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ESPN deletes embarrassing ‘icons’ in sports graphic

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Renzo Pocholo Salao | Last updated Aug 23, 2025 9:52 AM ET

ESPN on Friday hit the “delete” button on a rather controversial social media post.

The “Worldwide Leader” posted a graphic featuring the faces of dozens of top athletes and sports “icons” drawn in a comic-book-style artwork. The post was meant to promote ESPN’s newly launched direct-to-consumer subscription service.

“All the icons. All the moments. All of ESPN. All in one place,” the post’s caption read.

Hahahaha ESPN deleted their stupid graphic that included more WNBA players than NFL and college football players pic.twitter.com/XlPBZWDxOW
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 22, 2025

Fans unsurprisingly began to look deeper into the shortlist of faces the ESPN X account considered to be among its list of “icons.”

Many noticed that the WNBA had about as many stars in the post, if not more, than any other sport featured. There were noticeably more WNBA faces (11) than those of the NFL (10) or college football (5), two of ESPN’s biggest draws for its direct-to-consumer offering.

ESPN later deleted the post after OutKick’s Bobby Burack pointed out a major omission from the photo. Burack wondered why the world’s No. 1 golfer, Scottie Scheffler, was omitted from the list, while the WNBA was heavily represented in the artwork.

.@espn appears to have deleted the graphic after my tweet. https://t.co/xw8Wotj5yS pic.twitter.com/u2lcOrGBs7
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) August 22, 2025

MLB only had three faces — Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Ronald Acuna Jr. — in the post. The UFC, golf, and all motorsports were completely left out.

But the post at least featured ESPN personality Monica McNutt, who was less than a week removed from her embarrassing on-air blunder.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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