ESPN: Joe Lunardi Dresses Up As Benjamin Franklin For President’s Day
ESPN and Joe Lunardi apparently wanted to do something special for their President’s Day presentation of college basketball. That something special ended up being that the crew working the game dressed up as former presidents. At least most of the crew dressed up as former presidents.
For the record, President’s Day is not necessarily one that one needs to get dressed up for. By and large, the holiday is recognized as one that means that a lot of places you’d like to go are closed. ESPN decided that the holiday needed to have a little bit more of a festive feel.
USA Today reports that Lunardi made the scene in his Benjamin Franklin outfit, while play by play announcer Adam Amin went with George Washington. Color analyst Laphonso Ellis isn’t going to give Daniel-Day Lewis a run for his money despite trying his best to pull of the Abraham Lincoln look.
As Awful Announcing points out, Lunardi seemed to think that the idea was to dress as one of the founding fathers since Benjamin Franklin wasn’t actually ever a president. The Bracketology expert can possibly be forgiven for not realizing that he had made a mistake. This time of year gets quite a bit busier for him as he attempts to pinpoint what teams are going to make the NCAA Tournament.
All of the announcers seemed to be having a good time with the dress-up, even if no one at ESPN seemed to understand that Joe Lunardi has not actually gone along with the spirit of the theme. For his part, Amin joked on Twitter that calling the basketball game while in full colonial regalia could very well be the end of his career.
You guys. This is happening tonight. Watch my career end right before your eyes, 9ET, @espnu. instagr.am/p/V5KMqnn5nl/ Wait til you see Phonz.
— Adam Amin (@adamamin) February 19, 2013
Do you think that ESPN’s Joe Lunardi will ever realize his mistake?
