CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus says he doesn’t regret banning replays of Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware’s gruesome leg injury, and he’s fine with people watching it on the Internet, reports the Associated Press.
CBS aired two replays on Sunday showing Ware’s gruesome broken leg, although the replays didn’t include the sight of blood or bone, the story says. Ware’s tibia bone was said to be protruding from his skin. The player reportedly had successful surgery later Sunday to repair his leg.
"I’ve seen statistics on the millions of views this piece of footage has had on YouTube and I have no problem with that," McManus said. "In today’s world, if you want to see a piece of video instantaneously that you just saw on television, there are a million ways to do that."
He added, "If people want to go watch the footage for whatever reason, they have a right to do so. I just didn’t think we had any obligation to be the facilitator of putting that footage back on the screen. We documented it, we described it and we showed it, and I think that was enough."
CBS did the right thing. Those of us watching the game saw it three times including when it actually happened. That was enough. They did a great job of letting the pictures talk and the announcers did not over dramatize what was a serious and very sad situation. I thought they did an outstanding job of handling a very difficult situation.
I felt very sad for Kevin to have that incident a it was says gruesome injury. I hope and pray that he would be okay and fast recovery.