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Agent of Change
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN)
Credit: ESPN / Producer Simon Baumgart
The captain of a high school football team came out as gay 15 years ago, more than a decade before the NBA’s Jason Collins, Missouri’s Michael Sam and UMass basketball guard Derrick Gordon did the same thing. Masconomet Regional High School’s Corey Johnson came out to his team before his senior year in 1999 and was singled out by opponents at times throughout the season. Reporter T.J. Quinn describes how Johnson, now a member of the New York City Council, has become the agent of change he vowed to be in high school.
The Questions Clowney Can’t Elude
ESPN.com
A challenge for possible No. 1 NFL draft pick is convincing teams he works hard.
Liz Merrill reports.
El Rey de Nueva York
ESPN Deportes (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.)
The latest episode of the Destino Futbol series leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, El Rey de Nueva York, profiles Pelé, voted in 1999 as World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football, and Athlete of the Century by the IOC. El Rey de Nueva York focuses on Pelé’s time with the New York Cosmos in the ‘70’s when the most important player of that time lived in an unfamiliar city.
Inside Out with Prim Siripipat
ESPN Audio
Demi Clark explains why returning to Boston to run the marathon this year was part of her healing process for dealing with last year’s tragedy.
How OTL Helped Former Tillman Platoon Mates Start Reconciliation
When the Outside the Lines team got the opportunity to do a one-hour prime-time special Tuesday recognizing the 10th anniversary of the friendly fire death of former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, its plans did not include a dramatic step toward the reconciliation of two platoon mates at opposite ends of the fatal firefight.
OTL commemorated the anniversary during its weekly Sunday 9 a.m. program, featuring a taped John Barr report with separate interviews of Steven Elliott, who told investigators he fired upon Tillman, and Bryan O’Neal, who was positioned closest to Tillman at the time of the shooting. That report was also part of an ESPN.com presentation first posted last Friday with ESPN Investigative Reporter Mike Fish’s story on Elliott.
Among O’Neal’s searing comments for the OTL report were:
John Barr: “Have you found a way to forgive those who shot at you that day?”
Bryan O’Neal: “I guess to say to forgive somebody means I have to think about them and I don’t. You know, they’re meaningless to me.”
Unbeknownst to Sr. Coordinating Producer David Brofsky, Coordinating Producer Steve Vecchione and Producer Robbin Dunn, their format for Tuesday night’s special began changing early that day when O’Neal and then Elliott independently contacted the producer of the original report, William Weinbaum of ESPN’s Enterprise Unit, each requesting his counterpart’s contact information. Elliott told Weinbaum he would immediately initiate a dialogue with O’Neal.
With less than four hours to go until the OTL special, Elliott texted, called and emailed Weinbaum, saying he needed to speak with him. When Weinbaum called moments later, Elliott said he had exchanged texts with O’Neal, who had told him, to his amazement, that based on what he had seen of the Elliott video interview online, he concluded that Elliott had earned his forgiveness.
Over the next 90 minutes, O’Neal confirmed the text exchange, Elliott provided the poignant texted material, both men agreed to be interviewed for the show and arrangements were made for separate Bob Ley phone conversations with the two men for the OTL special, to discuss the first communications between them since before Elliott left the Army in 2007. O’Neal has remained in the service and is now a Ranger instructor in Fort Benning, GA.
“While it was certainly short notice, this had actually been eight years in the making,” Brofsky said, referring to Fish and Weinbaum’s work on the story of Tillman, who gave up NFL millions to join the Army Rangers following 9/11 and whose death in Afghanistan was initially portrayed by the military as something completely different. In 2006 Fish wrote a groundbreaking four-part series on Tillman’s death and its aftermath, while Weinbaum conducted for OTL the first televised interviews with anyone in the platoon. “None of this happens without Mike Fish – he has been working on it since he first reported it, while Willie has checked in with his contacts throughout.”
Weinbaum said, “Right after the show I got a tearful call from another platoon member – saying he wanted to reach Elliott, he was so taken with and appreciative of his courage. It was a memorable and emotional evening.”