ESPN attempted to portray former host Will Cain as a sexist by playing a misleading clip during the ESPYs on Wednesday.
During the ESPYs, ESPN played a video montage in honor of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team securing equal pay to the men’s team. The montage featured a clip in which former First Take host Will Cain criticized the team’s argument they suffered pay discrimination. (RELATED TO: Google Celebrates ‘Equal Pay Day’ With Message On The Gender Wage Gap)
“I think equal pay is a ridiculous concept in and of itself. Soccer, for better or worse, on the men’s side across this globe, is much more popular than women’s,” Cain said in the clip.
ESPN just smeared @willcain as a sexist at the ESPYs.
When airing a video honoring the U.S. women’s soccer team for their equal pay lawsuit, they included out of context remarks from an ESPN segment he did four years ago.
They didn’t include his full remarks because he… pic.twitter.com/1U2XvagJQW
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 13, 2023
The clip was selectively edited to exclude the substance of Cain’s argument. In the full segment, which originally aired on First Take, Cain pointed out that the pay disparity stems from the differences in bonuses FIFA allocates to the participants in the men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments. Cain also claimed that the women receive 20% of the World Cup revenue compared to the 7% the men receive.
“The women got paid out from a pool of $30,000,000 from the women’s world cup. The men would draw from a pool of $400,000,000,” Cain said.
“Why is that? It’s because the men’s world cup generates $6 billion in revenue. The women’s generates $131,000,000 in revenue.” Cain added.
The misleading edit of Cain’s words were called out online.
“They didn’t include his full remarks because he completely destroyed their entire argument,” political commentator Greg Price tweeted.
“ESPN not only took Will Cain out of context from what he said on their own airwaves, they literally cut out a passage from the middle of what he said,” New York Post sports columnist Ryan Glasspiegel tweeted.
“Shameful from ESPN. Absolutely disgusting conduct. Everyone involved should be embarrassed,” OutKick writer David Hookstead wrote.
Cain doubled-down on his comments on the matter on social media.
“It’s still true. Still unpopular. Full context. Full truth,” Will Cain tweeted.