The ESPN VP concedes that not showing the national anthem before the Sugar Bowl following the terror attack was a significant error.

Burke Magnus, ESPN Vice President, addressed the criticism directed at his company for not showing the national anthem before the Sugar Bowl on January 2, which occurred one day after the New Orleans terror truck attack that resulted in the deaths of 14 individuals.

The employees in the Bristol, Connecticut, office were blamed by Magnus for the "enormous mistake" of not broadcasting the national anthem.

""A group of well-intentioned people in Bristol made a huge mistake, which was a human error. They feel terrible about it, and I don't want to minimize it in any way," Magnus said."

The delay of the game on Jan. 1 affected the scheduling and timing of the people working on the broadcast, as stated by Magnus.

"That next day was anything but normal, as evidenced by our programming lineup," Magnus stated. "I could provide you with numerous reasons why it was not a typical situation," he added.

Magnus maintained that the company's failure to broadcast the national anthem was not a deliberate choice.

He stated that the belief that our actions in New Orleans were deliberate or an attempt to evade acknowledging the horrific situation was misguided. It was simply a mistake for which we are deeply sorry, and we should be held responsible.

We were in a commercial break when the anthem played, and it did not meet our standards, he stated.

The controversy surrounding the failure to air the anthem was further intensified by the decision to show a divisive video message from Allstate CEO Tom Wilson, who is the Sugar Bowl's corporate sponsor.

Wilson proposed in the video that Americans are addicted to divisiveness and need to embrace people's flaws and differences. Several viewers threatened to cancel their Allstate insurance policies following the video's release. After the video was posted, Allstate removed it from its social media pages.

ESPN aired the Sugar Bowl's national anthem later in the week during a Thursday edition of "SportsCenter" in response to the initial backlash to its broadcast.

Although many fans believed the network's gesture was overdue, it ensured that the national anthem was played before the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl between Penn State and Notre Dame.

Prior to the Cotton Bowl game on Jan. 10, the company broadcasted a prayer.

Subscribe to the Planet Chronicle Sports Huddle newsletter and follow Planet Chronicle Digital's sports coverage on X.