College Gameday Hedged Maurice Washington's Child Porn Charges As "Some Legal Issues"

ESPN’s College Gameday took a brief step away from pregame analysis of Nebraska-South Alabama to mention what’s been happening with Cornhuskers running back Maurice Washington. The sophomore is currently facing a felony child pornography charge for sending a video from 2016 of his then-15-year-old ex-girlfriend being sexually assaulted to the victim herself. After coach Scott Frost said earlier this week that the running back’s eligibility to play was still a game time decision, Washington was spotted taking first-team reps during pregame warmups, which is how the topic came up on Saturday in the first place.

However, if the broadcast was the first time someone had heard about this case, and they decided not to look any further into it, then they probably didn’t think much of it given how understated the brief description that Rece Davis gave was.

If it feels like that statement could have been lifted directly from Washington’s lawyers, you’re not alone.

Obviously, there was no expectation that what Davis read directly off of a piece of paper would go into detail about things like the trauma that Washington’s ex-girlfriend experienced after the video got out to her peers, but to not even mention why the video in question is leading to charges—or, hell, even just what he’s being charged with—seems misleading at best. It was almost as if the statement was rushed out so that ESPN could claim that the topic didn’t go unmentioned while only deviating from the fun of the new college football season for the briefest of moments.

Looks like that “stick to sports” edict seems to be working pretty well.