Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence is his team's Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year honoree, recognition of all the fine things he does on the football field and in the community.
But in the Cowboys locker room, "Tank'' has also long been recognized as a leader who will offer up inspirational challenges to his teammates ... often with some profanity spicing up the talk.
This time, following Dallas' 33-13 win on Sunday over the hated Philadelphia Eagles, Tank said a naughty word.
Any problem with that? Nope. Not until ESPN accidentally aired the clip of Lawrence's postgame media rant while failing to censor his 12-letter profanity.
"Hit a (bleep-er) in the face!'' Lawrence said Sunday night. "Over, and over, and over, and over again until they quit. And when they quit, hit them again, and again, and again, and again!''
Lawrence owes no apologies here. And credit to ESPN SportsCenter anchor Ryan Smith for thinking quickly enough on his feet on live TV viewers to issue a mea culpa on behalf of his network.
"I want to quickly apologize for some sound we aired a couple moments ago from that Cowboys piece, some foul language was used,'' Smith said. "So I just want to say, apologies for that on our behalf, unintentional mistake there.''
The win, which moved both teams to 10-3, giving Dallas a shot at wresting the No. 1 seed in the NFC East away from
Philly, is obviously a high-profile thing. And ESPN hurriedly wanted its piece of that profile. ... Too hurriedly, as it turns out.
More must-reads: