SportsCenter Bristol, CT – September 24, 2015 – Studio X: Set of SportsCenter (Photo by Allen Kee / ESPN Images)

The 2022 FIFA World Cup hasn’t even kicked off yet and we may have already witnessed the strangest tweet about the global event, courtesy of ESPN’s SportsCenter Twitter account.

This is what happens when everyone goes to bed assuming Twitter will be extinct by the morning. Despite #RIPTwitter trending and uncertainty spiraling around Elon Musk’s $44 billion pet project, the social media platform remains. And SportsCenter attempted to use it to its fullest Friday morning by posting the following image:

SportsCenter USMNT tweet

While the United States Men’s National Soccer Team’s (USMNT) chances of winning the World Cup this year are slim, it’s hard to imagine the above team losing by less than 50 goals in any match.

Was this supposed to be the Worldwide Leader in Sports’ way of promoting the USMNT in the World Cup? Is it meant to perpetuate the tasteless take that the U.S. isn’t renowned for soccer because its best athletes play other sports?

We get it, the USMNT is not an international powerhouse. That frustrates some casual fans considering the USA’s tendency to produce historically great players in other sports, such as LeBron James and Tom Brady. But to replace the USMNT faces with more popular sports stars is disrespectful to the athletes who are representing their country in the World Cup. The USMNT’s roster may not feature the same national appeal as LeBron James, Steph Curry or Patrick Mahomes, but they’re still incredible athletes.

The only thing SportsCenter had going in their favor is the fact that this tweet may not have been as bad as Bleacher Report’s similar tweet from 2019. But SportsCenter and ESPN brands themselves as the Worldwide Leader in sports, while Bleacher Report is…not.

ESPN and SportsCenter were rightfully roasted for the tweet, which was deleted after about 30 minutes, despite all the time and effort that was invested into photoshopping the heads off the USMNT players.

About Brandon Contes

Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com