Fox Sports has apologised for their tribute video to Essendon's Cale Hooker celebrating his 200tInstead of showing highlights throughout Hooker's career, Fox Sports aired a video at half time showing blunders of his career, which included footage of Jonathan Brown's dominant perforce over the defender as well as him chasing down Hawthorn's Buddy Franklin when he kicked that goal in 2010.
It caused an uproar on social media with many disappointed with the outcome of the video 'celebrating' his milestone.
Yeah....congrats on your 200th Cale...here are a couple of moments where you fell short.
— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) September 1, 2020
But really well done!! 🤦♂️
Not appropriate...Do better!!
Somehow @jbrown and @FOXFOOTY put a poor taste in everyones mouth again trying to make the celebration of Cale Hooker's 200th nothing but negative, Brown "requesting some footage" of him kicking goals on him in his third game, Yeah, good one champ.
— seysh (@_heretojudge) September 2, 2020
In relation to the Cale Hooker 'gags' last night on @FoxFooty. This is a bloke stood by the club in its darkest hour, let's not forget that. There's a time and place for a laugh, but last night wasn't it. It was disrespectful to Hooker and by extension his family and friends.
— Paige Cardona (@paigecardona) September 2, 2020
Hey @FOXFOOTY, we hear you're in need of some help.
— Essendon FC (@essendonfc) September 1, 2020
Let's do better to celebrate a 200-game warrior.#AFLEaglesDons https://t.co/HxRq31FScf
After the backlash on social media, Fox Footy director Steve Crawley sent a statement to SEN.
"Sometimes you go in well-intentioned to give someone a compliment and you get it totally wrong. We got it totally wrong last night.
We have great respect for Cale Hooker and we are contacting both him and the club this morning. Apologises to all."
