Dade Hayes of Broadcasting and Cable wrote about a strange scene that occurred during the Peabody Awards.

The PBS documentary League of Denial was honored. One of the producers wasn’t about to let ESPN off the hook for bailing out late into the project.

Hayes writes:

The back story was recapped for the audience in brief by event host Ira Glass as the nets claimed their trophies one after the other. ESPN’s Dwayne Bray kept his remarks simple and praised colleagues, including vets John Walsh and Vince Doria, who “decided not to let sports be the toy department.” League producer Michael Kirk chose to address the elephant in the room.

“ESPN abandoned us,” he said, adding, “We are comrades in arms with you guys regardless of what happened.”

Kirk said the NFL proved a mightier force of opposition than even recent Frontline targets like the National Security Agency. “PBS stood by us,” even as ESPN pulled out and the league maintained a wall of silence, Kirk said. “No other network would have done that.”

Yep, ESPN had that coming. Not one of the network’s better moments.