Not a fan of ESPN, but I tuned-in tonight to see how they presented Griffin's dunk. It started 10 minutes late at 11:10, but wrapped-up on time at midnight. I believe Campbell's best chance of national TV exposure in a long time ended-up on the edit room floor. They should have edited-out the dancing dude instead of Eric.

At least they'll re-play the program a few more times. Hopefully, we'll see the Campbell segment in those. How much publicity did CU lose tonight, though?

I'm sure there will be an huge uproar on campus about ESPN deciding to edit out Eric's dunk to fit the time constraints (I believe the preceding women's NCAA games went late or something). Apparently this decision was based solely on Campbell's small enrollment size and mid-major status. Never mind that Eric had a spectacular dunk which was the whole purpose of the show....not the dancing dude with the stupid sweater and all the other fluff.

I've never really liked ESPN and rarely watch it. I tuned-in for this though. When they said "coming up we'll show the dunk of the year" and they hadn't shown Eric I thought he was going to win and it would be a great feature like the ones for the players from Memphis, Kentucky, etc. For the first time in a long, long time, I was literally sitting at the edge of my seat in anticipation of something I was about to see on TV! Then, they return from the commercial break and announce the Memphis player won without showing the feature on Eric.

I was very disappointed as a Campbell alum/fan. But, I feel absolutely terrible for Eric and his family and friends who were watching. What in the world did he think? How in the world can ESPN make it up to him? Sitting there watching himself on ESPN would have been such a thrill, but now he has to think "I was the one they edited-out".

I know ESPN will re-play the show in its entireity a few more occasions, but this really stings. DVR it, fast-forward it to the Campbell segment, and never watch ESPN again!

Here's my post on Dunks of the Year's FB wall....


"Here's an idea for another "fluff" program to be shown on ESPN. Base it on how you screwed over Eric Griffin and Campbell in the first showing of "Dunks of the Year". You can start by interviewing the ESPN employees that decided to edit-out the Campbell segment while still showing the stupid dancer and the "jam mix". (Mask their faces and distort their voices, if necessary.) Then discuss the uproar by Campbell (and other schools') fans about how you deleted a great story about an athlete and his spectacular dunk in a show about athletes and dunks, simply because CU is a small mid-major. Finally, conclude with how ESPN made an effort and successfully made it up to Griffin, Campbell University, and the Camel Nation. That last part will be especially interesting. Show it over and over in place of SportsCenter and don't edit-out anything because the preceding show ran late! And if you can't broadcast it at some point, notify Griffin and his family/friends beforehand so they don't gather around the TV in anticipation and get disappointed."