including background on the song, here.
In 2016, The University of Mississippi made the decision to no longer play the song “Dixie” during sporting events.
Ross Bjork, athletics director at Ole Miss, told Mississippi Today reporter Adam Ganucheau in 2016 that ending the 70-year tradition was “the right thing to do.”
“It fits in with where the university has gone in terms of making sure we follow our creed, core values of the athletic department, and that all people feel welcome.”
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.