ESPN apologizes to Washington after spat over start times, tone of coverage

A truce appears to have been called in the war of words between Chris Petersen and ESPN.

Washington athletic director Jen Cohen said Monday that Pete Derzis, senior vice president of college sports programming and events at ESPN, called her and apologized for the network's coverage of the Huskies' game against Cal, according to Larry Stone of the Seattle Times.

The conflict between Petersen and ESPN began when the coach called out Washington's late start times, suggesting a lack of national exposure was hurting the program. Multiple network personalities fired back - including Kirk Herbstreit, who defended himself as an advocate for the Pac-12 and said Washington should "be thanking ESPN for having a relationship," according to Deadspin.

After the Cal game, Cohen stated she was "extremely disappointed" by the tone of ESPN's play-by-play broadcasters - particularly the sideline reporter's use of cupcakes to represent the Huskies' non-conference opponents.

“I felt more like that was such a disrespectful move for the people we play,” she said. “For those that do this, we do this because we love the kids. These are somebody’s sons, somebody’s brothers. They’re 18- to 22-year-old kids, and so I was more offended, not for us, as I was for our opponents.”

The apology from Derzis, along with a promise that type of coverage wouldn't happen again, seems to have smoothed things over.

"It was a class act, and he made the right call," Cohen said. "I think Chris and I feel like it's time to move on."