College football coach killed armadillo & ESPN wanted the world to know

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The college football season is approaching, and a new quest for the College Football Playoff is only weeks away. Between the upcoming season’s multiple on-field storylines ,and a few off-field court cases, there’s plenty of newsworthy buzz going around.

Apparently, ESPN went outside the box with a late-night push notification it felt was urgent. Was it a prominent college football coaching change? A college football injury update? Maybe even the release of a new Top 25 poll? Nope. Instead, ESPN wanted the world to know that a head coach killed an armadillo in his front yard.

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The story stemmed from The Associated Press, which mentioned the anecdote while discussing Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris’ sleep problems. Combine that with an ongoing pest problem, and Morris found a way to kill some time.

“My brain’s going constantly and so … I don’t sleep very well,” Morris said via The AP. “I’ve had a couple of armadillo problems tearing up my lawn. Finally, a couple of days ago I just popped up at 2:30 (a.m.) because I couldn’t sleep and I thought it was a great opportunity for me to go outside and luckily I found him.”

Not Worth the Push Notification

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with the story itself. It’s a small story from a college football coach who couldn’t sleep, noticed an armadillo destroying his lawn, and decided to take care of the problem. It also highlights the fact that these coaches don’t get a lot of sleep during the season.

The issue is the presentation and timing.

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ESPN sending a late-night push notification about Morris killing an armadillo makes it sound like something significant happened in the college football world. Instead, readers received an update about an Oklahoma State coach’s midnight pest-control adventure. Ironically, it also potentially interferes with app users sleep.

With the season nearly here, there will be plenty of legitimate breaking news worthy of an alert. Coaching moves, injuries, major recruiting developments and other significant stories will dominate the college football landscape. An armadillo unfortunate enough to cross paths with Morris at 2:30 a.m. probably doesn’t need to be one of them.

Maybe the story makes for an intriguing, maybe insightful read on head coaching pressure that leads to lack of sleep. Maybe it even earns a chuckle because he took care of a pest due to this. But when it arrives as an urgent notification, it’s hard not to wonder whether ESPN could have saved everyone’s phone battery for something a little more newsworthy.

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