ESPN
Last night, ESPN reporter Sergio Dipp made his debut on Monday Night Football in what may have been the most disastrous event in live sportscasting since the “Boom Goes The Dynamite” guy was shoved in front of a camera. For those of you who somehow managed to miss it, you can view the full clip here:
The internet immediately fell ironically in love with the reporter, and Twitter was filled with endless jokes and comments about his dismal on-air performance.
There was only one small problem— a lot a people seemed to miss the fact that Dipp is primarily a reporter for the (redundantly named) ESPN Deportes who speaks English as a second language. While he seemed to take the jokes in stride, he also recorded a heartfelt statement about what his intentions were when he stepped in front of the camera last night, making all of us with a heart feel worse about ourselves in the process.
If you want to feel even guiltier about any comments you might have made, you’re in luck! Bob Ley devoted an entire segment of Outside the Lines to what can only be referred to as “the incident,” and he unsurprisingly made some pretty poignant points.
A guy I"m proud to call a colleague, @SergioADippW pic.twitter.com/V62gMlt4Es
— Outside the Lines (@OTLonESPN) September 12, 2017
He opened with an anecdote about the time he was in Dipp’s position, saying:
“Eight years ago, when I was covering a World Cup qualifier in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a local television producer asked me if I would be interviewed there, could I try to do it in Spanish. Now, I know a little soccer Spanish — get around the game a little bit. So, I gave it a shot. I tell ya, after 20 seconds, I had to stop down. I had to apologize and say, ‘Guys, I’m sorry, we gotta do this in English.'”
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At the end of the day, Dipp has to be the real winner here. Sure, he might have suffered some temporary embarrassment, but he gained tens of thousands of Twitter followers in the process— the one objective metric of success. He also has a girlfriend whose shoulder he can cry on, so I have a feeling he’s is going to be just fine when everything is said and done.