Dan Patrick Is Right: ESPN Should Have Shown Replay Of Nick Chubb's Injury Against Steelers

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ESPN elected not to show a replay of Nick Chubb suffering a season-ending knee injury during the Cleveland Browns' loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dan Patrick, who spent nearly two decades working at ESPN, believes the network should have shown the replay, and he's not wrong.

As the broadcast showed Chubb sitting on the field holding his left knee, Joe Buck told viewers that the injury was gruesome and that there would not be a replay. In Patrick's opinion, fans at home were at least owed one replay to put into context how bad the injury may actually be.

“You have to show it again to at least put it in context of what happened there. They decided they weren’t going to do it,” Patrick explained during Tuesday's edition of his show.

“I would’ve done it. I would’ve done it once, because you’re carrying the game. You owe it to the audience. You could do a disclaimer. I might be in the minority here, but if I was running the show I would say, ‘Joe, give them a disclaimer, we’re gonna show this. Just let them know that this is a gruesome injury.’"

While Patrick's point is a valid one, and one I would agree with, there are also other layers as to why at least one replay should have been shown.

First and foremost, replay of Chubb's injury made its way to social media less than a minute after it happened, as most tough-to-watch injuries do. That's just the world we live in today, and the folks at ESPN are well aware of that.

Secondly, and maybe most importantly, the world was shown multiple replays of Damar Hamlin's incident last season. In the moment, ESPN didn't know the severity of Hamlin's situation and likely would not have shown a replay of that hit if it could go back in time, but it can't.

Football fans were shown replays of an NFL player collapsing on the field before receiving life-saving procedures just minutes later. Given that's the reality we live in today, a replay of Chubb's leg injury with a disclaimer would have been the correct call.

Follow Mark Harris on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.