They would probably rather pay this out and have it go away instead of being a widely circulated ESPN article and potentially still losing in a lawsuit. I thin

They would probably rather pay this out and have it go away instead of being a widely circulated ESPN article and potentially still losing in a lawsuit. I think the reason they won't is they don't want to set a precedent for future similar mistakes. If they pay out here they would almost certainly lose future similar disputes in court.