Nigeria and Mexico played an international friendly game yesterday (31 May 2013) and the game was apparently accidentally shown on ESPN. I say accidentally because the program stated that ESPN was supposed to be showing women's college softball competition that is taking place in Oklahoma but due the tornado that landed in Oklahoma, the game was postponed. In its place, the Nigeria vs. Mexio friendly was shown. Now, my point is not that the game was shown by accident - ESPN had no obligation to show it at all!
My complaint is with the two commentators who handled the game. First, they could not properly pronounce many of the names of the Nigerian players. This, in itself, would not be problematic were it not that this inability to pronounce the names of Nigerian players (for they had no such problem with the names of Mexican players) appears to have resulted from lack of trying. Any sports commentator knows that one of the first things you want to do if you are going to be reporting a game on air is to take time and learn the names of the players. You may ask those who know how to pronounce the names or ask the players themselves. I have watched may soccer games in my lifetime but no where have I experienced such a disdain about pronouncing the names of players. In fact, at one point, the name of a player who scored a goal was poorly pronounced and one of the commentators did not even know what the name of that particular player was. Instead of being quiet, the one who did not know how to pronounce the name laughingly asked his colleague to pronounce it again, as they both made a joke of the name. I have seen many althletes with many funny names in America but never have I heard commentators making fun of the name of an athlete.
Further, the commentators were quite correct that the Nigerian players did not play quite well but the description of the state of the Nigerian players during that game was beyond the pale. For a background, it should be noted that one of Mexico's players was shown a red card and then sent out of the game and so Nigeria had eleven players while Mexico had ten players for much of the game. Although Mexico had ten players and Nigeria had eleven, Mexico went on to play really well and in fact scored a goal. By the way, the game ended in a 2-2 tie. However, the commentators were talking as if the fact that Mexcian players played well was unprecedent. At one point they even described the Nigerian defence as confused. Just the other day, the American soccer team played Belgium and Belgium beat America 4-2. Even though the American defence was really bad in that game, at no point did I hear the commentators say that the players were confused. I always teach my students that they are not to use language to talk about Africans which they would not use to talk about themselves.
At the end of the game, however, the commentators spoke as if the Mexican players played better than the Nigerian players, saying that the Mexicans ought to be proud about their achievement. May I take this opportunity to remind these commentators, who appeared not to be quite aware of football history, that in the 1990 World Cup Cameroon beat Argentina 1-0 when Cameroon had nine players and Argentina had eleven. Mexico, could have in fact won that game and their performance was nothing to be pround of.
My complaint is with the two commentators who handled the game. First, they could not properly pronounce many of the names of the Nigerian players. This, in itself, would not be problematic were it not that this inability to pronounce the names of Nigerian players (for they had no such problem with the names of Mexican players) appears to have resulted from lack of trying. Any sports commentator knows that one of the first things you want to do if you are going to be reporting a game on air is to take time and learn the names of the players. You may ask those who know how to pronounce the names or ask the players themselves. I have watched may soccer games in my lifetime but no where have I experienced such a disdain about pronouncing the names of players. In fact, at one point, the name of a player who scored a goal was poorly pronounced and one of the commentators did not even know what the name of that particular player was. Instead of being quiet, the one who did not know how to pronounce the name laughingly asked his colleague to pronounce it again, as they both made a joke of the name. I have seen many althletes with many funny names in America but never have I heard commentators making fun of the name of an athlete.
Further, the commentators were quite correct that the Nigerian players did not play quite well but the description of the state of the Nigerian players during that game was beyond the pale. For a background, it should be noted that one of Mexico's players was shown a red card and then sent out of the game and so Nigeria had eleven players while Mexico had ten players for much of the game. Although Mexico had ten players and Nigeria had eleven, Mexico went on to play really well and in fact scored a goal. By the way, the game ended in a 2-2 tie. However, the commentators were talking as if the fact that Mexcian players played well was unprecedent. At one point they even described the Nigerian defence as confused. Just the other day, the American soccer team played Belgium and Belgium beat America 4-2. Even though the American defence was really bad in that game, at no point did I hear the commentators say that the players were confused. I always teach my students that they are not to use language to talk about Africans which they would not use to talk about themselves.
At the end of the game, however, the commentators spoke as if the Mexican players played better than the Nigerian players, saying that the Mexicans ought to be proud about their achievement. May I take this opportunity to remind these commentators, who appeared not to be quite aware of football history, that in the 1990 World Cup Cameroon beat Argentina 1-0 when Cameroon had nine players and Argentina had eleven. Mexico, could have in fact won that game and their performance was nothing to be pround of.
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