"I understand. If you change your mind, you know where to reach us. Thanks for your time." - ESPN's Assignment Editor



This is the response I got in an email conversation with ESPN's Assignment Editor after I tweeted this photo from @sageinsideyou of President Loftin (@aggieprez) "cashing out" or "topszn-ing":

I don't think I have ever witnessed something go viral so fast before in my life. Within 15 minutes of the tweet, it was retweeted or mentioned by the likes of @cuppycup, SEC Logo, Doug Gottleib, Clay Travis, among many others with thousands of followers. It wasn't until @FoxSports1 aired the photo on Fox Sports LIVE did I realize this was going to really take off.

Fast forward to this morning, I get this tweet from @ESPNAssignDesk:

@dougigem ESPN would like to use Pres. Loftin image you posted. Can we use with a courtesy? — ESPNAssignmentDesk (@ESPNAssignDesk) September 6, 2013

So obviously I take to twitter and ask fellow Aggies whether or not to allow ESPN to use this photo. Not surprisingly, it was a consensus "HELL NO." Now, there was no way I was going to allow them to use it (with support from the original poster @sageinsideyou), but I decided to have some fun with it.

I tweet back to ESPN asking how much they are willing to pay to use the photo which led to them sending me an email asking what my price was. This was my response:

First of all, I am worried how ESPN is going to use this photo and how they are going to portray President Loftin, Texas A&M University, and Aggies everywhere. You might be familiar with how ESPN has portrayed Johnny Manziel throughout this offseason and following his "SHAME TO THE GAME" personal foul against Rice. My main concern is whether or not you will use this as just another piece to bring down Texas A&M's brand. If you agree to not use this photo for any negative purposes relating to Texas A&M, President Loftin, or Johnny Manziel, then I will allow it.

ESPN's response:

I understand. If you change your mind, you know where to reach us. Thanks for your time.

I really don't think ESPN could be any more blatant about their agenda here. This is just another example of ESPN trying to take something playfully innocent and turn it against Texas A&M. My guess is that if ESPN were to use this photo, they would speculate that our university supports Johnny Manziel's apparently "villainous" behavior. Can a university president not take a playful photo with students OVO-ing and Topszn-ing? ESPN doesn't believe so.

Just remember, #Topszn is the regime, babe.

Thanks & Cashin' Out