Fully agree with the first sentence.
But ESPN did more than report on what was going on. They reported part of the story and their coverage was slanted, but more than that Chet M. started the story that the Patriots's ball were two psi low. That was proven to not be true but ESPN did nothing to stop the impression that bit of false news gave teh world. Also, if ESPN were reporting what was going on, they would have reported that some of the Colts balls were also under-inflated. They didn't. Their shows were slanted to give the worst possible look to Brady. Michael Vick got lop-sided coverage but not as bad as Brady got.
You are right in that ESPN is the biggest outlet for sports news, and that worked against Brady and most other sports outlets took their stories fron frm them.
It's all in the past, and nothing can be done, but what happened at ESPN (and NFLN) is what happened. No point in pretending that it didn't.
---------- Post added at 04:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 PM ----------
Yeah, that's my thought. If some bank pulled some scam and and tried to take my house, I wouldn't open a savings account there because they had a better interest rate. Self-respect enters into the equation at some point.