ESPN’s broadcast booth got a taste of the same communication chaos Texas and Tennessee were dealing with Saturday night.
During No. 1 Texas’ game at No.
14 Tennessee, the ABC telecast lost clean audio early in the first quarter just as the crew was talking about how President Donald Trump’s visit might affect communication inside Neyland Stadium. With Texas leading 7-0 and 9:54 left in the opening quarter, the sound turned into static and garbled fragments.
Before the audio went bad, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler had been discussing whether Trump’s movements inside the stadium would interfere with headset communication. Fowler could then be heard telling Herbstreit to "be quiet for a minute" while the broadcast worked through the issue.
ABC also displayed a graphic during the segment that explained electromagnetic deconfliction as coordinating radio frequencies so different systems don’t interfere with each other.
The problems didn’t stop there. The booth audio began crackling and cutting in and out for several minutes, and viewers quickly started sharing clips of the mess on social media.
One X user called it "the most ironic moment I've seen on a sports broadcast in a minute." Another account joked that the "Secret Service has turned off Kirk Herbstreit."
Trump arrived in Knoxville at 11:28 a.m. ET and his motorcade reached Neyland Stadium at 11:59 a.m., during the national anthem. He was there to watch Texas quarterback Arch Manning play in the same stadium where his uncle, Peyton Manning, became famous.
Tennessee opened the gates 30 minutes early because of Secret Service screening. The game was the 30th straight sellout at the 101,915-seat stadium.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had warned during game week that headset communication could disappear whenever Trump entered, left or moved around the stadium.
"They cut the headsets to coaches. They cut headsets for coach-to-player communication.
So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out," Sarkisian said.
He also said his staff needed to be prepared if Trump "decides he's got to use the restroom."
Some viewers tied Saturday’s broadcast trouble to last season’s College Football Playoff national championship in New Orleans. Sarkisian said Miami coach Mario Cristobal told him Trump’s exit in the fourth quarter interrupted communication on the Hurricanes’ final drive, which ended with a game-clinching interception.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti disputed that version of events, but on his radio show Thursday he said that when Trump left, "there were two or three plays we couldn't hear at all."
The White House pushed back on X, writing, "No, President Trump's departure from the CFP championship in January did not cause headset or comms issues for the teams."
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