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Add Mark Dantonio to the top of the list of MSU people who aren’t thrilled with ESPN.
Early Tuesday afternoon, ESPN reporter Dan Murphy tweeted out an article on former Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine William Strampel, who has a list of multiple horrible charges against him.
Well, when Murphy tweeted the story out, this image was attached that got Mark Dantonio — and plenty of others — outraged.
For anyone that wants to see what coach is referring to here’s a screenshot. It took @ESPN 7 hours to change the picture. pic.twitter.com/PSmOZQ1rUt
— SPARTY SZN (@sparty__88) March 27, 2018
Not a picture of Strampel. Not a picture of Nassar. Or even a generic MSU logo.
Nope — it was a picture of MSU’s football field with the late, great Mike Sadler’s No. 3 in the middle. Using the logo on a football field taken before a tribute game for Sadler didn’t sit well with a lot of people.
It took roughly six hours for that image to change after the Mike Sadler Foundation stepped in and requested it.
Asking @DanMurphyESPN to kindly remove the photo associated with his story on William Strampel. Mike Sadler stood for everything GREAT at MSU. Please don't associate his name or image with someone who didn't.
— MikeSadlerFoundation (@Sadler_3) March 27, 2018
And here was Murphy’s explanation.
That's a stock photo that generates automatically when we send out a tweet. It's not included in the story and certainly was not put there intentionally. I apologize if anyone was offended by it. https://t.co/UUKipyzqZu
— Dan Murphy (@DanMurphyESPN) March 27, 2018
Why it took hours for someone to step in and change it (to a picture of Strampel now), who knows?
What Strampel and Nassar did are awful and they should get hell on earth in whatever prison they are or will be living in. To use an image of the football field with a Sadler tribute on it? What are we doing here, ESPN?