Over the weekend, we kept an eye on college football scores, as the College Football Playoff approaches in a few weeks. We always will be curious to follow the sport, even if we have divested ourselves in professional and secondary interest in the game as a whole due to its corruption, greed, and rule-breaking enablement. Yet one headline on the faux “sports journalism” site ESPN caught our eye for its blatant dishonesty/shame.

“Day Gets Monkey Off Back as OSU Dominates U-M”

What the actual fuck, ESPN? Today on Monday Musings, we examine this fake-news headline for what it is promoting: a lie. Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day is now 82-10 as the Buckeyes sideline leader, which includes a Sugar Bowl victory, a Rose Bowl victory, a CFP championship, and a CFP runner-up finish. Among those losses are four defeats in a row to the cheating University of Michigan, which ESPN ignored.

Day beat Michigan in 2019 as a first-year head coach, and then in 2020 when the Wolverines had a 2-4 record, they punked out of their annual matchup against Ohio State out of fear, really, since the Buckeyes had won 17 of the prior 19 matchups in the heated rivalry. Then, starting in 2021, the tables were turned with four consecutive wins by Michigan, with at least three of them fueled by illegal sign-stealing schemes.

So, for ESPN to suggest Day had “a monkey on his back” against the Wolverines is just dishonest, as it ignores the $50M fine the NCAA levied on Michigan for its cheating, not to mention the 10-year ban placed on the Wolverines former head coach. Even though the NCAA let those “victories” stand, which in itself is dishonest and unfair to a head coach like Day, it’s not like Michigan honestly earned those wins over tOSU.

Thus, what monkey, we ask?

At worst, Day is 2-1 against Michigan in honest games, with the Wolverines chickening out of another probable loss in 2020. ESPN just knows it can get more clicks from readers with a dishonest headline, rather than an accurate one—and that’s not journalism. It’s garbage any way you cut it, which is why we’ve always noted how laughably the “worldwide leader in sports” provides its coverage: anything to make money.

Any intelligent sports fan should just ignore ESPN, ourselves included: it lies just as much as it offers facts.