On Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane scored his 149th Premier League goal, moving him into a tie with Les Ferdinand for the tenth-most all-time. However, Kane’s achievement didn’t get the proper respect from ESPNFC. During a segment discussing the milestone, ESPNFC’s Alexis Nunes and Mark Ogden (along with an unnamed producer) mocked Kane’s speech in a video that was (incredibly) uploaded to YouTube.
@ESPNUK mocking Harry Kane. Video now removed from YouTube. pic.twitter.com/AkeIjVsxo3
— Roger Hurst (@rjhurst) November 1, 2020
Here’s the full dialogue about Kane’s speech.
Off-screen producer: I hate hearing him speak. He has a weird voice.
Ogden: should I do it in the style of Harry Kane?
Producer: yeah, do the whole thing like that. That’s what stands out about him.
Nunes: yeah, his voice, literally. For someone who speaks like that, thank god he plays football.
Ogden and Nunes both apologized on Twitter Monday.
An inappropriate conversation with our producer was accidentally posted publicly for a short time before being taken down. Our comments were clearly disrespectful and regrettable. We have the utmost respect for @HKane, a consummate professional and role model to youngsters. (1/2)
— Mark Ogden (@MarkOgden_) November 2, 2020
We have contacted Tottenham Hotspur to sincerely apologise directly to @SpursOfficial and to Harry, in addition to the club’s supporters and to the ESPN FC audience. (2/2)
— Mark Ogden (@MarkOgden_) November 2, 2020
@HKane @SpursOfficial pic.twitter.com/57fmr4S74F
— Alexis Nunes (@alexisenunes) November 2, 2020
This was clearly super shitty from both Ogden and Nunes, but the producer was the one who essentially brought up Kane’s voice and egged the two of them on. How does someone not clip that sloppy segment out of the video and wipe all trace of it? Letting it go up is just incredibly sloppy, unnecessary, and makes everyone look horrible.
Neither Tottenham nor ESPN has released a statement as of noon EST Monday, though one source did indicate that Spurs are considering some sort of ban for ESPN journalists. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ESPN hands out some sort of discipline for Nunes, Ogden, and the producer in the video, because regardless of the fact that this video clearly shouldn’t have been posted, the comments are a horrible, embarrassing look for both ESPNFC and ESPN as a company itself.
