ESPN analyst Robert Griffin III went viral last year with his edgy nickname for Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
But Griffin admitted Friday that story took an unexpected turn for the worse after RGIII’s ESPN College GameDay colleague Desmond Howard “obliterated” the nickname.
For those who missed it the first time around, during a 2022 Washington game, after Penix did something special, Griffin said he needed a nickname. He told FanDuel’s Kay Adams’ Up & Adams Show what happened next.
“He was playing so well, that we were in the booth saying, ‘Man, this guy needs a nickname,'” Griffin said. “So I spent about three minutes thinking of what a nickname could be for Michael Penix Jr., and then it dawned on me and I said, ‘Big Penix Energy.'”
“And of course my guy Desmond takes it to GameDay this year and completely obliterates it, wrong pronunciation and everything — and I’ve got to say, Michael Penix Jr. is pretty upset about that, I’m not going to lie. He was upset that Desmond mispronounced his name, because it is his name and you want to get it right.”
In one CGD segment, Howard even led Huskies fans and the mascot in a “Big Penix Energy” chant.
Desmond Howard went there with a very lively "Big Penix Energy" chant on GameDay… although there was something new about the way he pronounced "Penix." pic.twitter.com/62WSWVP1MX
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 14, 2023
Griffin noted Penix isn’t unhappy with the nickname, just the mispronunciation.
“He’s actually taking that nickname and used it in NIL to make money and give back to charity, so I’m happy to be able to help him with that,” Griffin said.
“That story went somewhere I didn’t think it was going to go,” Adams admitted.
https://twitter.com/UpAndAdamsShow/status/1738251677223039093
It’s not the first time one of Griffin’s nicknames caused a stir. He told Adams that, after he dropped a sexual innuendo in an Oregon State Beavers game in 2022 (“Let’s see how much wood these Beavers can take”), he got a call from an ESPN executive.
“I got a call after that game because it was way too much. It was egregious,” Griffin said. “It wasn’t like ‘Hey, you’re gonna get fired if you keep doing this.’ But it was like, ‘Hey, you probably shouldn’t keep doing this.'”
