Tennessee catcher Evan Russell said he may sue ESPN for saying during a broadcast that he was suspended for a failed drug test.
Earlier in the NCAA college baseball tournament, Troy Eklund falsely claimed Russell was banned for the rest of the season because of a PED violation. His father, Jason Russell, said on Twitter that his son missed the game due to anxiety and stress.
In an interview with OutKick’s Tomi Lahren (h/t On3’s Nick Schultz), Russell said he’s considering legal recourse against ESPN.
“Me and my legal team, we are pursuing many options,” Russell said. “But in a sense, it’s kind of to prevent it from happening again. There’s a lot of college baseball players, college athletes, that are really trying to make a career out of [their sport]. To have anyone professionally get up there in front of millions of people and say something derogatory toward anyone is kind of a tough thing to do.”
He added that he believes “emotions kind of got the best” of Eklund and is “sure he’s a pretty good analyst and stuff.” His father also accepted Eklund’s public apology made on June 4.
However, Russell said Eklund never contacted him directly,
“He didn’t reach out personally to me,” Russell said. “I watched the apology. I wasn’t necessarily looking for an apology from him, in particular. He didn’t reach out to me personally. He kind of made it, trying to save himself.”
Although Lahren encouraged Russell to go after ESPN, her former colleagues could be in considerable trouble if TV networks can get successfully sued for sharing misinformation.
Russell returned to Tennessee’s lineup, but the top-ranked team got eliminated from the super regionals by Notre Dame.
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