High School Football Team Lies to Get ESPN Coverage, Pays Hilariously Televised Price For It

We’ve all stretched the truth to get a leg up in this dog-eat-dog world, but one group of “high schoolers” epic lie got them caught out on national television. And no one is more embarrassed than ESPN.

The major sport’s network aired a game between Florida’s top-ranked IMG Academy and Ohio’s Bishop Sycamore, but things quickly soured when it became obvious that Bishop Sycamore was out of its depth. Like, way out. Even the announcers couldn’t help but comment on the painful whooping during IMG’s 58-0 run.

In fact, the mismatch was so glaring, it got people digging. And it didn’t take long to discover that Ohio Bishop Sycamore isn’t even recognized as a real school by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, who stated that their “physical location, practice facilities, and roster eligibility could not be verified.”

What could be verified, however, is the status of Bishop’s head coach Roy Johnson’s active arrest warrant for previous fraud.

Things only got more nuts from there.

Folks then discovered that most of the charter school’s roster of players have already left high school. Meaning a team of adults just got thumped by a bunch of kids.

https://twitter.com/dawsontboyd/status/1432417792809213958

Leave it to coach Johnson to make sipping a Gatorade bottle look like chugging a beer.

In a not-quite-apology, ESPN said, “They… will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward.” As in, next time they’ll do the bare minimum required to vet a team before throwing them into a major matchup.

So what’s the biggest gridiron irony here? In a world where the MyPillow Guy has become a demigod, Texans can snitch on their neighbors for profit like some Capitalist Gestapo, and YouTubers with no civic experience can run for governor, this little snafu is par for the course.

The only thing that makes sense about this whole debacle, is it gave the broadcasters time to wax poetic on the prowess of Drake just in time for CLB to take over the internet. We’ll call that a win.

https://twitter.com/kirk_barton/status/1432081893973954562

Cover Photo: Erik Isakson (Getty Images)

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