I know that tennis fans are in the minority when it comes to ESPN’s demographics. I know that the tennis majors get so much airplay at ESPN because they are on in the middle of the night. That’s OK with me because they’re still on.

So here I am, four in the morning, watching an epic battle between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco when sleep comes calling. I did my best, still watching faithfully until after 5:00am. So when the fifth set began, I gave in. I knew that the replay of the match was scheduled for the next afternoon, so I’d just avoid my sports news until then.

My plan was working brilliantly. I was almost caught up to where I fell asleep. The replay was in the fourth set, Nadal serving at 5-6 after the commercial break. I was getting comfortable, thinking that I got my sleep and got to watch the match — perfect.

Then the commercials come on. Cue the ESPN promo:

“Tune in this weekend to watch Serena Williams battle Dinara Safina in the women’s final, and Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal in the men’s final…”

Are you shitting me? Seriously?

You put a promo for the finals, naming the contestants, into the middle of an epic semi-final match? Pardon my language, but what the fuck!?

ESPN has been on my shit-list for some time, but this crossed a line. It’s one thing for them to indirectly attempt to take over and ruin individual sports one-by-one, but it’s completely different to give you the results of the event you are watching in the middle of that event.

They’re stupid enough to do it on their Bottom Line all the time, so I’ve just gotten accustomed to not paying attention to it if I am watching a replay of something I don’t know the results of, but this was too much.

This replay was the first time that many, many people got to watch this match, having been on in the middle of the night. You would think that ESPN would respect the “haven’t seen it yet” demographic.

Hell, the promo was intended for tennis fans, the ones that actually care about the match that was on.

Heads need to roll in ESPN’s programming department. This is completely unacceptable and someone needs to pay. I’m not talking about the guy running the board, I’m talking about the guy who approved the promo and told traffic to insert it into the replay of the semi-final match.

I sent ESPN a comment on this, and if you care about your sports programming, you should too. This network gets away with whatever they want because they are not accountable to anyone. If enough people call them on their bullshit, someone will have to listen.

Contact ESPN here, if you care about your sports.

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