ESPN Roasted for ‘Disrespectful’ Graphic Featuring Mahomes, Hurts

The network came under fire for depicting Mahomes’s title in an unfavorable light.

After Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs captured their second Super Bowl title in four seasons Sunday night, ESPN came under fire for a graphic the company posted on social media celebrating Mahomes’s victory over Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.

ESPN apparently attempted to recreate the iconic picture of 76ers star Allen Iverson stepping over Lakers guard Tyronn Lue in the 2001 NBA Finals. The graphic drew criticism from fans across social media, especially given Hurts’s outstanding performance in the game Sunday night.

While Iverson was the far superior player to Lue in his NBA career, the same cannot necessarily be said about Mahomes and Hurts, especially given the Eagles’ quarterback’s breakout season, in which he finished second to Mahomes in MVP voting.

Hurts finished Super Bowl LVII with 304 passing yards and a touchdown pass, while also setting a Super Bowl record for rushing yards by a quarterback (70) and tying the mark for rushing touchdowns by any player (three).

Here’s the illustration ESPN put out on social media.

ESPN has since deleted the tweet amid the backlash. And here are some of the best tweets reacting to the questionable image.

They did Jalen dirty.

— Chris Meaney (@chrismeaney) February 13, 2023

This is wildly disrespectful

— HARD FACTOR (@HardFactorNews) February 13, 2023

Not rocking with it

— Theo Dorsey (@TheoDorseyTV) February 13, 2023

There’s still time to delete this

— Mick Assaf (@mickassaf) February 13, 2023