ESPN Analyst Dumps Football Over 'Carnage' on the Field

By Jenn Gidman

August 31, 2017

An ESPN and ABC sports analyst is ditching his job because he finds the sport he's analyzing to be "unacceptable."

That sport is college football, Ed Cunningham tells the New York Times, and he's leaving a two-decade career of offering his commentary on it because of the injuries he sees players racking up, with their brains at special risk.

Although the 48-year-old ex-NFLer has long been a vocal critic of the "reckless hits" players take and iffy coaching decisions—often getting him in trouble with coaches and fans—he finally decided he had to take a stand and ditch his association with it all. "I take full ownership of my alignment with the sport. I can just no longer be in that cheerleader's spot," Cunningham says, with the Times noting he may be the first broadcaster at his level to step away from football because of his uncomfortable witnessing of the "carnage."

Read the full story on Newser.com