ESPN's Joe Tessitore on seeing Jordan Travis injury: 'I nearly got sick to my stomach'
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Joe Tessitore felt sick to his stomach when he saw the replay of the injury to Florida State football quarterback Jordan Travis.
Tessitore - who will be on the ABC call for the ACC Championship Game matchup between the No. 4 Seminoles (12-0, 8-0 ACC) and Louisville (10-2, 7-1) at 8 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium - was calling the Florida-Missouri game when Travis went down in a heap and left in an ambulance with the season-ending injury.
Tessitore also expressed his displeasure with The CW Network to show the instant replay of the injury to Travis' left lower leg over and over again.
"When they show the update, I nearly got sick to my stomach," Tessitore told the Democrat on Friday morning.
"First of all, I didn't like seeing the injury. I think that there should have been some editorial judgment in terms of showing such a gruesome catastrophic injury. Very sensitive to that because I was taken off the football field in an ambulance myself never to play again.
"And just to see such a wonderful young man at the height of his career have to suffer physically suffer that level of pain, let alone the mental anguish. It literally almost made me sick to my stomach as I was broadcasting the Missouri-Florida game and I think I made a sound that you could hear you know on my mic when I saw it.
"I was just heartbroken for him because his story of sticking with it of not giving up of just trying to get incrementally better and then having the results is a wonderful story."
Tessitore was a freshman at Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, New York, when during a football scrimmage his left leg got caught under a defender. Tessitore said he left in an ambulance, as well, telling his hometown newspaper, the Times Union, that his ankle and lower leg "broke into about 100 pieces," and that was the end of his dreams of playing football.
He said he was hoping to meet with the FSU quarterback on Saturday ahead of the ACC Championship.
Tessitore added he believes the injury will prove to help Travis out in the long-term.
"I have never met a truly great man who hasn't overcome a massive sucker punch in life or something that put him down on the canvas," Tessitore said. "As somebody who has spent my life in boxing, that is actually how I measure a champion.
"A champion is somebody who makes a decision to get up off the mat. Even when they can't. So he's currently making that decision in life and he will be a greater champion in life than he even was as a healthy football player because of this."
HOW TO WATCH ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Who: No. 4 FSU (12-0, 8-0 ACC) vs. No. 14 Louisville (10-2, 7-1)
When/where: 8 p.m., Saturday, Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
TV/Radio: ABC/94.9 FM
Live game updates: www.Tallahassee.com; @Ehsan_Kassim, @jackgwilliams and @JimHenryTALLY on X, formerly Twitter
Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Jordan Travis injury replays draws criticism from ESPN announcer
