{"id":667867,"date":"2026-05-14T01:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/667867\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T01:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:13:10","slug":"espns-soccer-account-gets-called-out-for-tone-deaf-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/667867\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN’s Soccer Account Gets Called Out For ‘Tone-Deaf’ Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a rather scary moment in Sunday’s El Clasico soccer<\/a> matchup between Real Madrid<\/a> and Barcelona<\/a> when Jude Bellingham<\/a> got knocked unconscious in a clash. But while his return to the game later had people worried, the ESPN FC account on X had a different response.<\/p>\n

After Bellingham returned to the game, ESPN FC praised him for his “warrior mentality” in returning to the pitch after apparently losing consciousness on the field.<\/p>\n

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“Jude Bellingham appeared to lose consciousness momentarily after suffering a clash with Barcelona’s Eric Garcia<\/a>. Bellingham briefly left the pitch before returning shortly after. Warrior mentality,” the outlet declared.<\/p>\n

Warrior or Worrying?<\/p>\n

Given everything we’ve learned about concussions through the years and the terrible long-term side effects that having them can bring, fans were more disappointed than impressed to see Bellingham back on the field so quickly after suffering what could have been a brain injury.<\/p>\n

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“Negligence by athletic training staff is not warrior mentality,” one user on X replied.<\/p>\n

“Warrior mentality? For someone that almost died all for nothing today? Nah, that’s not how warriors do,” another wrote.<\/p>\n

“Please don\u2019t tell me ESPNs official soccer account is glorifying someone returning to play after being knocked unconscious,” a third wrote.<\/p>\n

\"CHICAGO,<\/p>\n

CHICAGO, IL – DECEMBER 20: A detail view of a microphone is seen with an ESPN logo on it during a game between the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings on December 20, 2021, at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Robin Alam\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Icon Sportswire&sol;Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s important not to glorify playing on after sustaining head injuries. I assume Bellingham was assessed and cleared to play, so I\u2019m speaking in broader terms; we shouldn\u2019t describe this as ‘warrior mentality’ \u2014 head injuries (esp one after another) come with a serious cost.”<\/p>\n

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Some suggested that Bellingham wasn’t knocked out or concussed at all, but that’s besides the point. ESPN really should know better than to try and celebrate players going back in after suffering what could be devastating injuries. They don’t just get the benefit of hindsight.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on May 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the Sports Media<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a rather scary moment in Sunday’s El Clasico soccer matchup between Real Madrid and Barcelona when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[1205,49,48,1735,148727,1161,73311,246302,1726,564,561,82],"class_list":["post-667867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-barcelona","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-bears","tag-eric-garcia","tag-espn","tag-jude-bellingham","tag-knocked-unconscious","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-real-madrid","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}