On Saturday morning, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth hit 59-year-old Mario Reyes with his car, killing him. Reyes was on his way home from work as a nighttime crane operator when Stallworth hit him with his Bentley. Stallworth took sobriety & blood tests at the scene, and it remains to be seen whether or not prosecutors will charge him with a DUI. The Miami Herald today posted video of Stallworth taking these tests as paramedics attempted to save the man’s life behind him.

ESPN.com covered the story, just like many other news outlets. However, other news outlets didn’t run an ad that is as tasteless as the one that ESPN.com is currently running.

Prior to showing the video about Donte’ Stallworth, some viewers first have to sit through an advertisement for a video game. Not just any video game though, a violent video game in which players USE VEHICLES AS WEAPONS & TRY TO INFLICT DAMAGE ON EACH OTHER.

The game, which is called Mad World, is rated M for mature and features “blood and gore” and “intense violence.” Mad World is billed as “bloodsoaked action for the Wii.”

The fact that ESPN would run this ad in front of a video about a man being killed with a car is despicable. While we still don’t know all the details of the Donte’ Stallworth incident, it’s safe to say that this ad should not be appearing anywhere near this coverage.

Not all ESPN.com viewers see this particular ad. It’s quite likely it is entirely random. However, there should still be better oversight than this. The video clip has been up for 2 days now, and who knows how many people have now connected this road rage video game with Donte’ Stallworth killing a man.

ESPN is still showing the ad at random when the clip is shown. The video can be found here. Additional screenshots can be found below.

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