A Fox Sports spokesman said Thursday he was uncertain whether the TV network would issue an on-air apology Sunday for using fabricated newspaper headlines critical of Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler on its season-opening Bears broadcast.
The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that Fox flashed three fictitious headlines across the screen -- "Cutler Leaves With Injury," "Cutler Lacks Courage" and "Cutler's No Leader" -- that Fox color analyst Daryl Johnston described as "actual headlines from the local papers in Chicago."
A Tribune search yielded no such headlines in any newspaper in the United States.
Dan Bell, Fox's vice president of communications, told the Tribune that the headlines were "misleading."
Bell told a Chicago radio station on Thursday that the network regretted its actions.
"Nobody tries to be more perfect than we do at Fox Sports," Bell said. "And we are [embarrassed]. We understand the mistake. We understand that we were wrong."
